DISCERN | MARCH/APRIL 2024

March/April 2024

A Magazine of

“I Am the Bread of Life”

March/April 2024; Vol. 11, No. 2

DISCERN A Magazine of

Contents

Discern magazine (ISSN 2372-1995 [print]; ISSN 2372-2010 [online]) is published every two months by the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, as a service to readers of its LifeHopeandTruth.com website. Discern’s home page is LifeHopeandTruth.com/Discern. Free electronic subscriptions can be obtained at LifeHopeandTruth. com/Discern. Contact us at info@DiscernMag.com.

Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 3490, McKinney, TX 75070-8189

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© 2024 Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc. All rights reserved.

Publisher: Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc., P.O. Box 3490, McKinney, TX 75070-8189; phone 972-521-7777; fax 972-521-7770; info@cogwa.org; LifeHopeandTruth.com; cogwa.org

Staff: President: Jim Franks; Editor: Clyde Kilough; Editorial content manager: Mike Bennett; Managing editor: David Hicks; Senior editor: David Treybig; Associate designer: Elena Salyer; Associate editors: Erik Jones, Jeremy Lallier; Assistant editor: Kendrick Diaz; Copy editor: Becky Bennett; Social media: Hailey Willoughby Doctrinal reviewers: John Foster, Bruce Gore, Peter Hawkins, Jack Hendren, Don Henson, Doug Johnson, Chad Messerly, Larry Neff The Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc. has congregations and ministers throughout the United States and many other countries. Visit cogwa.org/ congregations for information.

Donations to support Discern magazine and LifeHopeandTruth.com can be made online at LifeHopeandTruth.com/donate or by surface mail to Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc., P.O. Box 731480, Dallas, TX 75373-1480. The Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc. is organized and operated as a tax-exempt organization in the United States according to the requirements of IRS 501(c)(3).

Contributions are gratefully acknowledged by receipt.

Unsolicited materials sent to Discern magazine will not be critiqued or returned. By submitting material, authors agree that their submissions become the property of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, Inc. to use as it sees fit.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version (© 1982

by Thomas Nelson, Inc.). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

This publication is not to be sold. Free educational material.

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Columns

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3 Consider This

Four Important Life Questions

24 Christianity in Progress How to Prove All Things

27 Wonders of God’s Creation Hungry, Hungry Hippos

28 Walk as He Walked

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath: What Can We Learn?

31 By the Way

A Beautiful Turning Point

Feature

4 “I Am the Bread of Life”

When Jesus was asked to prove Himself with a sign like the manna God gave ancient Israel, He declared, “I am the bread of life.” What does that mean for us?

Articles

12 Words to Live By?

The words we use to direct our life have a good or a bad impact on who we are. Consider some common motivational sayings compared with the words of God.

14 5 Ways to Live Like Jesus in the Modern World

True Christians desire to live like Jesus Christ, but how do we apply His example to our modern situations? Consider these five specific ways.

17 What Must I Do to Be Saved?

The Philippian jailer had a unique experience. But his question is universal. What must we do to be saved? What does the Bible say about salvation?

8 What Does the Resurrection 20 Space: The Final Frontier . . . of Jesus Teach Us?

Jesus’ resurrection is a vitally important aspect of Christianity.

Unfortunately, many don’t understand these biblical teachings about the resurrection.

for War

Space exploration was a “giant leap for mankind.” But now a new space race has become the crucial arena of a great power contest.

How will this end?

March/April 2024

cover photo: openai.com Photos this page: iStockphoto.com; openai.com; James Capo

Ministerial Board of Directors: David Baker, Arnold Hampton, Joel Meeker (chairman), Larry Salyer, Richard Thompson, Leon Walker and Lyle Welty

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Four Important Life Questions

S

ome years ago, I had an intriguing conversation about the four important questions of life. The mother of two older children told me, “I’ve always taught my kids there are four big questions in life they have to answer: Is there a God? Is the Bible His Word?

What does it say? And what are you going to do about it?”

These aren’t just questions for kids. Adults’ answers to these questions have significantly shaped the course of world history. And your answers will determine the course of your life!

Four important questions of life

The simplicity of these questions belies the challenge of answering them. But we humans have never lacked for opinions, and the amazing variety of conflicting answers people have put forward is staggering! Rather than simplifying things, the clamoring debate has complicated them more than ever.

The need for clarity remains, though, so our quest with every issue is to help you take steps to unravel the mystery and confusion. For example:

What about God?

Here’s where it all starts—Does God exist? If He doesn’t, this whole discussion is moot. If He does, that changes everything. You can read about this in our study guide Does God Exist? It is a compilation of a series of Discern articles introducing you to some of the fundamental, irrefutable reasons to believe He exists.

You can know!

What about the Bible?

types especially. “I am against the prophets,” God once said, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He says’” (Jeremiah 23:31).

Things haven’t changed much since. In 2008 Joe Kovacs published his book Shocked by the Bible.

“My goal is to educate people about the solid truth of Scripture and to stop the spread of erroneous information,” Kovacs explained. “I want people to crack open their Bibles and see with their own eyes what’s actually printed on the pages, and what’s not. It’s shocking!”

Yes, much of what you have been told the Bible says is totally fabricated. Isn’t it time to find out what it really says? Some things may be comparatively minor, but other issues are “litmus test doctrines.” The Trinity is a great example, as you’ll see in the article “Who or What Is the Holy Spirit?”

We promise we’ll steer you to Scripture, not our own words. But don’t believe us—open your Bible and believe what you see!

What about you?

This is where it gets personal. If God exists, if the Bible is His Word, and if you prove what it says—what will you do about it? Are you willing to conform your life to God’s way and His purpose for you? “What Are You Doing With What You Know?” gets to the core of this question.

These four big questions? They’re not just for kids.

The questions won’t change your life—but the answers will! We’re never too old for that!

Is the Bible truly God’s communication to us, or is it merely a random collection of human ideas? Is the Bible True? contains a series of articles we ran on proving the Bible is truly God’s inspired Word.

You can know!

What does it really say?

Has anyone ever misquoted you or, worse, twisted something you said? Irritating, isn’t it? Well, if ever anyone has been victimized by having words put in His mouth, it’s God. Most irritating of all is when it’s been done by people presuming to speak for Him—religious

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Clyde Kilough Editor

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“I Am the Bread of Life”

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When Jesus was asked to prove Himself with a sign like the manna God gave ancient Israel, He declared, “I am the bread of life.”

What does that mean for us?

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t must have been shocking to see so many fellow disciples turn away from Jesus, but that’s what the 12 apostles witnessed (John 6:66). This tense moment came in Capernaum at the climax of a lengthy conversation in which Christ had proclaimed, “I am the bread of life” (verses 35, 48).

What led up to this disillusionment? Why did Christ call Himself the “bread of life”? What is the meaning of this statement for Jesus’ followers today?

“I am the bread of life” in context

This was the first of seven “I am” statements recorded in the Gospel of John. (To learn more about these statements, see our article “The Seven ‘I Am’ Statements of Jesus.”)

Jesus made this statement in response to the people’s request for a sign that would prove He was who He said He was—the Son of Man, the Messiah (verse 30).

Ironically, when they asked Jesus for this sign, only a day had passed since He had performed a wondrous miracle. With just five barley loaves and two small fish, Jesus had fed a crowd of 5,000 men, as well as the women and children who had accompanied them (verses 5-14).

Yet somehow, the people who pressed Christ for some kind of sign seemed oblivious to this very miracle—a miracle they had witnessed!

Jesus saw through these individuals. The real motivation for so many of them, as Christ pointed out, had to do with their stomachs!

“Most assuredly, I say to you,” Jesus candidly told these people, “you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled” (verse 26).

Photo: openai.com

Bread from heaven

Those who sought a sign from Jesus were not content to leave it up to Him to determine how He would respond.

Instead, in their conversation with Him, they brought up one of the greatest miracles of the Old Testament (verse 31).

That miracle was God’s provision of manna, or “bread from heaven,” for the 12 tribes of Israel. The nation ate manna for 40 years! This miraculous bread kept them alive as they wandered in the wilderness (Exodus 16:35). The leaders demanded an equivalent sign from Jesus before they would believe Him. Christ’s reply would have been surprising to them: “Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My

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Father gives you the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32).

