Movers and Shakers
We live in profoundly serious times! Today, many have banished the living and true God from their thoughts, as if He did not exist; they reject His Word, the Holy Bible, as utterly irrelevant.
Most people today are influenced by the secular humanists they encounter on various social media platforms. They all appear capable of effectively and enjoyably advocating, leading and persuading their audiences on how to live, what to like, and what actions to take to gain acceptance in modern society. These new and dominant channels of mass communication are the new movers and shakers in society: the Church, the Bible, and God have been (by many) entirely dismissed as completely irrelevant, and they would be, if it were possible, fully eliminated from people’s thoughts.
In previous centuries, churches proclaimed the gospel of salvation and the entire truth of God. The Bible was widely consulted and quoted as the authoritative Word of God, and it was accepted as the divine rule by which all our thoughts, words and actions should be judged.
Today, things are quite different. It seems as if the primary rejectors of Christianity have transformed themselves into a new class of movers and shakers, who, using extreme, exaggerated, and often hysterical language, bombastically attack everything within their reach with their often-illogical, ungodly, foolish and libertine views. Such atheistic (God-defying and God-denying, and thus Satanic) perspectives are frequently intertwined with visual and auditory displays of greed-driven attractions, designed further to allure and ensnare man’s lustful nature.
We must not be ignorant of Satan’s devices (see 2 Corinthians 2:11) and thus need not only to recognise the dangers surrounding us, but also to warn others of the serious threats posed by the evils of the ungodly society in which we live. We must humble ourselves before God, pray for our people as Daniel did for his (see Daniel 9), confess our sins and the sins of our nation before God, and beseech Him to return in mercy and grace.
The words of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King and Head of His Church, are as relevant today as they were when first uttered, “He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15).
DPR
Grief
It has been known for some time that people can die of a “broken heart”. Takotsubo syndrome, as it is officially called, is characterised by an early death after bereavement or significant emotional stress. The heart muscle changes shape and suddenly weakens, often after the death of a loved one. We have probably all known of an elderly person dying shortly after losing their life-long companion.
Dr David Gamble of the University of Aberdeen has studied the syndrome and presented his findings at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Madrid. He said: “We know that patients can be affected for the rest of their lives and that their long-term heart health is similar to people who have survived a heart attack. These results further highlight the importance of ‘the brain-heart axis’. In a world-first trial, patients who received cognitive behavioural therapy or participated in an exercise programme improved their heart health compared to those who received standard care.
Sadly, we live in a secular society, and at no time was the power of prayer mentioned as a method of relief from the grief of bereavement. There is no acknowledgement that the Most High God has said, “I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Ex 15:26), but the child of God knows by experience that great solace can be found by pouring out his or her heart at the throne of grace. There is a comfort and consolation that can be felt when rising from one’s knees after seeking help from the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Psalm 69:20 the Saviour is brought to cry out, “Reproach hath broken my heart”. We cannot begin to understand all that this meant to Him. He was forsaken of His Father; He looked for some to take pity, for comforters, but He found none. He suffered all of this, even the cursed death of the cross, on behalf of His people so that they might be redeemed from the curse, that they might be able to come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. “And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). FRD
Mitochondrial Eve and others
The use of genetics in genealogy is advancing apace, with vastly more data becoming available, and with people using DNA to identify potential distant relations. The easiest lines to identify through DNA are the direct male line and the direct female line (with the Y-chromosome being passed down the male line and the mitochondrial DNA down the female line). Most or all Europeans are thought to be descended from the Emperor Charlemagne, but because his direct male line has died out, not much is known about his DNA.
Biblical genealogies can be studied in the same way, and “Mitochondrial Eve” is the name given to the “matrilineal most recent common ancestor of all living humans”. In other words, she is the most recent woman from whom all living people descend in an unbroken line of their female ancestors. In biblical terms, she is the “matrilineal most recent common ancestor” of the three wives of Noah’s sons. We are not told in the Bible who this woman was. It may have been Eve herself, but possibly not, depending on how closely related the three wives were to each other.
Correspondingly, “Y-chromosomal Adam” is the most recent man from whom all living people descend in an unbroken line of their male ancestors. This is certainly Noah, rather than Adam. The scientists give us estimates for when Mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosomal Adam lived, but these estimates vary with different theories and discoveries and are not at present worth much attention.
Other figures of genetic interest are “Y-chromosomal Abraham” and “Y-chromosomal Ishmael”, although they are not so easy to define. Abraham was to be “a father of many nations” (Gen 17:4), and he had numerous sons including Isaac, Ishmael and Midian (Gen 25:2,9). Ishmael, too, was to have a seed that “could not be numbered for multitude” (Gen 16:10). His descendants are generally identified with the Arab nations. Genetic studies of Arabs, Jews and others are likely to point back to Ishmael and to Abraham.
Attempts to identify “Y-chromosomal Aaron” through studies of people with the surname Cohen (the Hebrew word for priest; they are thus assumed to be descendants of Aaron) have had mixed success, and attempts to identify “Y-chromosomal Levi” have similarly had mixed success. One difficulty is the tendency of scientists (and human beings generally) to jump to premature conclusions; another is that anything that tends to confirm the Bible is bitterly opposed by Satan and his “seed”, who find every fault in it that they can. Nevertheless, it is interesting that while some are denying the historical existence of these people in the Bible, others are busy identifying these people’s genetic profiles.
DWBS