4 | Jaclyn
August 21, 2007 at 3:08 pm

First let me admit that I didn’t watch the clip. I’m curious to see how I answer these without someone putting other ideas in my head. So I’m answering these naively.

1. Why won’t God heal amputees?
I’m of the belief that when bad things happen, God doesn’t have anything to do with it. For a person to lose his limbs is not God’s fault. God made the world and the beauty in the world. The ugliness is not his. I know plenty of people who’ve been healed of cancer or other life-threatening diseases say God healed them. I don’t believe that. God doesn’t cause despair, so it’s not his job to fix it.

2. Why are there so many starving people in our world?
Because the people who hold the most money in the world are too selfish to feed starving people. See above — this isn’t God’s job.

3. Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible?
No idea. And I’m OK with having no idea. Maybe he likes the innocent people more than the meanies and wants to hang out with the meanies as little as he can. Maybe he wants to reward the innocents, knowing that heaven is infinitely better than this world.

4. Why does the Bible contain so much anti-scientific nonsense?
Why would it contain science? Religion is not a science, with hypotheses that can be backed up by research. It’s a faith. That’s not to say it’s anti-science, more that it’s non-science.

5. Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery in the Bible?
If God’s a proponent of slavery, then I don’t know that I want to worship him. The Bible is a book that was written by men. Men screw things up. I’d suffice it to say that some guy screwed that up.

6. Why do bad things happen to good people?
See No. 1 and No. 2 — not God’s job.

7. Why didn’t any of Jesus’ miracles in the Bible leave behind any evidence?
To have faith in a miracle requires “faith,” which in and of itself means “no evidence.” If archeologists found a tomb that said “This is where Jesus rose from the dead,” that wouldn’t really require faith.

8. How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you?
Who the heck am I for him to appear to? Again, it’s a faith thing.

9. Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood?
Ahh, a part of my Catholicism that I struggle with a lot. We Catholics believe in transubstantiation — that the body and blood isn’t a symbol, but the actual thing (think cannibalism for the faithful). I’m saying maybe it’s because when you love something so much and so fully, you want to make it one with you. Think making love with your lover. Or it’s like this: I’m an avid reader, and when I finish a book that truly touches me, I want to press it against my chest and make it a part of me. Because when something affects you so much, you don’t want to ever be apart. Eating the body and blood makes Jesus one with us.

10. Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians?
Because Christians, as people, are no better than non-Christians. We have the same faults and problems, so why hold ourselves to higher secular standards?

12 | Stephen Paul Kendall
August 23, 2007 at 11:52 pm

I now saw the video and have a little more condensed response to give.

1. Why won’t God heal amputees?

You are assuming this. I thought you were a rational college educated person. Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNaoDyV-PJ4 I have a statement to your question, God said this not I, “If someone was brought back from the dead, people still would not believe in Me!” Since your other questions lead off of question #1 in a like manner and you refuse God on that one, the others questions are just repeats of a similar idea. Assuming in that God hasn’t regrown amputees missing parts isn’t scientific. The world is a huge place, even with the internet. How do you assume that particular miracle is really missing? What is missing here is that you must be shown what already lies within your heart? You can not see within yourself the admiration and awe of the love of a child or the awakening of God’s Spirit within you in your times of trouble. It is very hard to get someone so narrow as earth-only to see the spiritual things all around him. What is missing is the ability to go beyond our simple five senses? Surely our logic and desire would reach beyond our simple physical life or toward the logic of a Judgment Day?

The logic of the central question: 1. “Why won’t God heal amputees?” seems bizarre. Could you imagine one of Jesus disciples asking that after say, raising the dead or telling the storm at the sea to hush or even walking on water? Why is doubt such a problem that God actually brought back a rich as in the above video to prove his point? Doubt is the desire of selfishness. Faith is the desire of righteousness. Take your pick.