The miracle of the manna had indeed fed Israel, and it had demonstrated God’s loving concern for His people, in spite of their grumbling (Exodus 16:2-3).

No one went hungry, but “he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack” (verse 18).

And yet, as great as this Old Testament miracle was, Christ unequivocally declared that manna was not “the true bread from heaven.”

The bread of God

Before Christ declared that He is the bread of life, He explained that manna was not the true bread of God. A physical substance that looked like white coriander seed and tasted something “like wafers made with honey” (Exodus 16:31) could not be the true bread from heaven.

Rather, the “bread of God” is the One “who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33). This bread is not physical. Instead, it is the heavenly source of life.

The life Jesus offered then was everlasting life (verse 40)—and it is the life He offers today to all who truly hear His voice. Manna, though it kept the people of Israel alive during 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, didn’t give them eternal life.

That’s why Jesus reminded the group that had asked Him for a sign, “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead” (verse 49). This contrast between the physical and the spiritual is evident throughout this passage.

It is also found in a preceding chapter. Using a different symbol—water—Jesus made the same distinction between the physical and the spiritual when He spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well.

“Whoever drinks of this water,” Christ said in reference to ordinary well water, “will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13-14).

Physical versus spiritual

In some ways, it’s not surprising that the people with whom Jesus spoke were so focused on the physical. As humans, we all depend on food and water to survive.

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Ever since God told Adam that, because of sin, the ground itself would be cursed (Genesis 3:17-18) and in the sweat of his face he would eat bread (verse 19), humans have struggled to feed themselves and their families.

However, as shown elsewhere in Scripture, bread means more than bread, even on a physical level. As a staple of the diet, bread came to represent all the food needed to sustain life.

For example, when Jesus instructed His disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), He was speaking of all their dietary needs. Jesus used the term daily bread as a symbol of all human needs.

Also in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught them about spiritual priorities. He told them not to worry about physical food or clothing because “your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (Matthew 6:31-32).

On the contrary, true followers of Jesus are to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” relying on God to provide for all their physical needs (verse 33).

“My flesh is food indeed”

In John 6, Jesus made some truly shocking statements, taken literally.

And many in His audience thought only in literal, physical terms. This is clear from their dialogue with Jesus. After Jesus told them, “The bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world,” many in the crowd asked, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” (John 6:51-52).

They couldn’t seem to consider Jesus’ spiritual intent in making this statement.

At this point, Jesus became even more graphic in His description. Four times in rapid succession He spoke of their need to eat His flesh and to drink His blood (verses 53-56).

On a purely physical level, this would have been repugnant and gruesome. On top of that, it would have violated God’s dietary laws. But that was not what Jesus meant.

Unfortunately, many of those listening to Jesus could not shift their thinking from the physical to the spiritual, and ultimately, this resulted in many disciples completely turning away from Him. Toward the end of this momentous discussion, Christ reiterated the distinction between flesh and

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spirit. “It is the Spirit [that] gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (verse 63).

“Take, eat; this is My body”

The same imagery in this discussion reappeared during the final Passover meal Jesus shared with His disciples. Knowing that He would be crucified for the sins of the world, Jesus taught His closest followers that the bread and wine at the New Testament Passover had a profound meaning.

Just as He had told the mystified crowd in John 6 to eat His flesh and to drink His blood, here again, Jesus taught His disciples that the Passover bread represented His body (Matthew 26:26) and that the wine represented His “blood of the new covenant” (verse 28).

And just as Christ had spoken to the crowd in Capernaum about eating His flesh, He commanded His disciples to “take, eat; this is My body” (Matthew 26:26).

Passover connects the sacrifice of Christ to our need to spiritually eat His flesh and drink His blood. Study more about this in our article “Passover in the New Testament.”

Why the bread of life?

The New Testament makes it clear that all humans have sinned (Romans 3:23). Thus, we are all subject to eternal death (Romans 6:23). The only path to eternal life is through Jesus (Acts 4:10-12).

Other symbols, such as the Passover lamb, also convey this concept. Why, then, did Jesus use bread as a symbol of His role in salvation? Why did He call Himself the bread of life?

The answer lies in the role that bread played in the lives of the people He addressed. Bread was a staple of the first-century diet. It was a necessary part of their daily life.

In the same way, Christians are to have an ongoing relationship with God. Christians are to experience a transformation throughout life. This is clear from the apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth. Paul directed these members to “present your bodies a living sacrifice” and to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:1-2; see “Present Your Bodies a Living Sacrifice”).

March/April 2024

Spiritual transformation is a lifelong process, not a momentary decision.

Photo: openai.com

The bread of life for Christians

When Christ called Himself the “bread of life” and directed His followers to eat His flesh and drink His blood, He was offering eternal life. He was also indicating the path through which eternal life was being offered.

To eat His flesh and to drink His blood does not just mean to accept His sacrifice, but to take on His character. The metaphor of “eating His flesh is to be interpreted as meaning complete spiritual appropriation of Christ by faith for salvation” (Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 1, p. 651).

Unlike the men and women of the first century, we cannot walk with Christ or talk with Him or witness His miracles. So how do we take on His character if we do not have the same type of access to Him? Jesus, on the night before His crucifixion, prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17; see “Sanctify Them by Your Truth”).

Since the first century, most Christians have looked to and relied on the Bible to develop an understanding of the character of Jesus—the character we must be building.

Will you eat of the bread of life?

When so many of Jesus’ disciples “went back and

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walked with Him no more,” the 12 were undoubtedly shocked (John 6:66-67). Those who left were people who had witnessed stunning miracles!

And yet they still walked away.

These individuals found it impossible to reconsider their preconceptions, presumptions and prejudices.

As the disillusioned among the crowd left Him, Jesus turned to His closest disciples and asked whether they, too, would abandon Him (verse 67).

The response of Peter is significant: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (verse 68). Peter, representing Christ’s core disciples, understood that the gift of eternal life came with responsibility.

Modern followers of Christ must also learn that: • The true disciple remains. It does not matter how difficult the path becomes. What matters is an unrelenting commitment to follow Jesus Christ.

• The true disciple listens. Sometimes a Christian may struggle to understand, but he or she always remains willing to listen to the “words of eternal life.”

• The true disciple does not sit idle. Instead, the true disciple strives to learn and grow (2 Peter 3:18).

What about you? Do you hunger for the bread of life?

Are you willing to listen to the words of eternal life? Do you know the real meaning of life?

To learn more, read our Life, Hope & Truth article “What Is the Real Purpose of Life?”

—Bill Palmer

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What Does the Resurrection of Jesus Teach Us? Jesus’ resurrection is a vitally important aspect of Christianity.

Unfortunately, many don’t understand these biblical teachings about the resurrection.

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March/April 2024

Photo: iStockphoto.com

T

he resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave is a central teaching of Christianity. It demonstrates that Jesus was indeed the Son of God (Romans 1:4).

The Greek word translated “resurrection” means “a raising up . . . a rising from the dead” (Thayer’s Greek Definitions).

The apostle Paul emphasized the importance of Christ’s resurrection when he wrote: “If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty . . . And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17).

Although instruction to observe Christ’s resurrection is not found in Scripture, millions of professing Christians go to Easter sunrise services to commemorate the event.

Based on the fact that it was early Sunday morning when Jesus’ followers discovered that His body was no longer in the tomb, the common but mistaken belief is that Jesus rose on Sunday morning and that Sunday is, therefore, the appropriate day of the week for worship.

Unfortunately, there is a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding about the timing and significance of Christ’s resurrection.

In this article we will delve into three important biblical teachings associated with Jesus’ miraculous rising from the grave: 1. Jesus didn’t die on Friday and wasn’t resurrected on Sunday morning.

2. Jesus really died, and His physical body was changed into spirit.

3. Jesus was the firstfruits of the dead.

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Truth 1: Jesus didn’t die on Friday and wasn’t resurrected on Sunday morning

The traditional Good Friday–Easter Sunday timeline for the death and resurrection of Jesus isn’t supported in Scripture. This misunderstanding arises due to both a failure to note Jesus’ clear statement about how long He would be in the grave and a lack of understanding of God’s annual holy days.

Prior to His crucifixion, some of the Jewish religious leaders asked Jesus to show them a sign—a miracle—to prove that He was the Son of God.

