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How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed ? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? – Romans 10:14

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For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. – Romans 1:16

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Join Our Frappr Map! - Comments (0)

Category: Administrivia
Author: Jerod Santo
Date: 1st August, 2007 @ 10:10:22 AM

In an effort to get to know our readers and listeners a little better, we’ve added a Frappr Map to BibleStudy.net!

What is Frappr? It’s a map of people in an online community that displays where they live.

So if you’re a regular at BibleStudy.net, or if you’re just stopping by, head over to our Frappr page and click the “Join” button. Adding yourself to the map is simple and only takes a few moments.

It’s a huge encouragement to us to see our contact points!

Also, be sure to check back from time to time and watch our map grow as others join!

Have questions? help@biblestudy.net is where to ask them.

A Protestant in the Midst of Apostasy. - Comments (4)

Category: Articles,Doctrine,Roman Catholicism
Author: John Malone
Date: 25th July, 2007 @ 02:38:48 AM

Peter Smagacz is 58 years old and glad to have left the Roman Catholic Church. He left it 35 years ago.

I read an article sent to me that was published on Omaha’s daily newspaper, the Omaha World Herald, that described Smagacz’ one-man “protest” at a Luis Palau “Heartland Festival” in Omaha. The event was said to have attracted 105,000 visitors, a record. I suppose, hyperbole being what it is, the crowd was likely half that size, but still large.

Palau is known among Bible believers to be “soft on Romanism,” and far too ecumenical to be Biblically sound. Many of us consider that ministries like Palau’s yoke themselves with unbelievers, contrary to Bible principles set forth in {2 Corinthians 6:14,|2cor 6:14-17} and {Revelation 18:4.|Rev 18:1-5} The more skeptical among us – call us jaded – know that men like Palau don’t become prominent in this country without somehow accepting that Roman Catholics are essentially Christian.

Otherwise, Romanists would have destroyed him by now.
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Surgery and After - Comments (1)

Category: Behind the Lines
Author: John Malone
Date: 27th June, 2007 @ 12:25:11 AM

For as traumatic as the news of Karen’s cancer and its immediate consequences was, the surgery itself was pretty anti-climactic.

Two hours, and she’s done. The eye is gone. As one brother said, “It’s like removing a tooth.” The surgery itself was so simple, the doctor said “I can do these in my sleep.” Karen said, “We want you to stay awake.”

The eye removal surgery – enucleation – is apparently a simple one. Karen walked herself into the operating room. The doctor took the eye out, and placed a plastic steering device in its place, wrapping her right eye muscles around it. They place a silicon “conformer” in the eye socket to retain its shape during a six-week healing process.

In the mean time, we will find an ocularist who will hand-design a prosthetic eye that will be moved by the steering piece powered by her muscles.

Her removed eye will be studied in pathology during the next week, and we will get some information about the cancerous tumor. It was large: “very large.”

Karen has been ambling around with the sight of one eye for six weeks, so the advice she was given about dealing with loss of vision was very hollow. They taped a huge bandage on her right eye, and it was too tight, pinching her skin. I mentioned it, and they said, “The doctor can fix that tomorrow when you come in.”

But the doctor said we didn’t need to come in “tomorrow,” and we elected to just leave Iowa City and come home. Home to our family, and responsibilities. While I drove the 4 hour return trip way too fast, Karen adjusted her bandage until it no longer pinched her, listened to music, and rested her eye.

When we got home, she used a mirror and a pen to write “Jesus Is Lord” in blue on her bright white bandage.

She’s not taking her pain medication. Her blood pressure is very high.

We are hoping the grand children will understand, because this all is complicated for them We have 18 of them 8 and under with two more on the way.

Karen Will Lose Her Right Eye. - Comments (0)

Category: Behind the Lines
Author: John Malone
Date: 24th June, 2007 @ 01:27:03 AM

Monday afternoon, my wife Karen will be losing her right eye to ocular melanoma by surgical means.

I would hope that all of my friends, near and distant, would pray for her about that time.

Karen was diagnosed with this malignant cancer six weeks ago. For all we know, she has had a tumor growing in her eye for decades. On the other hand, it could have been only for years or months.

We are greatly puzzled by all of this, and are seeking God’s will and glory in the matter.

Karen is truly remarkable through all of this. Very courageous. She actually is taking in much better than I am.

We do not know what this holds for her and our future, and we will not know much more about her condition for another week, when the pathology reports come back to us.

Karen and I have 24 grandchildren with 2 more on the way.

Needless to say, this has had an enormous impact on our lives, and we continue to look for and share the grace of God in this life.

We continue to hold on to the {Scripture|Psa 118:7} God has given us.

Dealing With Doctors. - Comments (0)

Category: Articles,Behind the Lines
Author: John Malone
Date: 19th May, 2007 @ 03:11:40 AM

“The Lord helps those who help themselves,” the physician told us.

My wife and I looked at each other, but she only saw me with her left eye.

That’s because she has lost nearly all vision in her right eye, a large “choroidal ocular melanoma” obscuring almost all vision in her right.

I do not often mingle with doctors.

My father died from cancer at 65 – when I was 36 – largely at the hands of incompetent physicians.

One of my very best friends became an M.D., but our relationship was built upon our fellowship in the Scriptures after I had led him to Christ while he attended medical school at the local Jesuit institution.

He died from cancer when he was barely 42.

My next door neighbor was a brilliant neurosurgeon. We used to talk about technology, medicine, and the Scriptures. We were real friends. He died of cancer when he was 45. Before he did, he was restored to his early faith in Jesus Christ, and wrote hymns on his Alabama death bed.

One of my heroes, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, began his radio career after cancer treatments, and went home shortly after my father.

Since those men were taken home by the Lord Jesus, my only contact in the “medical world” has been a brilliant research physician who is remarkably unorthodox, and a chiropractor: someone distinctly NOT in the “medical world.”
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My Wife - Comments (0)

Category: Articles,Behind the Lines
Author: John Malone
Date: 8th May, 2007 @ 10:46:37 PM

Today my wife was diagnosed with a serious malady.

I am asking my brothers and sisters who read this web site to pray for her in this matter.

The Lord is able to deliver her.

And me.

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We are grateful to the Lord today to learn that my wife’s (Karen’s) prospects, though very serious and damaging, are not as dire as they could have been.

The Lord is taking our part with {those that help us.|Psa 118:7}

Seung Hui Cho, Video Games, Sorcery, & Babylon. - Comments (0)

Category: Applied,Articles
Author: John Malone
Date: 21st April, 2007 @ 05:00:30 PM

Suddenly, our mind-share is diverted to the grizzly and gory meditation of a non-virtual, first-person shooter named Cho Sueng Hui, in a life-is-just-like-animation scenario.

Cho demonstrated a many features of demented – let’s call it depraved – human nature. Extreme violence, “religious preoccupations,” a Messiah complex, obsession, schizophrenia, mania, withdrawal, flat affect.
This guy exhibited, apparently, all sorts of behavior that we have come to categorize as pathology with various labels.

There was a certain knowable – even predictable – psychology about this fellow, and that knowledge on the part of others will no doubt be the stuff of lawsuits in and around Blacksburg Virginia for some years to come.

I actually don’t have much to say to add to this discussion, and I won’t boor you with regurgitations of the obvious, or for matters not directly observable by me.

However, there are three matters about this fellow that disturb me that I haven’t read or heard much about.
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