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Q: “What exactly is going on in Judges 11? My main concern is at the the end with Jephthah and his vow and what is the fate of his daughter? The way I read it, it looks like he ended up sacrificing his daughter, but that can’t be right because G-d says in Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah that he detests human sacrifice. Some commentaries say that Jephthath did not sacrifice her, but where I and some may disagree is that it says he fulfilled his vow. Please enlighten me. I have emailed my local pastor, but am looking for multiple viewpoints.” – Frank

A:Thanks for sending the question. Before I answer this question, let’s look at the verses in question.

• “Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.” – Judges 11:29-32

This is a very interesting story because there are several things to make note of when we read these verse.

• Jephthah did not vow to make a human sacrifice.
• God is completely silent on the issue of Jephthah’s promise.

As we get to the end of the chapter we find the following scenario when Jephthah returns home from war victorious.

• “And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.” – Judges 11:34-35

We see from the text that Jephthah fully intends to uphold the promise he made to God, but why?

• “If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.” – Numbers 30:2

Jephthah probably assumed that he would be greeted by an animal, but when his daughter came out first, he realized what he had done. The Hebrews took the Law seriously, and because he was also a Judge, he was bound to uphold his vow, but did he go through with it?

• “And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon. And she said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. And he said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel, That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.” – Judges 11:36-40

As we read the text it seems as though Jephthah may have been having second thoughts on going through with the sacrifice of his daughter. She actually encourages him to go through with his promise to sacrifice her. After two months of bewailing her virginity, Jephthah’s daughter returns home and he does indeed sacrifice her. During this entire scenario God does not encourage or discourage Jephthah from doing this. There is also no record of God accepting the sacrifice. This story raises quite a few questions:

• Why didn’t God stop Jephthah from making the promise in the first place?
• Why didn’t God stop Jephthah from killing his daughter?
• Would Jephthah have won the battle if he hadn’t made the promise?

There seems to be several lessons that come out of this event. I’m sure we have all made the promise to God that if “You do (fill in the blank), I’ll do (fill in the blank)”. I believe that God would have delivered the Ammonites into Jephthah’s hand whether he made that promise or not. For some reason we believe that there is something we can do for God that will sway God’s favor in our direction. There are several verses that come to mind when we develop this mind frame:

• “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” – Isaiah 66:1-2
• “If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof.” – Psalm 50:12

There is nothing that we can do to improve God’s situation. Another lesson we should take from this is to watch what we say. Jephthah was hasty in his promise making and because of that he had to uphold his promise even though he definitely did not want to.

• “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” – Matthew 12:36

This goes back to the lesson of watching what we say. How many times have we made a promise to God and not delivered on it? Jephthah kept his promise to God even though it would have been much easier not to. If Jephthah could keep a promise that big, we should be able to keep the smaller promises we make. He was held accountable to his promise by the Law. As we live our lives day to day, we should be mindful of keeping our promises to God and watching what we say to others. We will be held accountable for those words eventually.

Minister Dante Fortson, Nephilim, Fallen Angels, Demons, Demonic Possession, Spiritual Perspective, God, Jesus, Bible, Genesis 6, Giants, Days of Noah, The Omega Hour, Bro. BJ, L.A. Marzulli, Guy Malone, Chuck Missler, Alien Abduction, UFO, Flying Saucer, hybrid, Joe Jordan, Van Smith, Russ Dizdar, Chris White, YHWH, YHVH

My first book: Religion and Relationship is now available at Barnes & Noble Bookstores. If you haven’t bought a copy yet, it is also available at Amazon.com and Bigger Books.com. The book has gotten some great reviews on Associated Content so make sure you grab a copy for yourself and a friend.

This announcement comes just weeks after obtaining distribution through Ingram, the second largest book distributor in the United States. We are still working on getting Religion and Relationship into Borders and Family Christian Stores. Your help and support are greatly appreciated. Call your local Borders and Family Christians Stores and ask them if they carry Religion and Relationship. Prayerfully your inquiries will encourage them to stock their shelves with this awesome book.

If you haven’t read Religion and Relationship yet please feel free to click here and read it online.

Disclaimer: This post is not about the fall of Lucifer. It is in reference to the book The Fall: Rise of Lucifer.

As you read through The Fall: Rise of Lucifer, you will see a lot of words that will be unfamiliar to most people. The angelic language is a combination of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Nordic, and a few others. Those of you familiar with the different myths and legends from around the world will recognize names of places and angels.

