Great book: The Genius of Ancient Man

The Genius of Ancient Man by Don Landis and Jackson Hole Bible College

Hardback 108 pages Published 2012 by Master Books, a division of New Leaf Publishers Group.

 Myth, Legend or Truth?  Using wholesomely Biblical viewpoints, Don Landis and the Jackson Hole Bible College Ancient Man research team bring to light dozens of interesting geographical and historical facts. Prepare to be astonished as marvelous and never-before heard truths about ancient civilizations are carefully unearthed.
''...The Church has for the most part, been content to sit back and take no stand on the issue of [history]...But they don't have to be weak; the Church can stand firm on the Biblical record if only they will step up and learn the facts.'' (from the preface- page 5)

It is time for Christians to wake up and be instructed. What if mankind is not as ancient as ''science'' claims? What if man did not evolve slowly out of slime, completely ignorant and brutish, but rather was created in God's image with a likeness of His intellect?...'' (from the preface)

Instead of being confused about supposedly complicated topic ancient history and the character of ancient man, Christians, as people standing on the truths which the Bible presents and using presuppositions based on the Word of God, can see ancient history come alive!

Captivated by the Biblical approach to geography and history and amazed by the incredibly explanations brought forth, I found it difficult to put the book down, and finished reading it in three days.

I heartily and enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone!

The Genius of Ancient Man is not only a must for every homeschooling family's library- but also for ever Christian's bookshelf.

Since it so powerfully explains the true history of man versus unbiblical evolution theories, I would also hope that not only Bible-believing Christians, but non-believers as well would come across a copy of this book, since God could use it mightily to bring them to faith in Him.

I don't dare reveal to much of the rich truth in this book, since I want you to discover it for yourself, but here is just a sampling:
''The apparent backwardness of some modern native cultures and the extreme simplicity of the tools and artifacts of Paleolithic Man are not, in either case, evidence of inferior intelligence but more probably due to a historical circumstance which is well worth examining.'' (page 45)

Read more in the chapters of the book which include ''Perspectives''; ''Priority of God in Sequence and Time'', ''Pre-flood Man''; ''Worldwide Travel''; ''Religions and Legends''; ''Babel is not gone''....and more!

Hours of researching, trips to various sites around North and Central America, visits to museums, and meetings with experts have provided the team with an overwhelming amount of evidence for the intelligence of these early innovators. A jumble of anomalies and magnificent structures continue to confound archaeology and anthropology today, yet as the dots are connected, one finds history as described in the biblical record.

I was thrilled to receive this book free through the New Leaf Publishers Book Reviewers program.

Free preview of the book

Book Review: The Truth About the Lordship of Christ

The Truth About...The Lordship of Christ
By John MacArthur, paperback 140 pages.
Thomas Nelson 2012
I was pleased to receive this book free to review from the BookSneeze blogging for books program! I was encouraged to state my honest opinion.

I found the cover, size, font and layout of the book appealing and conducive to enjoyable reading and studying.

A breath of fresh air, this book is Biblically-sound, clear, deep and yet easy to read! Through 6 chapters entitled Lord of the Universe, Lord in Our Lives, Daily Submission, Holy Living, Confession and Restoration, and Ultimate Destination, John MacArthur tackles with wisdom such topics as justification, love and hate, God's perfect love, God's view of sinners,  the lifestyle of a true Christian, daily living in Christ, the joy of Christianity, maturity and glory in suffering, sanctification, confession, repentance, assurance of salvation, etc!

Although a small book, I found it to be worth the read. I think this book would make a good gift for a new Christian friend, and for anyone unused to reading books on doctrine or Christian living which are more than double the size. Additionally, this book would be great for a child to read. And lastly, although this book is addressed to a Christian, I do recommend it for anyone; it would therefore also be a good gift choice for your unsaved acquaintances as well. It explains very clearly salvation, and how God views sin, how we must repent in order to be saved, etc.
Enjoy!
I assure you I will not be discarding this book!

However, I did run in to two problems in the book, which I'd appreciate you reading about, especially if you are going to read the book....