14 | Dustin
September 4, 2007 at 6:48 pm

1. Why won’t God heal amputees?
Answer: Two responses- My first reply to this is to ask the question, how can we possibly know this? I have personally or indirectly experienced over two dozen instances of extraordinary events, such as miracles, exact monetary needs met, etc., without any of them finding their way into any database on-line or elsewhere. I am just one person. What sort of arrogant audacity constructs an argument that some event has never happened? There must be countless instances of extraordinary experiences which others would claim to be miracles, how can we possibly know if this has ever happened? I must say that according to my beliefs, I also do not believe God has ever performed this miracle, as will be seen below, but I cannot dogmatically profess such a certainty.
Secondly, I ask, what is there to heal? A disease or virus is an invader into a healthy body which can be removed or neutralized to “heal” the body. The loss of a limb, or a chunk of flesh (by gunshot, knife stab, etc.) are actually losses of body tissue. This would not be a healing, but rather a recreation of what was already there. From all the Biblical evidence I can find, coinciding with medical and research data I have seen, there exist no example of new creation taking place. Human beings come from human beings, matter spawns different forms of matter, life makes life (as it was so designed and enabled from the beginning). God will recreate both everyone and everything at a predesignated time – at the end of the Thousand Year Reign of Christ. He will create a new heaven and a new earth, and grant to every believer in Him a new regenerated body that will never again be harmed or suffer in any way. I believe this is his plan for all those who need to be “healed” by recreation. See more to address this issue under “Why do bad things happen to good people?”.

2. Why are there so many starving people in our world?
Answer: Jesus Christ set a plan into motion that, if followed, would have taken care of all the starving people in our world. His plan is God’s plan, feed the poor, take care of the weak, even visit those in prison to show them love-Luke 14:13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind…and you will be blessed. God told us what to do, we are not doing it. Should God force us to do His will? When God rules the world Himself, the problem of starvation, and indeed all suffering, will be remedied. In that day His plan will rule the earth. Today, He gives us the choice to follow it. We don’t.

3. Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible?
Answer: This argument is a straw-man. Verses are quoted in the video, each which specify a transgression of God’s law, thus making the accused guilty before God. Guilty and innocent fail to coincide. A better question would be: Why are God’s punishments so harsh? The answer is simple, God is holy. The law is righteous according to Romans 7. God definitively revealed His righteous law and justly laid down the consequences of breaking that law. The deed done, or the law broken was not as much the issue as was the realization that a Holy God had been disobeyed and justice must be served. God’s Word teaches that the wages of sin is death and that death has passed upon all men because all have sinned. Justly, we all deserve death for our sin because we have all violated a Holy God and His perfect ways. Yet, through His mercy he has purchased our freedom from His own holy justice by His own Holy sacrifice.

