Bio

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, the author of Truthspeak and his new book, The Gospel of Grace and Truth: A Theology of Grace from the Gospel of John," both available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing to Dr. Halsey at michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Comments may be addressed to michaeldhalsey@bellsouth.net.

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

Also:

Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582

Friday, March 23, 2018

BIBLIOPHOBIA

Eun, is a third-grader. Her teacher is giving the class a special assignment. She tells the students that their assignment is to go home and look for a book, and if it’s the right book, the student(s) will be honored. Eun goes home and finds a Bible and brings it to class the next day.

 For finding the right book, Eun receives a prize. When she returns home that day, her parents aren’t there.

If Eun's parents were typical of Christian parents who are brave enough to share their faith with their children, or extended families, they would have gathered in the darkened back rooms of their homes and whisper their prayers and hymns. Often their Bibles are scattered pages to disguise what it is.

Eun lives in The Hermit Kingdom, the country which "Forbes Magazine" calls the most hostile nation to Christianity on this fallen planet--North Korea, also called, "The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,"

"orbes" reports: "Christian parents try to hide their faith as far as possible to avoid arrest and being sent to a labor camp. Thus, being Christian has to be a well-protected secret, even within families, and most parents refrain from introducing their children to the Christian faith in order to make sure that nothing slips their tongue when they are asked.”

WHAT'S SO TERRIFYING ABOUT THE BIBLE?

"Forbes" hits the nail square in citing the reason for The Hermit Kingdom's bibliophobia: it's because the Bible reveals that one's loyalty to God is to come before loyalty to the North Korean state. No tyrant can tolerate such a belief because, with such a truth, no state can remain totalitarian.

TOTALITARIANS INSIDE THE GATE

Something is going on in higher education, not in The Hermit Kingdom, but here at home. Totalitarians are inside the castle. They were once outside the gates, but now they're in.

One of my college professors had an excellent pedagogical philosophy: he encouraged questions and he encouraged us to voice our opinions with which he might disagree. We could do so as long as we were respectful and weren't trying to waste class time, or take up time with endless speculations, and weren't off the subject or trying to show off. He later told me that he had this philosophy because it made him think when students respectfully challenged him with good questions or excellent statements. (Now, that's a teacher with a capital "T.")

THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW

But it would seem that the academic landscape has shifted and my exemplar of a teacher with a capital "T" in higher education is long-gone. And it shifted without any opposition. It was as if the barbarians entered the gates and found no one to defend the castle. There were no administrators and no parents to guard the youth from what the Huns and the Vandals wanted to do to the groves of academe`.

Recently, in a university in the Keystone State, a teacher of theology was lecturing the students about the now hot topic of gender. It must have been an odd theology class because none of my extensive systematic and biblical theology classes informed us about gender back in the days of yore. (What is "yore" anyway?)

One student who either knew Genesis 1 or biology, or both, raised his hand to observe that there were two genders. (Back in the days of yore, this would have been like raising one's hand in advanced trigonometry and opining, "2+2=4.")

For this statement of what's obvious to 99.9% of any population anywhere in the world, the teacher expelled him from the class with the admonition, "And never come back!"

The expulsion triggered an inquiry and the usual official formalities until the president of the school stepped in and reinstated the student who was out of step with the thinking of the Hermit Kingdom of the Pennsylvania university. But think about this: in the setting of of higher education, it now takes courage to say, "There are two genders." (!)

O tempora! O mores!"--Cicero should see us now!

We are now where Orwell said we would be--"Freedom is the freedom to say, '2+2=4," that is, freedom means you can state reality, the obvious.


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