Exodus 13:2; “Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.”
Luke 2:23; “(As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;).”
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Blessing to first born son … Dr. Ron Carlson was the key note speaker at many a seminar and what a treat it was to anyone who had the blessing of hearing him teach. His contagious enthusiasm and his very animated face couldn’t hide the wonder of the miraculous way God had preserved His word if not for all of us, the very day Ron would be preaching from it. As a theologian Ron’s expertise focused on witnessing to the cults about the historicity and reliability of the Bible. If you wanted to know anything at all about any subject in the Bible, Ron was your go to guy.
I met him shortly after becoming a Christian and I heard for the first time in my life of the mathematical probabilities it would take for Jesus to fulfill just 8 of the prophecies in the OT. For those who aren’t aware, the answer is 1 in 1047. Ron liked to share the info from a mathematician (Stoner) who also calculated that if you filled the state of TX two feet deep with half dollars, hid one of them that was painted red, and blindfolded one man, his chances of finding it on the first try is the equivalent of Jesus fulfilling eight of those prophecies. Amazingly, He fulfilled over 300 of them!
The enthusiasm of trusting God’s word never waned for Ron, nor should it for us, but sadly this has never been the case with my beloved heritage in Utah. None of the Mormons I’ve ever met or known have embraced the Bible as God’s word; not one. As much as Mormons like to claim knowledge brings salvation, I’m surprised they won’t even accept this caveat of irrefutable evidence.
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Journal of Discourses 13:215; “Can we devise any other means and plan of salvation? We cannot. Will we do away with the Bible? We will not; though the Christian world are actually coming to the point that they will dismiss the Bible from their schools; and by and by they will dismiss it from their pulpits and get one to suit themselves; they will hew out for themselves cisterns that will hold no water. They cannot abide the doctrine contained in the Old and New Testament, “and,” say they, “we must alter and change it; it does not suit our condition. It was not written for us; it was written for people in days of old; but we live under different circumstances and the Bible should be altered, and we will assemble our synods and have the Scriptures revised to suit our condition.”” – Brigham Young, Salt Lake City, July 17, 1870
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