Jesus gives a sign

In response, Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-40).

Basic math reveals that there aren’t three days and three nights between late Friday afternoon (just before sundown) and Sunday morning.

There aren’t even three partial days and partial nights during this period of time, as some try to interpret Jesus’ words.

Since Jesus gave this length of time as the sign of His identity, we need to take His words literally—He would be in the grave a full 72 hours.

As Bullinger’s Companion Bible notes regarding Jesus’ statement: “When the number of ‘nights’ is stated as well as the number of ‘days,’ then the expression ceases to be an idiom, and becomes a literal statement of fact” (Appendix 144, p. 170).

Weekly Sabbaths and annual Sabbaths

Further misunderstanding arises over the fact that Jesus was buried on “the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath” (Mark 15:42).

People unfamiliar with God’s annual holy days assume this had to be the day before Saturday.

What many do not realize is that the word Sabbath can refer to the weekly Sabbath, which

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always falls on a Saturday, or to any of the annual Sabbaths, which can fall on other days of the week.

As John explained, this “Preparation Day” was before “a high day” Sabbath—that is, an annual Sabbath (John 19:31).

Recognizing that Jesus was in the tomb a full 72 hours and was resurrected by Sunday morning would indicate that Jesus had to be crucified on a Wednesday.

This aligns with the Preparation Day for the annual Sabbath of the First Day of Unleavened Bread.

When was Jesus resurrected?

The Gospel writers tell us that the women came to Jesus’ tomb early Sunday morning as it began to dawn.

John notes that Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb “while it was still dark” and saw that Jesus was no longer there (John 20:1-2).

But this account does not say that Jesus was resurrected at sunrise on Sunday morning. And it does not say that He rose at any other time on the first day of the week.

What these women discovered was that by early Sunday morning, prior to sunrise, Jesus had already risen.

So when did Jesus rise from the tomb?

Remember, Matthew 12:40 records Jesus saying He would be in the grave “three days and three nights.”

Other passages read “after three days,” “the third day” and “in three days” (Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22; John 2:19).

These four slightly different expressions all precisely harmonize if Jesus was buried close to sundown on Wednesday and was resurrected close to sundown on Saturday, exactly 72 hours after He had been placed in the tomb.

For an in-depth exploration of the time Jesus was in the grave, see “How Do You Count Three Days and Three Nights?”

Truth 2: Jesus really died, and His physical body was changed into spirit

At first glance, the understanding that Jesus died and that His physical body was transformed into a glorified, immortal form may appear straightforward.

Unfortunately, belief in the nonbiblical teaching that humans have an immortal soul has led to alternative theories that deviate from the biblical record.

In brief, when the Bible uses the word soul, it is speaking of a living creature that can die. The creation

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of Adam exemplifies this, as God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being [soul in the King James Version]” (Genesis 2:7).

Adam was not created with an immortal soul.

Instead, he was told that if he disobeyed God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die (verse 17). The Bible does not say we continue to live in a nonphysical state.

When people die, all conscious thought ceases (Psalm 6:5; Ecclesiastes 9:10) and their bodies decompose and return to dust (Genesis 3:19).

As God stated, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18: 4, 20).

Echoing this timeless truth, Paul taught that, due to sin, all humans (except Jesus, 2 Corinthians 5:21) have earned the wages of death (Romans 3:23; 6:23).

Death is the cessation of existence. The contrasting gift offered by God is “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Several Old Testament passages show that faithful people understood that, in order to live again, they would need to be resurrected from the grave (Job 14:1315; Psalm 16:10). This was in contrast to the beliefs of pagan peoples, such as the Egyptians, who believed humans had an immortal soul.

The Trinity mistakenly incorporates the immortality of the soul teaching

While the Bible contradicts the idea that man has an immortal soul, the influence of this mistaken belief became part of the Trinitarian theory of the nature of God. (Note that this theological argument is not taught by the Bible but developed in the fourth century.)

Contrary to the biblical teaching that Jesus experienced genuine death, proponents of the Trinity suggest that only His physical body died, while His spirit continued to live. According to this theory, Jesus had two natures: a physical nature that died and a spiritual nature that endured as part of the eternal Trinity.

This teaching raises troubling questions regarding the significance of Jesus’ death for our sins. Did His death serve as a genuine sacrifice, or was it a staged spectacle? If Jesus remained alive as a spirit being, why was there a need for the resurrection of His physical body?

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The Bible provides clarity on these questions. When Jesus came to earth as a human, He came “in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7-8).

When Jesus said He would be in the grave for three days and three nights, He didn’t say that only one of His natures would die or that He would be only partially dead. Jesus was fully dead in the tomb.

Additionally, if Jesus had continued to exist as spirit after His crucifixion, the logical inference would be that He could have resurrected His own body. Yet the Scriptures consistently state that God the Father raised Him from the dead (Acts 3:15; 4:10; Romans 6:4; 1 Corinthians 15:15; 1 Thessalonians 1:10).

What happened to Jesus’ body?

Following Jesus’ crucifixion, His physical body was taken off the cross, wrapped in linen and quickly put in a tomb before sundown (Matthew 27:57-60; Mark 15:42-46).

When the women went into the tomb early on Sunday morning, they “did not find the body of the Lord Jesus” (Luke 24:3).

After Mary Magdalene reported that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb, Peter and John ran to the tomb to see for themselves. When Peter went into the tomb, “he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple . . . saw and believed” (John 20:6-8).

What did this disciple believe? That Jesus had been resurrected!

In a footnote on John 20:7, The Companion Bible explains that John’s original wording “implies that the cloth had been folded round the head as a turban is folded, and that it lay still in the form of a turban. The linen clothes also lay exactly as they were when swathed round the body. The Lord had passed out of them, not needing, as Lazarus (11:44), to be loosed. It was this sight that convinced John (v. 8).”

The Bible says that when Jesus was resurrected, He became “a life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Jesus no longer had a physical body, but instead had a spiritual body.

After His resurrection, Jesus on two occasions simply appeared to His disciples who were together behind closed doors (John 20:19, 26). Though now spirit, He

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could also appear as a human with the wounds He suffered during crucifixion, eat a meal and then vanish (Luke 24:30-31; John 20:27; 21:1-14).

Emphasizing this transformation, Paul wrote: “But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?’ . . . It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:35, 44).

We can rest assured that Jesus was mortal and that He truly died for our sins. After Jesus had been in the grave for three days and three nights, God the Father resurrected Him back to eternal life. At that moment, His physical body was transformed into a glorious, spiritual body.

Truth 3: Jesus was the firstfruits of the dead

Many are aware that Jesus was resurrected from the grave. But how many know that He was the first of many others who will also be resurrected?

Our only hope is to also be resurrected!

Paul proclaimed this profound truth: “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

The biblical teaching of the resurrections is an integral part of God’s plan of salvation for all mankind.

It is how God is offering all humans the opportunity to become part of His eternal family.

This plan includes three distinctive resurrections, each based upon an individual’s response to God’s commands. For a deeper exploration of these resurrections, see “What Are the Resurrections?”

The miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave after three days and three nights gives us hope that we, too, can anticipate being resurrected from the grave with spiritual bodies.

Let’s understand and appreciate the profound implications of Christ’s resurrection from the grave so we can have stronger faith in God and in the resurrections to come.

—David Treybig

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The words we use to direct our life have a good or a bad impact on who we are.

Consider some common motivational sayings compared with the words of God.

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o you have words you live by? What about phrases you look to depending upon the situation you’re in?

Whether they take the form of mottos, slogans or motivational sayings, words can have an impact on us. Some people use motivational slogans as a way of coping with difficult situations or as guidance for dayto-day life.

Whose words are we following?

Some of the more common words and phrases people use may sound like they have some type of spiritual origin, but often they’re anything but biblical. That should be no surprise—we live in a world determined to seek its own way and follow its own guidance—a world that believes it knows best.

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Yet God’s Word is the foundation on which Christians should stand. Jesus tells us in John 6:63, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”

There’s a stark difference between our human nature and God’s nature. When we compare modern mottos, self-motivational expressions and personal catchphrases to the words of God, we see that they are often incompatible.

Motivational slogans vs. words of life

Let’s take a look at some of the popular slogans and sayings that some see as wise words to live by—and then compare them to God’s words.