4. Why does the Bible contain so much anti-scientific nonsense?
Perhaps a definition of terms would be in order here. What is science? Science is the study, observation, and substantiation of a field of knowledge. Science may encompass historical data, linguistic analysis, astronomical observations, biological fields, anatomical studies, etc. Let us begin with the creationism verses evolution debate. Intelligent design or cosmic chance, which has brought us here? I am not going to argue that debate here, but may it suffice to say that I do believe in a six-day literal creation and I am a skeptical, analytical, and methodical in my reasoning to the point of annoyance for some. To explore many of my reasons you may visit these sites which detail the issue scientifically- http://www.answersingenesis.org ; http://www.drdino.com ; http://www.carm.org . We were not around for evolution, nor have we ever observed macro-evolution (the changing from one kind to a different kind) occurring within written history. Never have we observed a dog become a cat or a flea become a frog or any other such combination. On the same hand, we have never observed creation. Everything was here before we got here and man was created last. My point is this, both are assumptions. Both take faith to believe, not science. However, I do believe that the majority of the evidence suggests a young earth, a six to eight thousand year history, and thus Intelligent Design by default. Consider that this time line dates our origins to a little before written history (which would make sense). Then consider that we have never recorded the biological macro-evolutionary process in our history, not to my knowledge. The only thing we have every observed is variation within a kind. That is that a wolf, a German Shepherd, and a Poodle all have a common ancestor. No problem here, but that does not provide the premise that a wolf can become a mountain lion, or that a Poodle may one day be a horse, no matter how many millions of years are involved. For a detailed discussion on this topic and more please see the websites mentioned above.
Also, regarding the scientific accuracy of God’s Word, I hasten to mention some statements made by God in the book of Job. The passage is Job 38:31-32: Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? (32) Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? First off, in Job’s day, which according to most scholars was before Moses, people did not have powerful telescopes, computers, or a great deal of understanding about the galaxy. In appearance, the stars all stayed together, in their place every night, with the exception of comets and planets. How then did Job know that the Pleiades are mysteriously bound together by a perfectly synchronized magnetic field, which if simulated fifty thousand years into the future still stay together while almost every other visible star shifts from its proximity. Or perhaps we could delve into the study of Orion, how that the bands or belt stays in visual proximity to earth after thousands of years of simulation on modern computers, while nearly every other star shifts. And was it by chance, by sheer fortune that Job picked Arcturus, the fastest star out of the visible entities we observe in space. None of these facts were known by astronomy until the past century. How is it that Job seemed to understand these truths when he allegedly forged God’s Word some four to five thousand years ago? Perhaps it was because God did indeed speak to Him and what God said was accurately recorded. For more on the inerrant and accurate Word of God, see http://www.carm.org.
Finally, does our lack of understanding or our inexperience invalidate someone else’s wisdom or experience. If only one person experienced an incredible event, would that invalidate that event for those who did not see it? Well, it might be hard to believe, but the event may have still occurred. Now, what if thousands experienced it? Now this event has gained credibility. What about millions? Now were talking world changing, maybe, if those who experienced the event were changed by it. Let’s break this down. The law was given to an entire nation, the Jewish people. This was to show sin and God validated the Law through miracles by Moses and Joshua. Then the prophets were sent to proclaim the coming of God to earth and this was validated through miracles by Elijah and Elisha. Then Christ came to declare grace and salvation and die for the sins of the world and this message was validated by the miracles of Jesus and his apostles. In every event, miracles were used for two generations to validate the revelations that God manifested on the earth and then God left it up to those generations to pass down what they had seen and heard. The age of miracles through individuals is over until the last day when the two witnesses will come after the rapture of the church. Paul told Timothy to take some wine for his stomach because Timothy was sick, and James counseled the church to gather the spiritual leaders of the church together and pray for the sick to be healed. Why not just grab a healer and heal them? Because there were not any, that gift belonged to the Apostles who were almost all either martyred or exiled by that time. What’s my point? Just because we do not see any individuals with any real healing abilities now, this does not warrant the assertion that there never were any. Therefore, backtracking back to the miracles or anti-scientific nonsense like creation, healing, or talking animals, we cannot dogmatically say that these things could not have happened considering that we are beings with limited knowledge, a minute fraction of all universal experiences, and mere automatons compared to all people who have ever lived. The vast scope of existence and knowledge outside of us is theoretically limitless; thus we could not even hope to eradicate the possibility of an intelligent being, the one we can God, which exist outside the realm of our personal experiences. However, this God does not merely dwell outside of those who trust in Him, for millions have claimed subjective experiences, interactions, conversations, revelations, and manifestations of this God. At least thousands of those have experienced and recorded numerous accounts of what could only be described as supernatural intervention in the affairs of life. Google “miracles” and you may sit and read for days the accounts of people like you or I who have experienced amazing occurrences which find much difficulty being explained by chance or mere coincidence. Shall we discount them all, every one of them as delusional rantings of the misinformed? Or is there perhaps some shred of validity in their claims? Maybe we are not in a position to discount it all, to decry the possibility of the miraculous. Maybe we are just human, and we really do not understand it all. Just maybe.

5.Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery in the Bible?
Quick response here, God is not a proponent of slavery. God never says, Thou shalt have slaves. Rather, he makes regulations, good ones at that, to manage the master/slave system which would exist throughout all human history, at least to this day it yet remains. And let us not think that our world is all there is for all over the world, slavery still exist in one form or another. God is a pretty intelligent person, after all, he made fish and gave us the intelligence to put a worm on a hook… . He knew that slavery would always exist and he therefore made some rules to regulate it. Also note that in 1 Cor. 7:21 Paul encourages servants to chose freedom when given the choice. Also note that in the Old Testiment, from which the video quoted, many slaves chose such a life because they loved or were indebted to their masters. Equality in the master/servant relationship is also taught in Ephesians 6. That is the real issue, equality before God, as a person. This the Bible does teach.