For mythology fanatics like myself you will be interested to find that we have included such familiar settings as Mount Olympus (Greek city of the gods) and Valhalla (Norse heaven). These are just two examples of cities that exist in Shamayim (Hebrew word for heaven), and eventually get passed down to mankind through our known and unknown interaction with angels.

Something else familiar you will see in The Fall: Rise of Lucifer, is the technological level of the B’nai ha Elohim. The merkabah (Hebrew for vehicle), the main source of angelic travel, resembles what we would refer to today as a UFO. That is just one of the technologies at Lucifer’s disposal.

When the book is released there will be phrases that appear in other languages that may or may not be translated in the series. If you wish to find the meanings of these phrases, you will have to do a little digging on the Internet to find the meaning of the words.

Be prepared for other cultural and technological surprises as well. Every detail in the book is important and will come into play in this first book and definitely in the 2nd and 3rd books.

If you haven’t asked the question, I’m sure you’ve heard someone ask the questions. When you really think about what that question is asking, its actually kinda funny. First of all, the question assumes that there are good people. Second, the asker usually makes the assumption that they are one of these good people. Lets see if we can figure this out.

What Is A Good Person

Defining what a good person is, should help us figure out who the bad people are. People usually consider themselves good if they haven’t committed any big sins, such as adultery, murder, blasphemy, etc. The thought that you have never killed anyone makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but you’ve forgotten about the person on the road that you cussed out earlier in the week.

Maybe the Bible will clear things up on what a good person is. Lets see what Isaiah has to say about who is righteous.

1. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” – Isaiah 64:6

I’m sure you’ve read that or heard that in church before, but the English language tones it down a bit. In Hebrew, it says, “used menstrual cloths”. That’s a pretty bad description of what we perceive to be our own righteousness. For those of us that still believe we are good people, Isaiah isn’t much help. Maybe Paul will shed a different light on things.

1. “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:” – Romans 3:10
2. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” – Romans 3:23

Now we have Paul saying we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. I guess all of our ideas of self righteousness have gone out the window, if you believe what that Bible says. To some of us, it would seem a bit unfair that God lets those people we consider to be “evil” go unpunished.

Time Traveling

Lets assume for the sake of argument that you could go back in time and kill Hitler or Stalin before they massacred millions of people. The problem you run into is that if you do it while they are still babies, you’re now a killer of innocent babies, since they haven’t done anything yet. You would then have people asking the question, “why didn’t God stop you?”

Something else that really needs to be considered is within yourself. If you were willing to travel back in time to murder babies, what makes you any better than the men they grow up to be? In God’s eyes, there is no sin larger than another. Stealing $1.00 is just as bad as stealing $1,000,000. Regardless of the amount, you are taking something that doesn’t belong to you.

Job’s Plight

Job is one case in which we can think of bad things happening to a “good” person. Job was minding his own business, and God put the devil’s attention on him. In the end he was rewarded, but the question is never answered, “why did God point him out?”

In the end, Job was blessed with more than he had, but why did he have to go through it?

That Still Doesn’t Answer My Question

1. “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” – James 1:3

Sometimes, in order to find the answers we are seeking, we need to dig a little deeper in the scriptures. My friend David L. Hudson always says that we get real close, then stop before we get our answers. Now if the Bible tells us that when our faith is tried, it builds patience, we can assume that there is a point to patience.

1. “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;    ⁴And patience, experience; and experience, hope:” – Romans 5:3-4

OK, now things are starting to come together. Our faith is tested so we can be patient. Then that patience leads to experience. I’m not sure who said it, but I’m sure we’ve all heard it, “experience is the best teacher.” When we as Christians go through tribulations in our lives, we can use that to relate to someone that has been through something similar. I can reach out to people who have been to jail, while the person next to me may be a single parent that has never been to jail. I can’t relate to their experience in a personal way and vice versa.  Through our experiences we are not only capable of reaching out to people, but we gain hope. So, what exactly are we hoping for?

1. “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?    But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” – Romans 8:24-25
2. “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?” – 1 Thessalonians 2:19
3. “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;” – Titus 1:2

The word “hope” is used 121 times in the Bible, mostly in reference to God, Christ, everlasting life, and a few times in Paul’s greetings to the churches. In almost every circumstance, the word “hope” is referring to things that happen after this life, such as God’s grace, mercy, and gift of everlasting life.