1. “Be true to yourself.”

The idea of being true to ourselves may sound harmless, but underneath it’s really about putting our sense of self above all else. This is an attitude of doing what feels right to us, instead of doing what is morally, ethically and spiritually right according to God’s Word.

Being true to yourself can lead you into all sorts of trouble—impure behaviors, disobedience to parents, unfaithfulness in marriage, dishonesty and a myriad of other unrighteous actions.

In contrast, Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself ” (Matthew 16:24, emphasis added throughout).

Truly following God’s Word requires us to change our priorities—not putting self first. A Christian must strive to follow Jesus’ example and deny anything that is not of God, just as Jesus denied every temptation presented to Him by Satan (Matthew 4:1-11).

2. “Just believe in yourself.”

There is nothing wrong with being confident or humbly acknowledging our strengths. The danger lies

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WORDS TO LIVE BY?

in the pride that comes from forgetting our abilities come from God—or, even worse, willfully ignoring His influence in our lives. When we leave God out of the picture, we’re left to rely only on ourselves.

If our true reliance is on the Father and the Son, we can find strength and confidence in any situation.

The physical worries of life can be overcome by the spiritual strength we find when we put our trust in God and lay our troubles upon Him (Psalm 55:22).

3. “You can have it all.”

The desire to “get” is one of the most dangerous attitudes we can have. When we set our hearts on the physical, we quickly lose sight of the spiritual. And as a result, we start to hedge on and break God’s rules, including the 10 Commandments.

Jesus asks us in Matthew 16:26, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”

This is a warning!

We cannot “have it all” in this physical world, and trying to have it all means neglecting the things of God (Matthew 6:24). A Christian is instructed to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (verse 33). God’s laws should always come before the physical attractions of the world.

4. “Live your truth.”

We live in a world that frames truth as subjective. We frequently see this mindset displayed as confirmation bias—where a person believes only the information that supports his or her own point of view or desired outcome, while disregarding any evidence to the contrary. This mindset is prominent within emotionally charged issues like gender identity, abortion rights and politics.

Sadly, truth is frequently distorted or simply dismissed based on personal agenda.

Yet Jesus clearly defined truth as God’s Word (John 17:17). Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Living by truth is not a matter of personal experience or opinion, but of following Jesus’ example and living by every word of God (Matthew 4:4).

5. “Follow your heart.”

God tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Following our hearts—doing what seems right to us—can lead us far from God’s way of life.

Jesus explained, “He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me,” and, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:38-39).

If we follow our own desires instead of Jesus’ example, we can lose our spiritual connection to God, either by dismissing or displeasing God. But if we resist the pulls of this physical life, we can gain access to eternal life in the family of God. When we compare modern mottos and selfmotivational phrases to the words of Jesus Christ, it becomes clear that the thoughts of man can be far removed from God’s thoughts.

As Christians, we must live our lives according to the words written in the Bible. Though not every slogan or saying we stumble on will be wrong, we are always on solid ground when our lives are guided by the words found in God’s Holy Scriptures.

If we weigh every decision, every desire, every action, every thought against the words of both Jesus Christ and God the Father, we’ll find that Their words are truly words we can live by—today and for all eternity.

—David Hicks

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L

ive like Jesus Christ.

It sounds like a simple, straightforward goal, but how do we do that in the 21st century?

After all, we have only brief snippets from Jesus’ physical life—at the well, in the temple, a few meals and some time on boats. Then there is the Passover in the upper room, His time in the Garden of Gethsemane and the crucifixion.

The Gospels don’t tell us much about His work life, table manners, family relationships, friends, hobbies and day-to-day life.

Jesus’ daily reality was impacted by the ruling Roman Empire. However, people in our modern times don’t interact with Roman legions, centurions and governors. Our world is much different.

Modernity is missing

Critics sometimes argue that the Bible is silent about the modern world. There is no discourse about

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True Christians desire to live like Jesus Christ, but how do we apply His example to our modern situations?

Consider these five specific ways.

space flight, automobiles, the Internet, TikTok or coffee, of course.

Yet Christians are still expected to pattern their modern lives after the life of Jesus. Highlighting Christ’s example, Peter said that we “should follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

Much has changed since Jesus physically walked the earth. Sandals, donkeys and walking everywhere seem foreign to many today.

How do we live like Jesus in our technological, fastpaced, globally connected world?

Follow His character

While the Bible does not provide many details about Jesus’ daily routines while He was on earth, it does tell us He was sinless and blameless (1 John 3:5; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22). His character perfectly aligned with the law and will of God. Paul wrote, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

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5 Ways to Live Like Jesus in the Modern World

This is how we live like Jesus. We emulate His character, beliefs and righteous behavior, rather than His wardrobe or hobbies.

His character is fixed and unchanging. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

Jesus Christ’s character can be understood and followed in all eras of history because it is based on timeless principles.

Let’s take a closer look at five ways we can live like Jesus in the modern world.

1. Practice compassion

Today, it is common to pit people against each other—to divide and judge. Ancient divisions—rooted in race, creed, gender, color or ethnicity—continue to flame into violence.

Modern flashpoints—educational, political, economic or ideological differences—polarize communities.

Many who claim to follow Jesus have adopted political arguments and rancor. They often compromise their professed faith through anger, hostility and contempt for others.

In contrast, Jesus practiced compassion. Note His approach: “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36, emphasis added throughout).

Jesus witnessed the problems created by centuries of man’s misrule and rejection of godly living. His response was to be moved with compassion.

Compassion is not acceptance of sin. Jesus was intolerant of sin. He directed sinners to repent, change course and sin no more (John 8:11). But He was also compassionate and offered sinners hope that they could change, rather than swift condemnation.

In His compassion Jesus viewed others according to their potential rather than their momentary or habitual mistakes or failings. See our online article “The Purpose of Man.” Compassion requires humility and a willingness to love our neighbors. We should extend mercy and kindness rather than irritation or condemnation.

The world is in desperate need of compassion. Live like Jesus—be compassionate.

2. Seek the Kingdom of God

Jesus practiced what He clearly taught: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).

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Jesus’ consistent message centered on the coming Kingdom of God. “Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent, and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15).

Jesus’ parables repeatedly focused on this Kingdom message.

The Kingdom of God refers to a future time that will begin when Jesus returns and ushers in a 1,000-year period when He will rule on earth. The Millennium (as it is called) will be followed by an eternal, spiritual Kingdom. View “Life, Hope & Truth Presents: What Is the Kingdom of God?” for more information.

To live like Jesus, we must pursue that Kingdom.

This means aligning our priorities with the laws, principles and character of that Kingdom.

As Christians, we are to do good where we are able, but our attention should be riveted on the coming Kingdom (Hebrews 11:13-16). Like Jesus, we are less focused on hopeless efforts to fix this world and more focused on preparing for the world to come.

Live like Jesus—seek the Kingdom first!

3. Take up your cross daily

One familiar scene from Jesus’ life is when He carried His cross (John 19:17). Historians differ about what this wooden stake may have looked like—it may have been a beam or a T-shaped device. But the message was clear.

In first-century Judea, someone carrying a cross would do so to his death. The horrible scourging Jesus received had left Him so weak He wasn’t able to complete this task, and a passerby named Simon was compelled to carry it for Him (Matthew 27:32).

But still, there was no turning back, no reprieve, no alternative ending.

Jesus used this concept to teach: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). Jesus wasn’t telling His followers to physically carry or even wear a cross.

Rather, those who live like Jesus will be determined to follow Him for life. The admonition to “take up your cross” represents an all-in approach.

Commitment is necessary. “No one, having put his

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hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

It is a daily decision to grow, overcome and put in the work to be like Him. Like Jesus, we will face resistance and persecution at times. We deal with our own weaknesses, which should be “put to death” (Colossians 3:5). Living like Jesus will bring persecution, which must be endured patiently. Living like Jesus does not generally bring glamour and accolades.

Do you desire to live like Jesus? Take up your cross daily.

4. Be a Sabbath-keeper

The modern world is hectic, chaotic and overwhelming.

Jesus taught and practiced a solution.

God created and blessed the weekly Sabbath, making the seventh day of the week (Saturday) a holy time of rest (Genesis 2:1-3). This weekly gift was included in the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:8-11).