Near the beginning of the book, in fact on pages 5-8, I ran into something that disturbed me. I trust John MacArthur's teachings as Scripturally-sound, but here I quote MacArthur quoting Arthur W. Pink:
''God loves whom He chooses. He does not love everybody. Is it true that God loves the one who is despising and rejecting His blessed Son? God is Light as well as Love, and therefore His love must be a holy love. To tell the Christ-rejecter that God loves him is to cauterize his conscience, as well as to afford him a sense of security in his sins. The fact is, the love of God is a truth for the saints only, and to present it to the enemies of God is to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs...''
 page 246 The Sovereignty of God by Arthur W. Pink
 Read more here!

John MacArthur, surprisingly, does not support this paragraph. And neither does Banner in Truth publications, supposedly as they edit this paragraph out of their publication of The Sovereignity of God! I was disappointed to hear that, because I don't know about you, but I support Pink's statement. Read an amazingly clear article here! It's wonderful. 


He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father...If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him” (Joh 14:21,23)

Thou hatest all workers of iniquity” (Psa 5:5)


Ps. 135:6 Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in seas and in all deeps.

Contrary to what I would believe is right, MacArthur says: ''Pink was attempting to make the crucial point that God is sovereign in the exercise of His love. The gist of his argument is certainly valid: it is folly to think that God loves all alike, or that He is compelled by some rule of fairness to love everyone equally...
Unfortunately, Pink took the corollary too far. The fact that some sinners are not elected to salvation is no proof that God's attitude toward them is utterly devoid of sincere love.'' 
(pg. 7 The Truth About the Lordship of Christ)

I don't believe what Pink stated was ''going to far''!

Turning now to John 3:16, it should be evident from the passages just quoted that this verse will not bear the construction usually put upon it. 

“God so loved the world”—many suppose that this means the entire human race. But “the entire human race” includes all mankind from Adam till the close of earth’s history: it reaches backward as well as forward! Consider, then, the history of mankind before Christ was born. Unnumbered millions lived and died before the Savior came to the earth, lived here “having no hope and without God in the world,” and therefore passed out into an eternity of woe. If God “loved” them, where is the slightest proof thereof?

 Scripture declares “Who [God] in times past [from the tower of Babel till after Pentecost] suffered all nations to walk in their own ways” (Act 14:16). Scripture declares: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Rom 1:28). 

To Israel God said, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amo 3:2).

 In view of these plain passages who will be so foolish as to insist that God in the past loved all mankind! The same applies with equal force to the future. 

Read through the book of Revelation, noting especially chapters 8 to 19, where we have described the judgments which will be poured out from Heaven on this earth. Read of the fearful woes, the frightful plagues, the vials of God’s wrath, which shall be emptied on the wicked. Finally, read the twentieth chapter of the Revelation, the great white throne judgment, and see if you can discover there the slightest trace of love.  But the objector comes back to John 3:16 and says: “World means world.” True, but we have shown that “the world” does not mean the whole human family. The fact is that “the world” is used in a general way. When the brethren of Christ said “Shew thyself to the world” (Joh 7:4), did they mean “Shew Thyself to all mankind”?  

When the Pharisees said “Behold, the world is gone after Him” (Joh 12:19), did they mean that “all the human family” were flocking after Him? When the apostle wrote, “Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Rom 1:8), did he mean that the faith of the saints at Rome was the subject of conversation by every man, woman, and child on earth? When Revelation 13:3 informs us that “all the world wondered after the beast,” are we to understand that there will be no exceptions? These, and other passages which might be quoted, show that the term “the world” often has a relative rather than an absolute force.  (A.W Pink- read full article here)

MacArthur, I must say, sometimes DOES sound confusing...because after stating that he thought Pink took the corollary too far, he does end up saying: ''Nor should we imagine that such hatred is any kind of blemish on the character of God. It is a holy hatred. It is perfectly consistent with His spotless, unapproachable, incomprehensible holiness. We must remember that God is Lord of the universe, and He can do whatever He wants.''

Yes! Very true. And in agreement with Pink! 

Lastly,
In the section about ''Assurance of Salvation'' (chapter 6), I was a little tense during my first read through it since the author gives the impression near the beginning of the chapter that it is wrong to question your salvation (by examining your life and your relationship with the Lord) too much, as ''the Puritans did'' which, according to the author, encourages ''morbid introspection and utter despair.'' However, later, to my relief, MacArthur does support self-examination and explains why it is crucial. So I am willing to overlook the flaw, especially since Mr. MacArthur does assure the reader that he admires the Puritans generally. 

