Investigating the Bible: Faith of the famous
By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR
The United States has many Halls of Fame. Some are well known, like football’s in Canton or baseball’s in Cooperstown. Lesser known are the Robot Hall of Fame in the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburg, the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, the Gunfighters Hall of Fame in Tombstone, and the Idaho Potato Hall of Fame, of course in Blackfoot, Idaho. Our state has the Oregon Aviation Hall of Honor at the Evergreen Museum in McMinnville. The Bible has a Hall of Fame in the book of Hebrews.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, English Standard Version used throughout.) Another appropriate translation is “the evidence of things not seen.” This evidence is God’s action. “For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:1-3).
The chapter first names ten heroes of the Old Testament who exhibited great faith and how God honored them with miracles. Two were women. Sarah, the wife of Abraham, “…received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.” (Hebrews 11:11-12). The other, Rahab, was a disgraced woman. “By faith the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient…”. (Hebrews 11:31). After Moses died, Joshua led Israel into their promised land. Jericho was the first pagan city. When he sent spies to the city, Rahab took them in and hid them from the king of the city. Then she misled the authorities to protect them. When the walls of Jericho miraculously fell outward and the Jews overtook the city, they spared Rahab, her family, and all of her possessions. Rahab’s life ended in honor. She married a Jew, Salmon, and she is one of only four women who are listed in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5).
The writer of Hebrews continued: “And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets – who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.” (Hebrews 11:32-34). All of these heroes who died and were “…commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised…”. (Hebrews 11:39). That would come with “…Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 12:21).
One of our brave, national heroes recently remembered the Bible’s Hall of Fame. Last June, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore docked at the International Space Station, intending to stay just one week. Problems with their return shuttle’s thrusters extended their stay to more than nine months. Finally, March 18, 2025, they splashed down in the Gulf of America in a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
A CBS News reporter asked Wilmore if he had a life lesson or takeaway after his nine months in space. Wilmore said, “I can tell you honestly, my feeling on all of this goes back to my faith. It’s bound in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…I understand that he’s at work in all things, some things are for the good –– go to Hebrews Chapter 11 –– and some things look to us to be not so good. But it’s all working out for his good, for all those that will believe.”
David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) is a Polk County resident and graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.)
Comments
fiddler
[my post was late this past cycle, so it’s reprinted here]
Part I
It's a good time to review what we know about fallen angels. Most people think it's a fairy tale. It isn't and perhaps now is the time to renew an understanding of them. If the detail in the OT is read closely, one will notice there were two groups of fallen angels. The first group was Lucifer and his gang of followers. They were expelled to Earth and took the bodies of mortals. This group was already on Earth when they observed the second group, Satan (sah-TAIN) and his gang, come to earth to have sex with women.
Both groups are with us today, but discerning who they are among us is very near impossible today because we have strayed too far off the path God intends for us. The Bible says they took mortal bodies, so they look like the rest of us. However, they do not behave like us -- their intent is total destruction because they know they will be destroyed at the Judgment, and they want to take as many of us, God's followers, with them. They destroy everything they want to, including governments. Musk comes to mind, but we cannot judge who is a fallen angel and who follows God because we have been divided into factions and we prefer to judge others by our biases and prejudices, without the wisdom that results from being in God’s mind.
What are they doing today? Their big thing is money and power, period. Nothing else matters to them. To do it, they infiltrate governments, media, and any outlet where they can control people with emotion. God’s followers sway people with emotion, too, but not in the same way. The fallen ones want to break people, sever ties with God, and destroy happiness. They do this through the money system and the spread of misinformation.
fiddler
Part II
Lenin said that the quickest way to destroy the capitalist society was to debauch its currency. This is accomplished, in large part, by inflation. Hitler is a prime example. He rose to prominence out of the ashes of WWI, not by war, but by the economy. Between 1916-23 the Reichsbank, Germany’s central bank, hyperinflated German currency. Prices rose so fast the price of a meal in a restaurant went up while the customer was eating it. Max Warburg was the head of the Reichsbank at the time, and his brother Paul came to the US to join the banking firm Kuhn & Loeb. Paul traveled all over the US pushing for a central bank like the Reichsbank. He ultimately succeeded – it's the Federal Reserve System (The Fed).
A conspiracy of bankers run The Fed. They manipulate the economy and create fictitious money (credit, crypto), and create inflation, deflation, recession, depression (or collapse) at any time. For example, between 1923-9 The Fed created terrific inflation and then suddenly stopped it: in October of 1929 we saw the Crash. Neither the people nor Congress control The Fed. The Fed is TOTALLY out of the hands of the people, and that’s where it’s dangerous: the richest men control The Fed. In fact, in 2010 Congress attempted to audit The Fed and its attempt failed.
Another example: Hitler rose to bring a better day to the German people (Make Germany Great Again???)—he found a scapegoat, the Jews, and the rest is, literally, history. (Today we scapegoat Blacks, women and migrants.) Only a fallen angel could cause such a horror as the camps, and IT (the fallen angel, i.e., Hitler) rode in on the back of economic collapse. (How ‘bout the innocent man sent to El Salvador that the gov’t WON’T bring back?)
fiddler
Part III
In politics, governments like inflation because the upper 1% has a covert means of earning more money (through taxation and higher tariffs); they rob us worker bees to get there. Governments control INFLATION and CUT BACK GOV’T SPENDING, which affects vast segments of God’s people adversely.
The real cure for inflation, and thereby a means to push back the fallen ones, is the sacrifice of immediate gain, inordinate profits (United Health Care’s $6billion profits, e.g.), and even the life of leisure (Trump’s golf outings, e.g.) for the long-term gain of prosperity and sound management of gov’t and biz based on the money supply and resources at hand. We need to live within our means (to start: shred credit cards).
By the labor of our hands and minds, we have earned the right to accumulate abundance, to save it, to draw interest upon it. Inflation steals our fruits of labor – but we have to spend it to survive during inflationary times and our families wind up starving and living in tents. During the Gilded Age, e.g., while the oligarchs had all the money, the workers who made the rich richer could not afford to buy food for them and their families.
Money and greed (i.e., the fallen ones’ lust) all too often lead to war. Greed and (lust for) money increases the supply to nations around the world of armaments and all types of defensive and offensive weapons.
Money (finances power) is the tool of the beast (tech, commodities, etc.), and that greed has its origin in the Nephilim and the Watchers.
Otis
Biblical Hall of fame? Really?
There is an even bigger biblical hall of shame.
It contains every person that's killed anyone in the name of god.
Lulu
Absolutely, Otis.