The Sabbath offers the human family dedicated time to connect with and worship God, rest physically and emotionally, and reset spiritual priorities (Isaiah 58:13-14).

Sabbath-keeping may sound strange to modern ears. Some think reserving one entire day every week is too much to ask. There are other things to do: work, kids’ sports, entertainment, landscaping, or that second or third job. There’s no time for a day of rest.

Yet even the Creator of the universe rested. “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work” (Genesis 2:2-3).

Jesus is “Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5)—not was, but is! He rested on the Sabbath. In fact, Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27). It’s a gift!

And “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9, English Standard Version).

It would be a mistake to reject this beautiful gift.

Download The Sabbath: A Neglected Gift From God for more information.

Do you want to live like Jesus? Be a Sabbath-keeper.

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5. Be one with the Father

Jesus lived in perfect harmony with the Father’s will and plan.

This was poignantly evident on the evening before His death. In anguish, He prayed, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

Earlier that evening, Jesus made a series of requests for those who would live like Him. “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word” (John 17:20). Jesus’ prayer included those living in the 21st century.

Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us” (verse 21). Living like Jesus means choosing harmonious alignment with God the Father.

This is a big ask in modern times. Today, there is a swelling emphasis on individual liberty, rights and even “personal truth.” To live like Jesus is to give up those things. It involves recognizing and submitting to the Father’s higher calling and purpose.

Being one with the Father includes accepting and endorsing the truth of Scripture (verse 17), even when it conflicts with social customs and ideologies. We yield our own desires to His plan.

Jesus was at one with the Father. Live like Him.

Jesus can live in you

What about you? Do you want to live like Jesus?

Assuredly, the world has changed since the first century. But, thankfully, Jesus is alive and on His throne in heaven. He promises to live in you and me if we’re willing to commit to Him. Paul asserted, “I have been crucified with Christ”— through repentance, baptism and the laying on of hands, so—“it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

If you want to live like Jesus, you must let Him live in you. He will live with the same eternal, unchanging character we find in the biblical account of His life.

The ultimate result of living like Jesus is eternal life in the Kingdom of God. To live more like Jesus, download Change Your Life and Five Tools for Spiritual Growth .

—Jason Hyde

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What Must I Do to Be Saved?

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rom the Philippian jailer’s position, things were looking very bad. The city magistrates had commanded him to keep Paul and Silas securely confined. But suddenly there was an earthquake, and all the jail doors were open, and all the chains came loose!

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The Philippian jailer had a unique experience. But his question is universal.

What must we do to be saved? What does the Bible say about salvation?

The jailer assumed the prisoners had escaped.

Knowing that under Roman law he would be held responsible and put to death, he decided to take his life himself.

“But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, ‘Do yourself no harm, for we are all here’” (Acts 16:28).

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Being spared from death can lead to some serious thinking. Perhaps his life, with all his sins, flashed before his eyes. Perhaps he was pondering Paul and Silas’ prayers and hymns, which he had overheard.

All this led him to ask a big question—a question that affects every human being. “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (verse 30).

Saved from what?

In his letter to the Romans, Paul made a sobering statement: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). To the early Church, “death” did not mean unending torment in a blazing fire, but the total cessation of life. The death spoken of in this verse goes beyond the temporary “sleep” experienced by those who reach the end of their physical lives; it is permanent and irreversible.

Earlier, Paul said that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23; emphasis added throughout). The picture of humanity Paul paints is a bleak one. All have earned the penalty of death because of their sins.

Several different metaphors could be used to describe the state of mankind—spiritually in debt, on spiritual death row or even plagued by a fatal spiritual virus.

This is the situation from which we need to be saved.

Without intervention, eternal death is unavoidable.

Fortunately, there is hope.

How salvation became possible

There is no changing the past. Nobody’s sinful record can be erased. Thousands or even millions of good deeds can be tacked onto a spiritual résumé over the course of time, but the penalty will remain. The penalty for sin (death) must be paid in full.

Enter Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If He had not become the sacrificial Lamb of God, all human beings would be required to pay the penalty of their sins with their own lives.

Our loving Savior was willing to intervene on humanity’s behalf. His incredibly precious life was able to fully satisfy the penalty of every human being’s sin once and for all (Hebrews 9:26).

And opening salvation to humanity was no simple feat. It first required that Jesus surrender His glory.

Then He had to become a mere mortal, resist every

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temptation of Satan the devil, live a sinless life, practice love always, and voluntarily lay down His life as a sacrifice for sin.

Hebrews 2:9 summarizes how He made redemption possible: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”

Jesus—the most innocent Person who ever lived—died so that others could have the opportunity to live.

It was this profound truth that led the apostle Peter to boldly declare regarding Jesus: “For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Belief, which includes recognition that redemption comes through the completed work of Jesus Christ and not our own human effort, is the first step in the salvation process. This is why Acts records this initial answer to the Philippian jailer’s question: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

From this starting point, Paul and Silas taught much more of “the word of the Lord” (verse 32) and the process of salvation.

The condition of repentance

If salvation depended solely on whether someone understood the above facts, then little more would need to be said. In reality, however, the Bible shows that Christ’s atoning sacrifice cannot be applied unless we come to repentance.

One of Jesus’ parables powerfully illustrates the kind of repentance that is required.

Jesus said, “A certain man had two sons. And the younger said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me’” (Luke 15:11-12). His father agreed, and the young man ran off and squandered his entire inheritance. Then a famine arose, and he wound up with a job feeding pigs. He was so hungry he wished he could eat what he was giving them, but “no one gave him anything” (verse 16).

Then came a turning point for the young man: “When he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned

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against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son’” (verses 17-19).

When he returned home to beg for forgiveness, his compassionate father eagerly welcomed him. The young man said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son” (verses 20-21).

The father told his servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (verses 22-24).

Jesus wanted His followers to understand what is required for forgiveness and to be assured that God honors a repentant heart. Consider what the son said—both in his prepared speech and in the words he actually spoke to his father.

He owned up to his sins and held himself accountable. Nowhere is there any hint of an excuse or an attempt to sugarcoat his actions, but only an honest confession.

All the young man felt he could do was admit he was wrong and prostrate himself before his father, hoping for mercy he did not deserve.

This is the kind of repentance God wants us to experience. This is the kind of repentance necessary for salvation (Psalm 51:17).

Biblical repentance includes turning to God and obeying Him (Deuteronomy 4:30; see our online article “What Is Repentance?”)

The condition of baptism

When Peter gave his first sermon regarding the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, he left his audience with a thunderous call to action, outlining what repentance leads to: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

It would be a mistake to dismiss baptism as a trivial rite and assume that God is less concerned about it than He truly is.

Baptism is a solemn ceremony representing the formal commitment a sinner makes to repent—to turn from his or her old ways and go the way of God.

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While many Jews probably understood the symbolic cleansing associated with baptismal waters, the apostle Paul later gave more detail on its significance. “Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” he wrote.

“Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death” (Romans 6:3-4). Paul compared baptism with being crucified and putting the old man to death with Christ.

Baptism pictures a burial. The sinful nature that characterized an individual’s life before repentance is buried in a watery grave through baptism.

Paul continues, “That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (verse 4). After baptism, one is to live a new life—following a new path, a new direction, a new way of thinking. Just as a person acknowledges the symbolic death of the old self by being plunged into the water, so the person confirms his or her commitment to living differently by coming out of the water.

After repentance and baptism, the Holy Spirit is granted through a prayer and the laying on of hands (Acts 19:6; see our online article “Laying On of Hands”).

Baptism and the laying on of hands are key ingredients for a person to be saved from his or her sins.

Embracing God’s offer of salvation

What better news could there be than the message that you can be rescued from your sins and the sentence of eternal death? This has been part of the gospel message trumpeted by the Church since its founding. Salvation is available; death does not have to have the final word.

The only way an individual can escape the highstakes spiritual reality confronting him or her is to conform to God’s conditions. He requires unwavering belief in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, the laying on of hands and a lifetime of faithfully working to develop God’s character.

If these terms are pursued, you can become the recipient of “the gift of God,” which is “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

—Kendrick Diaz

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Space: The Final Frontier . . .

for War Space exploration was a “giant leap for mankind.” But now a new space race has become the crucial arena of a great power contest. How will this end?