Anyhow: I was pleased to receive this book free to review from the BookSneeze blogging for books program! I was encouraged to state my honest opinion. 

Book Review: What Matters Most

What Matters Most by Leonard Sweet 2012. Soft cover, 244 pages. 
Published by WaterBrook Press. I received through the Blogging for Books reading program.
I was encouraged to express my honest opinion, whether negative or positive!

This book had a bad start with me since I was not attracted to the cover, size of book, layout or style of writing. However, obviously I could ignore those factors, if the content of the book proved to be Biblically sound!

The point of this book is relationships. The author comes from the viewpoint that Christians follow rules, but have forgotten how to cultivate relationships. While I agree that relationships just don't seem to be successful now-a-days, I don't believe this author was qualified to address the subject. I know of a score of better books and messages, and even blog posts which cover the subject wisely and Biblically. 

I suspected something was wrong with this book when I saw at a glance that there were hardly any Bible verses quoted in the book, but many quotes by people like Dominican friars, Mystics, Dostoyevsky, Aristotle, Richard Cranshaw, Mystic Nicholas of Cusa, James Hillman, HOmer Simpson, Lily Tomlin, Emily Dickinson, etc. while only a few quotes from Charles Spurgeon, hymns and the Bible.  

The book turned out to be almost blasphemous as the author constantly stated wild beliefs and un-Biblical thoughts. 
For example, I quote the author: The center of gravity of global Christianity is shifting from the North to the West to the South and East. Western Christianity was tutored by Greece and Rome. It will now learn from Asia. 
What Christianity learned from Greco-Roman culture (Stoicism, neo-Platonism) was how to express itself in rhetoric and reason. When we start learning from Asia, and the cultures of India, Tibet, and China, we will move beyond the rational to the mystical...God is a mystery, not a master's thesis...Jesus was not a Greek, nor was he a classical thinker. He was a Hebrew, Eastern in thought and culture, relational in practice, and mystical in spirituality. 

See what I mean? The author is almost....New Age? Later in the book, he mentions relationships with his ancestors, and favorite famous (not all Christian) people from the past. Bad, bad, bad.

Lastly, chapter 3 was terrible as the author totally twisted the meaning of Abraham's relationship with God. This chapter states that ''God never wanted Abraham to kill Isaac and was hoping (yuck) that Abraham would argue with God and ultimately refuse to carry out the directive.''

The author also quotes a favorite paragraph from Conrad Gempf which is so blasphemous I hardly dare share it, but which says that God is interested when we argue with Him, and He likes losing the arguments even more than He likes winning them. Excuse me? The conscientious reader will now slam this book and send it to it's death via the recycling bin!

So, I simply close with the warning to beware of this author, Leonard Sweet's writings. Usually Blogging For Books offers Christian material, but I guess I need to be more careful, and not just hastily choose a book to review based on the title! I hope these thoughts helped you.

Mineral make-up giveaway...

Visit this link to enter a lovely giveaway for mineral makeup!

The best way to wash your hair: safe, frugal and effective!

Dear readers both ladies and gentlemen:

After you have read the previous notes on the poisons in your typical shampoos and conditioners, you may be looking for a healthy alternative. There are plenty of homemade natural and organic products for sale, but since those tend to be pricey, I am glad I can offer you a frugal method which you can use daily without harming your budget! Simply: 

Baking soda and vinegar- healthy hair, healthy bodies!

I switched over to using strictly baking soda and vinegar over a year ago now, and haven't touched shampoo or conditioner since! Although each person is different, I have had satisfactory results with this method. There are a few benefits to using these items in for your hair

1) None of the poisons or harmful ingredients listed in the previous post

2) Cheaper than most shampoos and conditioners, especially cheaper than all-natural ones!

3) Gentle on all types of skin, scalp; will not harm your eyesight if you get some in your eyes. 

4) Both ingredients known to heal dry skin, sunburns.

5) Extremely speedy to use: cleans quickly and effectively and rinses out in no time at all!

6) You've seen it written on dozens of shampoo ads; people are always searching for products to

  deep-clean their scalp and to restore health and shine to their hair: here it is! The two most cleansing ingredients. 

