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Gary :
This is Search the Scriptures Daily a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still ahead, answers to your questions in “Contending for the Faith.” And in “Understanding the Scriptures,” Dave and Tom will continue their conversation on God’s salvation. In addition to this radio program we publish a monthly newsletter which we make available free of charge. We also produce and distribute a wide variety of teaching materials including books, in print, e-book and audio book format; CDs, DVDs and other items to encourage the serious study of God’s Word. For a complete list of materials or to get a copy of today’s broadcast write to us at P O Box 7019, Bend, OR 97708. Call our toll-free order number 877-882-4253. That’s 877-88BIBLE, or visit us at our website: www.thebereancall.org . If you would like a copy of this broadcast on compact disc ask for program #5007 and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. And if you would like to watch Dave and Tom our weekly broadcast is available on DVD. Ask about a subscription when you contact us. You can also download both audio and video podcasts at our website. We’ll repeat this information at the end of the program. Now:
RELIGION IN THE NEWS
A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from thisislondon.com, November 5, 2007 , with a headline “Reincarnation of a Hindu Goddess?” The following are excerpts: A toddler born with eight limbs and believed by some to be the reincarnation of the multi-limbed Hindu goddess Vishnu, is set to undergo a 40 hour operation to remove half of her limbs. Lakshmi Tatma was born joined to a 'parasitic twin' and will go under the knife at the hands of 30 surgeons to remove two of her useless arms and legs. The headless 'twin' is joined to Lakshmi at the pelvis and has its own spinal column and kidney. The extraordinary eight-limbed baby was born in a poverty-stricken region of Bihar , India - on the day devoted to the celebration of the four-armed Hindu deity Vishnu. Without the operation the little girl would never be able to walk or crawl and would be unlikely to live past her early teens, doctors said. Poonam Tatma who gave birth to Lakshmi on the celebration day of the four armed Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity after whom the newborn was named said, “She is a miracle a special blessing from God, but she is my daughter and she cannot live like this.”
Tom:
Dave, I want to talk about how beliefs, you know we’ve been talking about mysticism and Roman Catholicism, but how beliefs affect your life. But first of all, a follow up to this story, this little girl is a doll-baby, just the cutest thing that you could ever see, not that that is critical, but I saw her pictures on the internet and—just a doll-baby, but obviously some problems with these extra appendages—arms—2 extra arms and 2 extra legs and so on. And I understand that the surgery went really well. So, I thank God for that, but my prayer also is that they would come to know the true and living God, not—see there is so much confusion here. She’s a miracle, well if she’s a miracle from Vishnu, the multi-armed; multi-legged goddess, then why would they want to change this. But obviously, the mother in love and concern for her daughter sees a problem here.
Dave:
Yes. Some of the other names of Vishnu are Kali, the Kali Temple in Calcutta where they buried virgins in the foundation of it. That’s traditional. Her name also is Durga. She is the Star Wars Force. She is the consort of Shiva, the destroyer, and she is Kali more fearsome—she is depicted as having her heal on Shiva’s neck. In other words, she’s more powerful that the destroyer and it’s very important to pacify her.
Tom:
Doesn’t she have a garland of severed heads…or hands….
Dave:
Hands, a garland of severed hands…and she’s drinking blood, freshly spilt blood—human blood out of a skull and so forth, so this is Vishnu, the goddess Vishnu, otherwise known as Kali and Durga. Tom, it’s such a tragedy that India —I’ve read—well, I’ve been to India , only once. I spent over a month there in several different places. It’s not a place I would want to return to. I nearly died there—I mean the diseases you could pick up—I am sure it has improved at least somewhat since then. The Indian people are brilliant—we’ve got real scientists now who have come to the West to get educated, but they’re brilliant, many of them. But India is a pitiful place. There are old-aged homes for cows. There are people who practice Ahimsa which means non-violence and some of them wouldn’t eat meat because if you eat a sheep—it could have been your aunt who was reincarnated into that form. You wouldn’t step on an ant—it could be your aunt just come back to life again and the poverty of this place and the disease—Tom, I saw rats there larger than cats—like small dogs. They can gnaw their way through cement! I was staying at a Christian school at one point and I saw one of them one night going in through the front door of that Christian school. It would be terrifying—and what causes this? It is the teaching of Hinduism. I’ve got a debate coming up with a Hindu. I’ll be interested to see how he testifies of this. So this is paganism at its worst. And yet it still is practiced today. They have about 330,000,000 gods at the latest count and various people have their favorite gods. The God of the Bible says, “I am God; there is none else.” Isaiah 46, I think, he says, “Is there a god besides me? I know not any.” God says, I checked this thing out. I’ve been all over the universe and I can tell you there’s no other gods out there. So we have false gods, and yet Tom you know we are in a day when they are trying ecumenism—we’re going to join with all of them. And last Thanksgiving (and I haven’t checked up—I’d like to know how it went—in Denver, they had a Thanksgiving service, first one in the US ever, presided over by a Muslim imam and he said, no its not fair that you Americans—you just have—this is an American thing? Well, no, no, we are going to have Thanksgiving to Allah also. It should be for all peoples. Now this is what they are doing and it is getting worse. Anyway, praise God that this operation was successful, but we need to pray for these dear people who are in such darkness.