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henever humanity ventures into a new realm, competition and warfare are sure to follow.

“Once humans go somewhere,” geopolitical analyst and author Brandon Weichert astutely observed, “they will eventually fight over that place. It is, after all, human nature. Since human nature is flawed but fixed, eventually, a war in space will occur—it’s a question of when, not if ” (Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, 2020, p. 36).

Lloyd Austin, the retired four-star general who serves as the U.S. secretary of defense, has echoed the inevitability of clashes in space by bluntly designating space as “a war-fighting domain” and an “arena of great power competition.”

While wars in the near future are unlikely to be fought solely in orbit, conflicts in space will determine the outcomes of actions on solid ground.

The increasingly crowded battlefield miles above the slugfests in Ukraine and Gaza highlights how conflicts in space will be an essential part of what is happening on the ground.

Russia has relentlessly jammed Ukrainian GPS signals used for navigation and mapping. Ukraine has relied on crucial Starlink satellites provided by Elon Musk to control drones, track warships, destroy command centers and identify mass graves.

In its war against Hamas, Israel has extensively used satellite technology for its drones and its Iron Dome and Arrow missile defense systems.

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Sputnik and the era of astropolitics

Though often thought of as benign, space exploration has been militarized since humanity first broke through the atmosphere.

The “Sputnik moment,” when the Soviets became the first to launch a satellite into space in 1957, stunned citizens of the West. Barely bigger than a beach ball and weighing just 184 pounds, the Sputnik satellite contained only a barometric switch, thermal control system, a fan, a radio transmitter, batteries and little else. But it symbolized control of the heavens.

The Soviets later put the first dog and then the first human into orbit before America leapfrogged them by putting the first human on the moon. It was only the economic demise of the U.S.S.R. that

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shelved Soviet designs for battle stations with nuclear weapons in orbit.

U.S. dominance in space

The United States has been the dominant player in space for more than four decades. Its ability to project military power today is based almost entirely on space support. This supremacy underpins all aspects of its national power, including diplomatic, economic and national security. It also influences the political will to take action that comes from the illusion of perfect knowledge of enemy deployments and intentions.

Military experts note that individual targets in the Second World War often required hundreds of bombing runs and thousands of bombs. But by the time of Operation Desert Storm in 1991—dubbed America’s first space war—a single missile, guided surgically by satellite GPS, could do the job.

More than 70 percent of U.S. weapons now rely on satellites to function. The Pentagon has grown reliant on finesse and technical wizardry to offset numerical disadvantages.

“Many Western analysts,” noted Weichert, “have assuaged concerns about Western defensive vulnerabilities in Europe by proclaiming the glories of the magical elixir that is American high technology” (p. 16).

Exploiting U.S. vulnerability

Even as the United States took its dominance in space for granted, the Chinese diligently analyzed the American military. They studied the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and of Iraq in 2003. The battlefield successes—thousands of satellite-guided bombs and cruise missiles delivered with devastating precision—were attributed to space dominance.

But China’s military strategists astutely identified the U.S. military’s dependence on satellites to be a potential American Achilles’ heel. Without what the Chinese refer to as the “American magic” of satellite communication, navigation, intelligence and precision targeting, U.S. forces would be extremely vulnerable.

Over the last two decades, China has explored multiple ways to exploit that perceived weakness and gain the technological edge in space. Beijing has invested heavily in a push to become the new global hegemon by 2049.

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As a result, the satellites on which the U.S. military depends are more vulnerable today than at any other time in history.

The new geography

Military and geopolitical experts have long understood the value of holding the strategic high ground. Now command of low-earth orbit is increasingly considered the key to controlling all warfare and, some say, the destiny of mankind.

The United States is now in a second space race.

Primacy in low-earth orbit is now seen as a strategic “choke point,” like the Suez Canal or the Straits of Hormuz or Malacca.

Surprise orbital onslaught

Future victories on land, sea or air will go to the power that controls space. The ability to decisively knock out enemies’ reconnaissance, communications and navigational satellites will leave them unable to even aim their weapons.

This was underscored by former U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who warned that “the next Pearl Harbor could happen in space.”

Such a catastrophic surprise attack could leave the military blind.

Such a strike could emanate from China or from its strategic partner in space, Russia. A surprise space attack could also involve an orbital electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon springing from the rogue states of North Korea or Iran. Such weapons could, for all practical purposes, send the United States back to the 19th century.

Going back in time

Most people don’t recognize how dependent we are on space. Space-based technology is critical to everything we do—from banking systems to weather forecasting. It underpins great swaths of modern life, and any disruption in that domain would throw the entire global economy and communications network into disarray.

A surprise attack on a satellite constellation could crash the economy, knock out communications and cause mass blackouts that would bring a modern society—especially the United States—to a grinding halt.

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The strategic high ground

As a rising superpower, China is looking for places where it can outflank America. China has gone all in for space. It aims to gain the ultimate high ground and blunt America’s current military superiority by canceling out the orbital fleets that give the U.S. military a technological edge.

In a 2021 interview, Gen. David Thompson, then vice chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, noted that Russia and China are launching attacks on U.S. satellites “every single day.” He referred to them as “reversible attacks” (not causing permanent damage), but it’s clear that Russia and China are constantly probing for weaknesses.

China has developed precision-guided missiles capable of shooting down satellites, electronic jammers and ground-based lasers capable of blinding orbiting satellites, and small maneuvering satellites equipped with robotic arms that can grab, capture or crush satellites.

Recent highlights of China’s military space program include the following: China was the first country to land successfully on the moon in the 21st century and has done so three times. In 2019 its space program became the first to achieve a landing on the dark side of the moon.

China orbited, landed and deployed a rover on Mars in 2021 and plans to send Chinese astronauts to the moon by 2030.

China is developing plans with Russia to build a base on the moon. And it is already the only country operating its own space station, the Tiangong 3.

In 2020 Beijing completed BeiDou, a vast navigation network, to challenge the Americanowned Global Positioning System (GPS).

Between 2019 and 2021 China doubled its orbital satellite armada, launching a satellite about every six days in 2022. China has launched the first satellites of its Guowang broadband constellation, which will eventually be composed of 13,000 satellites, and is planning a second project, the G60 constellation, which would add 12,000 more.

It is predicted that by 2026 China will have developed a growing arsenal of more than

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200 anti-satellites to blind, dazzle or capture competitor satellites.

China launched its own reusable robotic spaceplane, called Shenlong—Chinese for “divine dragon”—in 2020. The spaceplane looks similar to the secretive American X-37B spaceplane, which is a miniature robotic version of NASA’s retired Space Shuttle.

China’s dream

Back when the United States and the Soviet Union were competing for supremacy in an epic space race, Chairman Mao Zedong lamented that China couldn’t even launch a potato into space. China has come a long way since then.

Current President Xi Jinping sees the space program as a source of national pride and part of his China dream: “To explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build China into a space power is our eternal dream.”

Other nationalist dreams—like bringing Taiwan under the control of communist Beijing—would require dominating the all-important strategic high ground of space.

The problem is man, not space

The 20th-century French philosopher Raymond Aron wrote at the dawn of the space age, before many of our current technological wonders came into existence.

Still, he was able to foresee mankind’s dilemma with space: “Short of a revolution in the heart of man and the nature of states, by what miracle could interplanetary space be preserved from military use?”

These words echo what the Bible revealed millennia before about war going wherever mankind goes: “Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known” (Romans 3:16-17).

Will there be war in space?

The Bible foretells several spectacular end-time events in the heavens above, including a great war against what people may believe to be an “invader” from outer space. The book of Revelation vividly describes the dramatic return of Jesus Christ to earth. He won’t require satellites or space weapons. His return will not be clandestine or secretive.

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In a visible, booming and unmistakable fashion, the whole world “will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). His return is likened to lightning flashing or a brilliant illumination in the sky (verse 27). There will be a tremendous trumpet blast heard worldwide (verse 31) as well as a great shout, signaling Jesus’ imminent return and the resurrection of the dead (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Despite this shock-and-awe entrance, Christ will not, at first, be accepted as Savior, but will be viewed as a threat to mankind’s hold on power.

“All the tribes of the earth will mourn” and—in a state of strong delusion—go out to fight against Christ. But the combined force of all the nations’ military power— presumably including every possible space-based weapon—will be hurled against Him in vain.