So, let's get started! I originally heard about this method long before I actually tried it. The only reason why I waited so long was because the original post said you needed a small spray bottle in which to mix the baking soda and water...and I didn't have one. So it took me a little while to realize I could come up with my own ways of doing the preparation! Below, I have many pictures to illustrate the variety of ways you can have a quick and easy cleansing shower!

All you will need is a tablespoon of baking soda, and a tablespoon of your choice of vinegar: white distilled or apple cider. Although both kinds are suitable, I have heard that apple cider enhances the color of dark-haired folk. So I now usually use white vinegar.

The photo below explains all that a beginner may use for a washing: 

*A tablespoon measuring spoon

*A 1 cup measuring cup

*A plastic cup (photo shows 3 for varieties' sake)

*Box of baking soda

*Jug of vinegar

(see end of post for instructions)

Or, for a more manly look:
 your preparation might look more like this:

Or perhaps you prefer a dark green measuring cup:

Okay, enough of that :)

Here's what you need to do: 

Ready: 

1. Measure 1 TB of baking soda, dump it into your choice of cup or small plastic container for mixing.  Leave measuring spoon in there. Set in a corner of the shower where it won't too filled with water from the shower.

2. Grasp a jug of lidded vinegar and place it in the shower as well. 

3. Place your empty 1-cup measuring cup in shower too.

Set: 

4. Moisten your hair, then add 1 cup warm water to the baking soda in the container; turn off shower and mix baking soda and water with spoon. 

Action!

5. Slowly pour on your scalp and hair while rubbing and scrubbing or massaging it in with the other hand. (Vary your energy from wash to wash; you only need to do a major scrubbing every two weeks, otherwise: massage it in)

6. Let it soak into your scalp/hair for 5 minutes. (Again, although this is idea, it is not necessary every wash.)

7. Simply rinse it out! Comes out like a dream, in less than 1 minute! 

Ideally, you will want to finish with a vinegar rinse. 

8. While still in the shower, turn off the water. Pick up your cup and measure 1 Tablespoon of your choice of either white or apple cider vinegar into the mixing cup; add 1 cup water. No need to mix. 

9. Slowly pour mixture onto your scalp and comb through your hair with your fingers! You will be pleased at how slick this makes your hair...it's amazing how the tangles disappear! Add more vinegar and water if your hair is super-tangley. 

10. Option 1:  Leave it in. However, apple cider vinegar leaves a slight residue of smell....not the best thing if you're attending a wedding or the like. Also, if you are planning on doing up your hair while it's wet, if you don't rinse out the vinegar it will smell pretty strong when you let your hair down at the end of the day....kind of fermented. ;)

Option 2: Rinse briefly.This is accomplished in a minute or less....compare that to how long it takes to rinse out commercial conditioners!

Option 3: What I generally do is to rinse it out completely. Takes a couple minutes.

Vary from time to time!

I want you to encourage you to try this. If it looks complicated, that's my fault for writing out the instructions to long. In reality, it's simple, Read the instructions above a few times and then write out your own condensed ideas. By the way: I don't use measuring cup for water measuring, since I know by sight by now. Besides, it's rather flexible. For myself, I use 2 Tablespoons of baking soda to 2 Cups of water ever other wash, too. It's all about variation, and finding your best method. 

Lastly, be patient! You may not love your hair until you have consistently used this method for over a few months! But I can say assuredly, I have used it over a year: And I'm sticking with it! 

This is important! This is health for the future. Ladies: Do not ruin your health as future mothers by using poisons on your body....keep your body safe for your future as mothers!!!

Who will join me in using simple baking soda and vinegar? 

I've seen some really beautiful results on other ladies who are using it! (links to come in a future post)

I wish I had some incredible ''before and after'' pictures of myself.... but I DO still have plenty of hair. :)
2013 UPDATE: And it's getting easier and easier to keep my hair clean and lovely! :) Yay! Now 5 of my 7 sisters are using it as well. It REALLY works. Never has my hair felt so clean.... :) 

Ladies....I encourage you to join this ''club'' of people switching to better things for their bodies! And encourage your brothers to do so as well. It's important. And actually, I think it will be easiest for the boys to switch since they don't have a love for sweet-smelling shampoos anyhow! ;) But it's obviously ESPECIALLY important for the ladies to not use reg. chemical-laden shampoos.