Gary :
You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in depth study of the doctrine of salvation. Please stay tuned. Now:
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question: Dear Dave and T.A., Does the Bible teach or recommend vegetarianism?
Tom:
We have some indications. We have Daniel. He didn’t want to eat when he was taken off to Babylon . He didn’t want to eat the food that the Babylonians ate and so on. On the other hand, we used to have billboards—I haven’t seen one in awhile, but PETA—People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—they would have (supposedly) an image of Jesus saying that he was a vegetarian. Now, straighten us out on this Dave.
Dave:
Well, even after his resurrection Jesus ate some broiled fish (Luke 24). He certainly ate the Passover so the Jews were not vegetarians because they at least ate the Passover lamb. In fact, the Bible tells us—well, let’s take Peter—he got a sheet let down—it’s got living creatures—these are animals and the voice from Heaven says “Rise Peter, kill and eat.” And Peter says no, I’m a vegetarian—no, he doesn’t say he’s a vegetarian, he says well supposedly there are some things in there that are really supposedly unclean according to mosaic law. “What God has called clean, don’t you call unclean.” So it wasn’t a question of whether he should eat meat or not, it was which kind. So I don’t think you could possibly justify vegetarianism from the Old Testament, or from the New. In fact, if you get to Genesis, (where is it Genesis 8, about I think) that it very clearly tells you that God has given the animals for meat. So I don’t know where a person would get the idea, do they justify this at all or….
Tom:
Well, this person just wants to know if the Bible does teach it. Now, Dave you’ve talked—I know many people who are vegetarians and they are doing it for health reasons. And I don’t have any problem with that. Maybe eating less meat might not be a—(if there are any beef growers out there, or chicken growers or whatever…).
Dave:
Don’t tell that to the Texans….
Tom:
Or the turkeys…yeah, whatever. But my point is that our concern is when people turn to vegetarianism as a religious practice; as a spiritual practice and many do and that’s a concern. Not only do they have a wrong idea…for example in the previous segment you talked about Hindus and Ahimsa. In other words, non-violence. Well, they have that belief but the war between Pakistan and India was one of the bloodiest wars ever over Bangladesh , I think it was. So my point here is that there are religious beliefs and they’re going to dictate our lives, but are they true; are they valid; are they legitimate?
Dave:
Yeah, Tom vegetarianism for the sake of becoming more holy, drawing me closer to God or as part of my salvation. I didn’t have time to mention something else that might be of interest to our listeners—not only do they have old-aged homes for cows and you’ve got cows wandering through the streets and so forth…. But some of these dear people—they get so hungry—now you said ahimsa, that means non-violence, I mean you wouldn’t kill—you wouldn’t dare to kill anything, now I don’t know how they get around—you know when Buddha would boil his water for his tea he’s killing millions of microbes, anyway, but Tom, some of these dear people will go after a cow and they will cut a big hunk of meat out of its hindquarter. Now they didn’t kill it—it may die later—but they are trying to adhere to their religion but it has made these people so poor. Now personally Tom, I try to cut down on red meat or meat, because I think I am healthier, I feel healthier if I eat more vegetables than meat, but I certainly don’t do it for a religious reason and the Bible would never suggest that. But Tom, lest anyone get the impression—the question was: Does the Bible teach vegetarianism? So let me read, actually it was Genesis 9, (I said Genesis 8), but let’s go to Genesis:9:3Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.—this is after the flood now, God said be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Verse 3 says that “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; (well later on that is modified, but….) even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. Because when we get to Leviticus 16 and so forth we find that the life that is in the flesh is in the blood and I’ve given it for you upon an altar and it is significant that the body of Jesus, His resurrected, glorified body does not have blood in it or he would have been bleeding from 5 wounds. When the disciples—when He appeared to them in Luke 24 they were afraid that this was a ghost, a spirit. He showed them His hands and His feet and said handle me and see. We would say a real flesh and blood person—no, handle me and see a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones as you see me have because the life of the old flesh, you know the sinful flesh, that was in the blood, that’s been poured out and I don’t believe that our bodies, new bodies in heaven, will have blood in the veins either. But it says that Christ lives in the power of an endless life—not according to the blood flowing through His veins.
Tom:
Umhm. Well Dave just one last point on this—he says does the Bible recommend vegetarianism? I think the Bible recommends—particularly the New Testament—we are temples of the Holy Spirit—we are God’s instruments—we’re His servants and so on and we want to be as healthy as we can be and good diet, exercise, eating right and eating more fruits and vegetables is (I think) a far better thing than too much meat.
Dave:
I would agree Tom.