The glorified and risen Christ will then “go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east” (Zechariah 14:3-4).

The apostle John further illustrates the dramatic event: “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.

“His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.

“Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:12-16).

Jesus Christ will bring an amazing conclusion to the space race. As the victorious Prince of Peace, He will set up His government to rule all nations and put an end to wars on the earth and in the heavens.

Learn more about events about to unfold and mankind’s future in our free booklet The Book of Revelation: The Storm Before the Calm .

—Neal Hogberg

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CHRISTIANITY IN PROGRESS

How to Prove All Things Through the apostle Paul, God instructed us to “prove all things.” But what exactly does that mean, and how are we supposed to do it?

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s Paul concluded his letter to the church in Thessalonica, he instructed Christians to “prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, King James Version).

Few instructions could be more important for a Christian in progress.

But how exactly does that process work?

Prove all things?

As in . . . everything?

Mercifully, no.

What’s the context of “all things”?

God doesn’t expect us to evaluate the truthfulness of every single idea, concept and theory we come across.

If you’ve spent any time at all on the Internet, you know that would be a maddening and impossible task— there are just too many ridiculous ideas out there and not enough time to disprove them all.

To understand what Paul meant by “prove all things,” we need to understand two concepts.

The first is this idea of “all things.” In Greek, Paul was using a single word—pas. Paul wasn’t talking about testing literally everything in the world. Pas asks us to consider everything that fits within the boundaries of the subject being discussed.

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That means we need some context. In the New King James Version, translators looked at 1 Thessalonians 5:20-22 as three separate thoughts: “Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good.

Abstain from every form of evil.”

But in some translations, like the New International Version, those three verses become a single sentence: “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.”

Prophecy is more than a divinely inspired foretelling of the future. Broadly speaking, in the New Testament, prophecy can mean any message produced under God’s influence.

The apostle Peter explained it this way: “No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21, English Standard Version).

With the right context, it’s a little clearer what Paul had in mind when he told the Thessalonians to test pas.

He was warning them not to ignore or reject the idea that God can communicate through divinely inspired messages—but at the same time reminding them to test those messages.

March/April 2024

Photo: iStockphoto.com

As Christians in progress, we should never reject the idea that God has something important to say to us— but if something claims to be from God, we should also never accept that claim blindly.

We should always put it to the test.

What does it mean to test?

But what is the test? How do we go about testing something that claims to be (or even just appears

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to be) inspired by God? This is another concept we need to understand if we want to make sense of Paul’s instruction.

In an earlier “Christianity in Progress” column (“‘Examine Yourselves’: What Does It Mean to Be Disqualified?”), we discussed Paul’s instruction in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to test or prove ourselves.

In that passage and in this one, Paul used the Greek verb dokimazo—a word that describes inspecting

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something to confirm it as genuine. Roman coin testers would weed out counterfeit money in the marketplace by gouging a coin to make sure the material on the inside matched the material on the outside. They tested (dokimazo) the coins to make sure they were genuine (dokimos) and not forgeries (adokimos).

Similarly, Paul calls on us to test any message that appears to be prophetic—that is, produced under the inspiration of God. To test something—to dokimazo it—we have to look beyond its appearance and inspect its content.

Paul said to “hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22, NIV). The Greek words Paul used for “good” and “evil” (kalos and ponēros) can refer to both physical appearance and moral value. When we test a message by examining its content, what do we see? Is it good— pleasant, beautiful and morally sound? Or is it evil— twisted, warped and wicked?

Testing requires a standard

This command to look beyond the surface appearance of something is hugely important.

It’s easy for a message to sound right—to be wellspoken, well-written, well-presented. But being an engaging speaker or a compelling writer doesn’t make one’s message right and true.

Satan the devil is the ultimate example of this—a wicked, rebellious angel who peddles lifestyles of selfdestruction and misery, but who knows how to make himself look like “an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). He is a master counterfeiter with thousands of years of experience making evil things look good and good things look evil.

If we want to determine whether a message is from God, we have to measure it against the Word He’s already given us. “To the law and to the testimony!” declared Isaiah. “If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).

(If you’re still working on proving the Bible for yourself, our booklet Is the Bible True? is designed to help you with that process.)

God’s future messages will never contradict His past messages. God the Father and Jesus Christ are “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

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No message that attempts to circumvent, sidestep or otherwise reinvent the truths of the Bible can possibly be from God.

Trusting the voice of the Shepherd

What it comes down to is this: We can’t test the words we’re hearing unless we’re familiar with the words we’re testing them against.

Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27) and, “they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers” (verse 5).

Do you know the voice of your Shepherd?

There’s no shortcut or simple trick. The only way to get more familiar with that voice is by studying and living by His words. The more time we spend paying attention to what God says in His inspired Word, the Bible, the easier it will be for us to recognize when other messages are being spoken with the voice of the Shepherd—or the voice of a stranger.

When Moses reviewed God’s law for the Israelites who were about to enter the Promised Land, he warned them, “I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess . . .

“Therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days” (Deuteronomy 30:15-16, 19-20).

Life and good. Death and evil. We cannot hope to recognize those qualities unless we stay deeply connected to the ways, commandments, statutes and judgments of the Lord our God. On our own, we don’t know what good and evil truly look like. But with the Shepherd’s voice guiding us, we can learn to make the distinction.

Armed with that knowledge, we’ll be more than equipped to follow Paul’s instruction: “Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.”

—Jeremy Lallier

March/April 2024

Wonders of

GOD’S Creation

Hungry, Hungry Hippos Do you know what 88 pounds of grass looks like?

I sure don’t. But that’s roughly how much a hippo can eat at night before it descends back into the water to rest and seek refuge from the hot African sun.

The obvious problem for a multiton mammal trying to take a nap underwater is the matter of breathing. But God had that all figured out when He designed the hippo. In addition to ears and nostrils that flap shut when submerged, He gave it an automatic reflex that allows it to surface for air and then resubmerge—all without waking up!

Beyond that, hippos are terrifying powerhouses. With a jaw that can open nearly 180 degrees, a bite three

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times stronger than a lion’s, and sharp canine teeth that grow to 20 inches long and can puncture the hull of a boat, a hippo is powerful and feared both in the water and on land. Hippos can run faster than a man, and when angered, they are one of the most deadly mammals.

Some scholars theorize that the behemoth mentioned in Job 40:15 might actually be based on a hippopotamus.

Pictured: hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) Photo by James Capo Text by James Capo and Jeremy Lallier

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Walk as He

Walked

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath: What Can We Learn?

Jesus was accused of Sabbath-breaking because He healed people on the Sabbath. Was this breaking the Sabbath? What can we learn from Jesus’ Sabbath healings?

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n our last article, we asked, Did Jesus keep the Sabbath? We showed that He certainly did and also declared Himself “Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28).

Despite this, His enemies still accused Him of Sabbath-breaking on multiple occasions. Many of these accusations centered around His healing people on the Sabbath.

The Gospels record Jesus performing seven healings on the Sabbath day. His critics argued that healing people’s ailments constituted work. According to them, this made Jesus a Sabbath-breaker and a sinner.

Were they correct? Did Jesus’ healings break the Sabbath?

Since the Bible unequivocally teaches that Jesus was sinless (Hebrews 4:15), we know those accusations were totally false.

So how should we understand Jesus’ Sabbath healings? If He wasn’t a Sabbath-breaker, what do they teach us?

The motive and implications of the accusations

Before examining Jesus’ Sabbath healings, let’s consider the motive behind the accusations.

Luke writes, “The scribes and Pharisees watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, that

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they might find an accusation against Him” (Luke 6:7, emphasis added throughout; see also Mark 3:2).

Their concern wasn’t about upholding the sanctity of the Sabbath. Instead, they were seeking to undermine Jesus’ credibility.

Yet, a closer look at these accusations reveals more about Jesus’ Sabbath-keeping than we may have thought.

Consider that healing and the disciples’ snacking on grain were the only Sabbath-related accusations Jesus’ enemies leveled against Him. They didn’t accuse Him of doing carpentry work on the Sabbath. They didn’t accuse Him of fishing on the Sabbath. They didn’t accuse Him of neglecting to assemble on the Sabbath. They didn’t accuse Him of employing servants on the Sabbath. We could go on and on about accusations they did not make.

