Reformed Blogging

The topic of Hosea can be a very touchy one. It's very common to easily forgive a husband who has committed adultery but not the wife. It's really something to admire a woman who re-accepts her husband after siring a child out of wedlock but not when it's the other way around. Hosea's tragic love story had God command the prophet to marry the wanton woman Gomer. I was even assuming that Gomer's two other children were probably not Hosea's. Gomer went to other lovers for some time. However, the pleasures of sin are rather fleeting one way or another. Israel, like Gomer, went after other lovers in the form of idol worship. Israel soon split away from Judah and Benjamin after the death of Solomon. Israel was a kingdom characterized by apostasy. The names of the children of Hosea and Gomer were Jezreel, Lohru-Hamma (No Mercy), and Lo-Ammi (Not My People).  If I were to talk, I would really want to abandon Gomer for good. I don't want to endure such an unhealthy ...

I remembered how some people just don't get it what it means not to marry for outward beauty. Does that mean that the preacher here is condemning outward beauty? He isn't condemning outward beauty. The Bible warns of beautiful deception but the issue has never been about outward beauty. If the Bible condemned beauty then think of how God also used pretty women like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Deborah, Ruth (as Boaz noticed her too easily), Bathsheba (though she had a bad start) and Esther to do His will. So what does it mean not to marry for outward beauty? The truth is the preachers of the sermon ask Christian men to treat beauty and ugliness as ordinary. Nothing is wrong with marrying a pretty lady or an ugly lady if she's a sanctified Christian. Paul Washer's wife is a pretty lady while we know she wasn't married for her outer beauty. It's not a call to marry the ugliest woman you can find. Instead, it's all about seeking inner beauty regardless of one...

The Song of Solomon is a book where there's some debate on interpretation or even if it was even inspired. The author is obviously Solomon. One interpretation is the three-character interpretation where they call Solomon the villain who's trying to woo away the Shulammite country girl from her shepherd lover. So far, some scholars have insisted that Solomon is not the man the story. They say that Solomon represents Satan, the Shulammite woman is the Christian and the shepherd lover is the Lord Jesus Christ. The problem with the three character view is that where does the separation even kick in? Also, Solomon's falling into further philandering happened when he was much older. He looked like he was very young and active in the Song of Solomon. The Song doesn't seem to be just about the marriage evening but the marriage life as well.  Before Solomon became king he may have gone out dressed up as a shepherd. Ecclesiastes 2:7 said that he owned many flocks maki...

Those who oppose traditional marriage says, "That's Old Testament!" to my face. I remembered how advocates of the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender (LGBT) communities say that I have no right to tell them that they're wrong if I keep eating bacon and shrimp. Others have their tendency to say "Love is all that matters." never mind that 1 Corinthians 13:8 says that love doesn't rejoice in wrong but rejoices in the right. Why do I still support traditional marriage? It's because God said it and He has good reasons to give those rules. I'm not going to stop there but I'm going to talk about several stuff in the Old Testament that's still relevant to the New Testament. If the Old Testament were obsolete so why do some people still follow the Ten Commandments? If the Old Testament were obsolete then stuff like incestuous relationships should be tolerated. Now I'd talk about the biblical standard of marriage vs. the sexual immora...