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How sad, I thought, that such a nationally known and respected figure can so casually dismiss the Old Testamentabout three quarters of the entire Bibleas "just allegorical" and irrelevant and then turn around and dismiss more than half of whats left over with "thats not the gospel."
Its this kind of thinking that prompted the theme of this issuethat the Bible is always relevant and a book for all mankind, for all ages.
Few people have ever considered the Bible a reliable guide for proper diet and good physical and mental health. Yet scattered throughout its pages are priceless laws and principles that would literally save millions of lives every yearif people would only pay attention to them.
Consider, for a moment, one of todays deadliest killers, AIDS. Probably a week doesnt go by that you dont see the disease mentioned in the headlines or referred to on the evening news. It is the fourth-leading cause of death worldwide. Yet AIDS is entirely preventable and wouldnt even exist if people only lived according to the laws revealed in the Bible.
How did the AIDS epidemic begin? No one knows for sure, but now we know that African green monkeys carry a related virus naturally in their blood. Several decades ago the virus jumped to human beings, apparently when hunters killed and butchered infected monkeys for food. Once it entered the human bloodstream, the virus proved deadly and unstoppable.
But it need not have started there, and wouldnt have, if people obeyed Gods laws that forbid eating the flesh of apesa biblically designated "unclean" animal. Gods Word clearly states that the flesh of some animals should never be eaten (Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14).
So AIDS could have ended there. But it didnt. Those who were initially infected had sexual relations with their spousesbut also with others. In violating Gods laws forbidding adultery (Exodus 20:14), those who were infected unknowingly passed on a death sentence to their unsuspecting sexual partners. Some of them, in turn, passed it on to others.
In the Western world the diseasestill unnamed and unidentifiedwas first noticed in homosexual men, among whom it was spreading like wildfire. Researchers soon discovered that common homosexual practices were highly effective ways to spread the deadly virus. Such behavior is condemned in the Bible (Leviticus 20:13; 1Corinthians 6:9-10).
In most other countries AIDS spread as a heterosexual disease (between men and women). Prostitution, extramarital and premarital sexall violations of Gods commandssaw to it that the epidemic would continue its grim march around the globe. Another factorsharing syringes to inject illegal drugsalso played a significant role.
Now, because of all of these factors, AIDS is firmly entrenched throughout the world. At any of these stages along the way, the disease could have been confined so that it would have died out within a generationhad not people persisted in disobeying Gods laws. The sins of others have affected many innocent people as well, including babies, spouses, and hemophiliacs who received tainted blood transfusions.
The world spends some $60 billion a year treating AIDS, educating people about it and trying to slow its advance. It has already taken some 20 million lives; another 36 million live under its death sentence.
Thats a terribly costly price to pay for ignorance. Isnt it about time we paid attention to what God says?
Scott Ashley
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Keywords: AIDS homosexuality heterosexuality sex
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