Thou shalt not kill. —Exodus 20:13

Some translations use the word “kill,” but the word is better translated “murder” in this passage. Murder is the unlawful, intentional taking of a life with malice.

Right after this command was given, God instructed the Levites to take up the sword and kill people who had turned to idolatry. God was not being contradictory under the law He had just given to Moses, for the killing was administered justice.

While the Bible places great value on human life, this specific command is not the foundation of New Testament, biblical nonresistance.

Lent, in the nominal Christian world, is a special time of prayer, fasting, penance, sacrifice, and good works in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection.

Lent, observed by many for forty days, is not a Biblical doctrine. Some promote Lent fasting as commemorating the fast of Christ in the wilderness, but this does not align with the practice of the primitive church. There is more evidence that the early church fasted for the approximate forty hours in which Jesus lay in the grave—but even this is debatable from early writings in the church. Some taught that the fasting should be one day, some two, etc. The historical development of Lent is uncertain, although its practice was solidified following the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The forty hours became forty days of fasting and even then, the definition of fasting became liberalized and included abstaining from things other than just food.

God’s people are not bound to the foolishness nor bondage of man’s religion; rather, saints of God are to live a continual life of devotion to God. ■

Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? …Glorify God in your body. —1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Unhealthy diet contributes to approximately 678,000 deaths each year in the United States due to nutrition and obesity related diseases. In the last thirty years, obesity rates have doubled in adults, tripled in children, and quadrupled in adolescents (cspinet.org).

A child of God is to recognize his body is the temple of God and care for it accordingly through healthy practices of good nutrition and exercise.

The biblical use of the word “hypocrite” by Jesus is richer than the modern definition—someone who says one thing and does another, two-faced, phony. The root word in the Greek means “stage actors.” The actor, under an assumed character, acts to gain recognition, approval, and the applause of men. When no one is looking, and the audience is gone, the actor reverts to his true self which is usually quite different than his previous role.

Various Christian denominations are nontrinitarian and reject the doctrine of the Trinity. While in the minority, the two largest nontrinitarian denominations are The Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Jehovah’s Witnesses consider Jesus to have had a beginning and to be a direct creation of God. They do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a person but God’s active force. Mormonism teaches that God created Christ and that the Godhead is a divine council of the three individual gods. This is a form of tritheism rather than the Biblical monotheistic teaching.