The River Turned to Blood

In Exodus 7, God begins His deliverance of Israel by bringing plagues on the Egyptians. The first plague was, in my opinion, one of the more impressive feats.

Exodus 7:20-21
So [Aaron] lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. The fish that were in the river died, the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. So there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.

Stop and think about seeing an entire river turn to blood before your eyes. Wouldn't that completely freak you out??

The Holy Spirit, our... Midwife?

 The life of a Christian can be put into a rough correspondence with the events of the Exodus, and this imagery is especially helpful for us during the Passover season. I've written previously about the similarities between Pharaoh and the "old man" written of by Paul (Romans 6:6, Ephesians 4:22), and this post is along the same lines. The "old man" is the person that we were before repentance and baptism. As much as we would like to be a 100% new person who doesn't sin anymore after baptism, it just doesn't work that way! We are still physical beings, and we have to struggle against the flesh and bring it into subjection to God. Occasionally, the Old Man gets the upper hand, and our spiritual lives wane - in effect, we go back to bondage in spiritual Egypt.

God allowed Israel, His people, to suffer slavery in Egypt for over 400 years. Even while they were slaves, God watched over them and allowed their population to grow larger and larger, working to fulfill a promise made to Abraham. Eventually, the Pharaoh came to see Israel's increasing numbers as a threat, and so he devised a plan to keep their population under control. 

Exodus 1:9-11
And [Pharaoh] said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land." Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them.

Bad Logic on the Immortal Soul

Most Christian churches incorrectly teach that human beings are born with an immortal soul which will live forever, either in eternal reward or eternal punishment. The bible clearly shows that those who follow God's way will live forever; however, it does not state that the human soul is inherently immortal and that God cannot (or will not) destroy it. Rather, immortality is a gift that God gives His people after they have believed, repented, and received the Holy Spirit. Even then, one still has to live a life of overcoming and holding on to that commitment!

Recently, I've read several arguments claiming to prove that humans have an immortal soul. Here's a sampling of them, along with explanations of their various fallacies.

Did the Levites Work for Peanuts?

I've dedicated a lot of time and effort to the subject of tithing, so some of what I say here might require some legwork on the part of the reader. I've conveniently compiled my series on tithing as a reference. It explains about a particularly outspoken group of people who teach that tithing is not valid for Christians today. They challenge the premise of tithing from every angle, and so I've worked diligently to defend it from every angle. One of their claims is that the command to tithe was limited to agricultural products - the offspring of the herds and the yield of the crops - and that it was never paid by wage-earners such as Jesus, who was a carpenter. I've answered this argument before (you can read about it on the tithing page), and this post is just some more thoughts on the matter.

The tithes of Israel were allocated to the Levites as an inheritance and in exchange for their service in the temple:

Numbers 18:21
Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the Tabernacle of Meeting.

The reasons for which the Levites received tithes play a role in the discussion of whether tithe was limited to agricultural products only. As the above scripture shows, they received tithe for two purposes: as an inheritance and in return for the work of the Tabernacle. If tithe was only required on food items as some claim, then this would mean that the Levites were both given an inheritance and paid for their work in food.