6.Why do bad things happen to good people?
Christ answers this question in Luke 13, speaking about two groups of people who were unjustly killed. The first group were giving sacrifices to the Lord when they were murdered. The second were killed seemingly by chance as a tower fell on them. Christ assures his hearers that these were not guilty of some terrible sin, that they weren’t unusually sinful. One group was even at church when they were slain. Yet Jesus declares, “Except you repent, you will all likewise perish.” What did he mean? Towers were going to start falling on everyone? Of course not. He was referring to the state in which they died, without repentance. So really, the question should be, who is good? That is what Christ is teaching here, there is none good, not even one. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. We have all turned to our own way, we have all sinned against God. We are guilty, sentenced, and condemned already if we have not found salvation through the Son of God. Therefore, the entire foundation of this question falters, in that it asserts that there are good people. However, for all practical purposes, some people are much better than others, so how does misfortune find them if they are protected by God?
To illustrate what I am about to explain, please think of a young lady walking down the street at dusk. She returning to college from the local library and she intently focuses on a new novel, trying to read in the fading light. Suddenly, a large hand presses over her mouth and a forceful arm wraps around her waist and jerks. She drops everything as she is quickly pulled into a dark ally. Cold steel presses against her throat and a gruff whisper demands she begin undressing. The next morning, the police find her brutalized body under some trash and her family is devastated. Why did this happen? Why did God not stop this from happening? He could have turned that guy medium-rare with one lightening bolt. Or maybe we should go back farther, why would he allow someone like that to be born? That would evade the whole situation entirely, problem solved. But the fact is, that guy was not born a rapist or a murderer, he chose to be. The fact is, his really demented decisions destroyed a young ladies life and devastated her family and friends. The fact is, God simply did not intervene. He did not cause it, that man’s sin did, but God still allowed it to happen, because it is within His power to stop it. Another story before we continue. Another young lady is shopping alone at night. She walks out to her car on the edge of the parking lot with two arms full of groceries. As she attempts to unlock her door without dropping anything, a man jumps out from behind a nearby bush and quickly grabs her. At that same moment, a police officer drives near by are turns on his lights and siren, which scare the guy off. The girl is spared. Did God intervene? Was it mere coincidence? Let’s argue here that God did intervene, because if we belief in God, we likely belief in instances where God does intervene, or else we would not pray. So, what makes the difference? Why sometimes, but not most of the time? I know in my own life there have been times where I clearly believe he intervened on my behalf, yet other times he did not. Why? I believe the answer is found at our inception. In the beginning when God created Adam and Eve, he gave the entire world into their charge to have dominion over all animals, plants, and land. The account is found in Genesis 1 and 2. God placed them in a perfect world, completely guilt free, sin free, and then he gave them only one commandment. Some would say that despite His only giving them one commandment, murder or theft or assault would still all be wrong. Though this is true, these commands were not necessary because all these things went against their nature because they bore the nature of God, in whose image they were made. So why the one commandment? Why make any? If there are no commandments, then there can be no disobedience, therefore no sin, no death, no rapists, no murderers, no pedophiles. Why did He make that commandment? Well, if there was no possibility of disobedience, then what is obedience? If there is no choice but loyalty and love and right, then mankind would be nothing more than a biological machine. Freedom would not exist. Now there’s the real issue, freedom. Freedom is likely the most precious commodity we possess in America, while much of the world still desperately thirsts for more freedom. Wars have been waged, millions of lives have been given, all for the sake of freedom. Most would take freedom over almost anything in life. Granted, if God had not at our inception given us a choice, if He had not given His one commandment, we would live in a “perfect” world, by all appearances. But just as Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” failed to withstand the scrutiny which only stems from a thirst for freedom, a paradise world of moral machines would contradict itself. What is morality outside of freedom? What is peace but the negation of turmoil? What is love but the choice of passionate devotion? All the things which we hold dearest to our lives would be meaningless outside of choice. So I again raise the question, why does God not stop the rapist? Freedom. Both love and hate, benevolence and crime, integrity and deceit, peace and discontentment, and all good and bad contrast exist within the overarching realm of freedom. That choice is what makes us human, it is what defines us, and ultimately, it will be what determines our eternal fate. But the choice remains, with the good, the bad, and the ugly. Should God stop the criminal? What about the disobedient child? What about all things that harm society? Where should the standard be drawn at which we expect God to begin altering our messed up world? At what point should he regulate our wills, negate our choice, and do things better? Keep in mind that God abhors these crimes I have mentioned above more than our justice system does. The penalty for rape, according to God, should be death. How many death sentences for rape have you heard of recently? I must also add that if we chose to regulate our lives by what God has taught us, the crime rate would plummet, and peace would be far more clearly seen. And if you, like me, desire to see a day when God does quickly judge sin and literally intervenes to punish wrongdoing, then you are blessed. That day is coming, and we wait for it eagerly. But until then, God allows both sin and its terrors to play out on the theater of life.
Another reason bad things happen to good people is simply the law of cause and effect. Sin brings bad consequences, every time. Ultimately, sin causes death. But up until that final result, sin brings pain, deception, turmoil, confusion, and all kinds of harm both to society and to individuals. If God were to remove all the consequences of sin, what would be the problem with sin. Sin would then become nothing more than an idea, not a daily life decision that had any definable ramifications. This would inevitably lead to moral and spiritual chaos, far worse than we could imagine. This whole concept also presents a paradox. On one hand, sin, being disobedience to the way God desires us to live, separates us from God and therefore his provision, protection, and guidance. On the other hand, if God were removing all the consequences of sin, he would be providing both his protection and guidance the more we sin. This would be both counterproductive and illogical. Logically, sin is bad because sin has bad results. Sin also has bad results because it’s bad. We should avoid sin. This makes sense. Let’s just try a little harder in this effort and we will avoid the bad. Then let us pray that others around us do the same so that they avoid the bad.
Though there is much more to be said regarding morality and freedom, I will end with one final idea. Let us backup and examine the brevity of life. When our perspectives are limited by a seventy or so year time-frame, we often miss out on the much larger picture. Think of this mindset like putting a puzzle together. You could never put all the pieces in their proper place by focusing on just one piece. Rather, you must back away and look at the whole picture. Now, admittedly our minds cannot possibly encompass the projection of an eternal existence, so let us do our best. When you compare this brief life of seventy years or so with ten thousand years, what does this short time mean? Let’s just say that every kind deed that you performed for the next fifty years would earn you a future wage of five gold coins per day every day for the next ten thousand years following your earthly life. Let us also imagine that for every one-hundred good deeds you do you will receive a city to rule, of which you will be the mayor. If you obtain enough cities, then you will be allowed to rule a whole province as governor. Just ten thousand years? No. Ten million years? Still missing it. Forever. That’s a really long time. Now the compensation I just mentioned completely misses the truth of our future reward because we will also receive an incredible new body, God will literally be our king through Jesus Christ, and perfect peace will reign forever throughout all the new earth. When we get an eternal perspective, our view of this vapor we call life suddenly changes in two ways. One, it grows vastly more important because we understand that the choices we make now will impact our eternal destinies. However, our hold on life diminishes as we realize that the trials and sufferings that we endure, whether as a result of sin or seeming chance, they are only temporary. It is our decisions, not our circumstances, that define who we are and whom we will be. Again, the answer echoes down the corridors of skepticism, “Freedom!”