Here’s the point: They didn’t try to accuse Him of blatant and undeniable Sabbath-breaking activities because He never did any of those things. As corrupt as they were, the Pharisees weren’t foolish enough to invent accusations that could be easily disproven.

They couldn’t catch Him breaking any scriptural instructions for observing the Sabbath, so they built their accusations around their oral traditions and interpretations.

March/April 2024

The Jews had developed oral traditions about providing medical care on the Sabbath. The Pharisees sought to use these extrabiblical laws against Jesus because He healed on the Sabbath. While common sense should recognize that miraculous healing isn’t performing a medical procedure, it was His only Sabbath activity they could try to construe as sinful.

So let’s examine three instances where they accused Him of breaking the Sabbath by healing people.

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Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath (Matthew 12, Mark 3 and Luke 6)

In this instance, Jesus entered a synagogue and found a man with a hand deformity.

Jesus, the center of attention in the room, asked the man to stand before Him, putting his disability in full view of everyone. He then asked, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?” (Luke 6:9).

The real issue was whether God considered it a sin to do this type of good for someone on the Sabbath. There was no physical work involved. Jesus healed simply by speaking words or touching someone.

Jesus was also exposing the glaring hypocrisy of those who opposed Him. Weeks before, a group had

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tried to kill Jesus by throwing Him off a cliff—on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16, 28-29). His enemies were eager to condemn Him for healing but had no qualms about mob murder on the Sabbath.

No one answered, so Jesus answered His own question through action: “And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he did so, and his hand was restored as whole as the other” (Luke 6:10).

Instead of rejoicing that a man was now free from a life-altering disability, His accusers were “filled with rage” (verse 11).

By answering the question, Jesus demonstrated that as “Lord of the Sabbath,” He held the ultimate authority to define proper Sabbath observance.

Jesus heals a disabled woman on the Sabbath (Luke 13)

While teaching in the synagogue on another Sabbath, Jesus encountered a woman bent over with a severe spine condition. He called her to Him, laid hands on her and healed her spine—allowing her to stand straight and walk normally.

Upon seeing this, the synagogue leader indignantly exclaimed that healing should be done only on the six working days of the week.

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Jesus answered, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?” (verse 15).

Jesus then pointed out that healing on the Sabbath did not break the Sabbath, but instead, actually magnified its meaning. “Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” (verse 16).

In other words, this was an issue of freedom and rest—not work. She was bound by this disability for 18 years. It was a burden that made her life extremely difficult and uncomfortable. Now, she was freed from this affliction and given rest from its discomfort. This underscored the spiritual rest the Sabbath provides.

Jesus’ Sabbath healings vividly illustrate that the Sabbath is a day of freedom and rest from physical burdens, foreshadowing the promised future rest of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus heals a man with dropsy (Luke 14)

On another Sabbath, Jesus was attending a meal at the home of a prominent Pharisee. At this gathering, the Pharisees again “watched Him closely” (verse 1) in order to catch Him doing anything they could use against Him. Also at this meal was a man with dropsy, or edema.

This is an ailment in which fluid builds up in the tissue and causes extreme swelling in different parts of the body, making movement painful and difficult.

Upon seeing the afflicted man, Jesus perceived what they were trying to do and directly asked, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” (verse 3).

This was brilliant because they were working from the premise that healing on the Sabbath is a sin, so He challenged them to defend it. They would need to either attempt a complex and convoluted explanation of their oral traditions or simply not answer. They chose the latter.

Jesus, once again, answered the question through action.

Luke writes, “And He took him and healed him” (verse 4).

Jesus then shared a relatable scenario to demonstrate why this wasn’t a sin. “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” (verse 5).

His point was simple: If you will put forth the effort to relieve the suffering of an animal on the Sabbath

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when it’s in your power to do so, how is it a sin for the Son of God to relieve human suffering when it’s in His power to do so?

After all, it took substantially more work for men to hoist a heavy and possibly injured ox out of a ditch than it did for Jesus to simply speak words.

The lessons of Jesus’ Sabbath healings

If you want to read through the Sabbath healings we didn’t cover in this article, you can find them in Mark 1:21-28 (a demon-possessed man), Mark 1:29-31 (Peter’s mother-in-law), John 5:1-18 (a lame man) and John 9:141 (a man blind from birth).

So, what should we learn from the Sabbath healings?

First, the accusations were always based on the Pharisees’ oral traditions and interpretations, not the Hebrew Scriptures. It’s always dangerous to elevate human tradition to the level of Scripture.

Second, the accusations were driven by the dark motive to condemn, not a desire to uphold the Sabbath’s holiness. By using the Sabbath as a mere tool to attack, they were actually abusing it themselves.

Third, the fact that it was an ongoing issue proves Jesus upheld the sanctity of the Sabbath. If Jesus had come to abolish the Sabbath, the whole issue would have been moot. The first time the accusation was made, He could have said it didn’t matter what He did on the Sabbath because He was abolishing it. But Jesus never said that.

Fourth, divine healing is possible only through God. Healing was a miracle provided through God’s power.

Just as God listens to prayers offered to Him at any time, including the Sabbath, so God provides healing and blessings to His people, even on the Sabbath.

Fifth, Jesus’ Sabbath healings actually deepen our understanding of the significance and meaning of the Sabbath. The miracles provided physical rest from suffering on the day of rest, highlighting the Sabbath’s spiritual meaning and pointing our attention to the future time of global rest in the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ Sabbath healings demonstrate His deep love for human beings and the Sabbath day. We must develop that same love for people and God’s Sabbath as we continue to . . .

Walk as He walked.

—Erik Jones

March/April 2024

BY THE WAY

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A Beautiful Turning Point

editerranean waves lapped on the shore under a summer sun. Tourists ambled along the pleasure port promenade. It’s a perfect vacation destination, and people come from around the world to enjoy all it offers: beaches, wonderful cuisine, lively nightlife and a long, storied history.

It was the history that drew my wife and me.

Paphos, on the west coast of Cyprus, is a short distance from a large rock on the southern coast, the mythological birthplace of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. But we had not come for mythological history.

A proconsul’s palace

In the Archaeological Park, we studied vestiges of grand mansions from the first centuries of the Christian era, including the palace of the Roman proconsul.

(Proconsuls served as the chief administrator in provinces ruled by the Roman Senate.)

Now known as the House of Theseus because of the magnificent mosaic found within, the proconsul’s complex covers several city blocks. While most of the vestiges we saw may post-date the history I had in mind, it is likely the same location.

Acts 13 recounts how God directed Barnabas and Saul on their first evangelistic voyage. Guided by the Holy Spirit, they sailed to Cyprus, landing at Salamis on the east coast and working their way west, preaching the gospel from synagogue to synagogue, until they reached Paphos.

Photo: iStockphoto.com

The proconsul, the sorcerer and Paul

The Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus, had heard about their preaching and called for them. He was either interested in the gospel or determining whether they might unsettle his province—or perhaps both.

The stage was set for a profound change in the preaching of the gospel. While Paul was explaining the truth to this gentile Roman aristocrat, a court adviser, a Jew named Bar-Jesus with the sobriquet Elymas, meaning sorcerer, tried to burnish his reputation by opposing Paul.

God then performed a miracle, the first one recorded in Paul’s ministry: “Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, ‘O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of

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all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.’

“And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord” (Acts 13:9-12).

A turning point

This represented several milestones: the first miracle during Paul’s ministry; the conversion of a highranking Roman official; and the understanding God gave to Paul that he should not only preach in synagogues, but actively preach the gospel to gentiles who had no prior Jewish connection.

From this point on in the book of Acts, Saul (his Hebrew name) is almost always called Paul (his Greek name). Whereas he had previously had the subordinate role—with references to “Barnabas and Saul” (verse 2)— from now on it would be “Paul and his party” (verse 13).

God was propelling the apostle to the gentiles (Romans 11:13) to embrace his calling.

And tourists vacationed on, oblivious to what God had wrought here.

Joel Meeker

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Is the Sermon on the Mount still relevant today?

Jesus delivered it so it would be relevant to anyone in any era of human history.

Especially now.

Download your free copy from the Learning Center on LifeHopeandTruth.com