7. Why didn’t any of Jesus’ miracles in the Bible leave behind any evidence?
I would like to point out that Jesus walked the Galilean countryside about two thousand years ago. I am not certain what evidence is expected, but still there does exist a reasonable amount of historical, logistical, and linguistic data that support Jesus miracles. I will mention a few below, but a more more detail discussion, please see http://www.carm.org , I also strongly recommend the books “Case for Christ” and “Case for Faith” by Lee Strobel who expertly addresses this issue and many more.
The first evidence is the writings of Josephus, a Jewish Historian who documented the Jewish history is “The Antiquities of the Jews”. He speaks of Jesus as a man who performed great feats, who was crucified by the Romans, whom his followers believed rose from the dead, and whose belief system remained strong in the day of the writing, about fifty years after Christ. He is also mentioned by Tacitus, an anti-Christian Roman historian; Pliny the Younger, a Roman governor; and the Talmud, a collection of historical writings. The Talmud mentions Christ as a sorcerer and verifies the date of his death under Pontius Pilate. We also possess the writings of numerous church fathers, many of which knew the Apostles, that attest both to Christ and the power of the apostles. Then we have the New Testament, the four gospels all written by men who knew Christ. And we possess the accounts of Paul, James, Jude, and Peter. All testify that Christ did miracles and most importantly that He rose from the dead, a most impressive feat. As a matter of fact, the entire Christian belief system centers on that fact.
Regarding Christ’s resurrection, evidence abounds. Let’s state the facts. One, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, which no one survives. Two, His followers professed belief that he rose from the dead. Three, Jesus allegedly arose from the dead in Jerusalem. Four, Christianity began in Jerusalem. Five, Christianity still exists today. Now, from these facts, can we ascertain that Christ did or did not arise from the grave? Well, if Jesus did not raise, why did eleven guys that knew him die and one was exiled simply because they would not stop telling everyone that he rose? I am persuaded that they were convinced. I also believe that a full tomb would have been a dead giveaway (no pun intended) to a hoax, so the tomb must have been empty. The penalty for robbing a grave with a Roman guard protecting it was death if you lived through the robbery. No apostle was killed until several years later, and none of them were tried for grave robbing? Why? Because the Roman guard and the Jewish counsel knew it wasn’t a grave robbing. The logic supports the resurrection, until we add personal experience into the mix, then it becomes irrational. But there are many things we have not experienced, that does not negate their credibility. Truly, if we were talking about any other event besides a miracle, we would have no trouble at all conceding the logical, historical, reasonable weight of evidence. Hundreds of direct or indirect written testimonies spanning the first two generations after Christ, the logic of the empty tomb, the extra-biblical writings, even the remarks of anti-Christian factions support not only His existence, but that he performed great feats, considered magical by his enemies.
For additional evidence, please refer to the work of Simon Greenleaf, one of the principal founders of the Harvard School of Law. In his attempt to discredit Christianity, specifically the resurrection of Christ, he examined the evidence and came to the belief that Christ did indeed raise from the dead. Please see http://christjesus.us/greenleaf.html

8.How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you?
For what reason would we expect Him to? He has already told us when we shall see Him, that is when we pass into the eternal state. Also, He told us that He must go to the Father so that the Holy Spirit could come to all people, which is universally better considering that the Spirit, which is the spirit of Christ, can be will all believers at once, whereas Christ in his flesh was bound by space and time. This Spirit also communicates to all who listen, strengthens believers, and guides us in God’s way. We also access the spiritual realm through this Spirit in which we experience the wonders and joy of being in fellowship with God. Any who have glimpsed this, any who have experienced the overwhelming person of God enveloping your soul, you need no other evidence than this- there is a God.

9.Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood?
The video makes the same mistake here as did the Jews at the time these words were spoken. Jesus spoke symbolically, spiritually, not physically. This is shown at the last supper when Christ gave the apostles bread and wine and said of the bread, this is my body, and of the wine, this is my blood. He goes on to say, “Do this to remember me by.” It is a symbolic way to remember the sacrifices of Christ. Though it is a very important custom, it is just a symbol, nothing more.

10. Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians?
They don’t. I have seen the same statistic and it fails in that many who profess Christianity do not follow or even believe much of what Christ taught, especially in America, of which this statistic addresses. While eighty percent of Americans claim to be Christian, less than half of these know much more Scripture than John 3:16 and less than half that is actively involved in their local church. This doesn’t in any way narrow the numbers down to my personally belief system, but we’re already talking about less than a quarter of what we began with. Now, I do not know the divorce rate among those Christians, but I do know a divorce rate in my own experience of people being married in my belief system. My old pastor has married over 250 couples and still keeps in touch with most of them. Out of those he only knows of 5 divorces. Even being very conservative and saying he only knows about fifty of them, the divorce rate stands at 10%. But if he is a man of his word, then he knows at least 125 of them, and the rate plummets to 4%. This is the Christianity I know and live in. I know far more happily married couples than I do divorces. Unfortunately, we do live in a sinful world where faithfulness and commitment mean little. But when a man and a woman determine to follow God’s ways in a marriage, that marriage will be a success, I’ve seen it dozens of times and thousands testify to this wonderful truth. For more information, see “Love and Respect” by Emerson Eggerichs, a phenomenal book.