If you haven’t caught it yet, the reason that “bad” things happen to “good” people is to strengthen our faith that God will have our back here on earth, which gives us the experience needed to reach out to people and strengthen our belief in what He has in store for us when we pass from this world to the next.

1. “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18

The verse says we need to thank God for everything, not just the good, but the bad also, because there is indeed a purpose in everything, and God is in complete control.

1. “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” – James 1:12
2. “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:” – 1 Peter 1:7

Finally, there is a major blessing in store for us when our faith is tried. As long as we endure until the end, we are guaranteed to receive our reward that has been promised to us since the beginning of the world.

Q. Does the Bible really say that we can’t use curse words?

A. This question is a little bit tricky.

Caution: This article contains references to bad language. If you are easily offended, I suggest not reading beyond this point.

In order to answer this question correctly, we first need to examine what a curse word is.

Curse Word – a profane or obscene word, especially as used in anger or for emphasis, any term conceived of as offensive.

I guess we can begin disecting this question. Based on the definition, “any term conceived of as offensive” can be considered a curse word. A specific example I can provide from personal experience, is the term “Jesus Christ” used on T.V. If you pay attention to some channels, mostly reality shows, if the phrase “Jesus Christ” is used in reference to Jesus of Nazareth, they edit out “Christ” because it refers to His divinity and title as the Messiah.

The word “Christ” is offensive to a lot of people, so I guess we Christians are guilty of using a curse word on a regular basis. As far as the Bible is concerned, lets see what it has to say.

1. “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” – 1 Corinthians 15:33

The first verse can be and is used to defend the “no cursing” position from a Biblical perspective. While that may be true in a sense, the Bible doesn’t use the word “evil” lightly. If this isn’t the first time you’ve read one of my articles, you’ll notice that I like to define things in order to gain a clear understanding.

Evil – morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked.

Words themselves cannot be good or evil, but the context in which you use the word can. For example, the word murder isn’t considered a “curse word” but if you tell someone, “I’m going to murder you” then according to the Bible, that is indeed “evil communication” because it is opposite of the 2nd greatest commandment:

1. “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” – Matthew 22:39

Threatening to murder someone is not loving them as you would love yourself. So, according to the Bible, making threats to someone without using the obvious words, can still be considered foul language, bad language, cursing, cussing, or whatever you want to call it.

1. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” – Ephesians 4:29

Corrupt – guilty of dishonest practices, as bribery; lacking integrity; crooked; debased in character; depraved; perverted; wicked

The word “corrupt” covers a lot of ground, but I still believe it is not the word, but the context in which you use it, that determines whether or not it is good or bad. Lets take the word “shit” for example.

“I went to go take a shit.” That sentence in itself is not necessarily bad because of the context in which the word was used. Most words that are considered “curse” words by modern society, can be used in many ways. In this case, the word replaces such words as: crap, dump, number two, deuce, etc. ,  none of which we consider to be bad language.

Lets examine a word that is considered to be offensive to a lot of people, but has become less and less offensive over time. That is the word “fuck”. I’ve said it, and I’m sure you’ve said it, so it definitely needs to be talked about, no matter how “holy” some of us pretend to be.

“I’m going to fuck her.” Depending on the context of that sentence, it can either be corrupt or not. For the sake of argument on side “A” we’ll say it means “to have sexual intercourse”. Sexual intercourse is not evil, dishonest, or perverted, otherwise God wouldn’t have made us capable of having and enjoying sex. So in this case, the word “fuck” depending on who you are around, may or may not be offensive, but it is neither evil nor corrupt, so according to the Bible, there is nothing that says you can’t say it.

Now lets look at side “B” and define the word as “screwing someone over in a contract”. In this context, it does fall into the category of evil because it is “morally wrong” and it also falls into the category of corrupt because it is a dishonest practice, which the Bible does indeed take a stand against.

Should I Cuss Or Shouldn’t I?

Again, as always, I say use your best judgment. If your parents are offended by that kind of language, don’t use it around them. Its much easier than explaining to them that the Bible doesn’t just say, “don’t cuss”. I still let a few words slip out from time to time, but I don’t stress over it. Just watch the context in which you use the word, and I believe that as long as your intentions are not evil or corrupt when using the word, you’ll be OK, as far as the Bible is concerned.

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If you hang around church long enough, you’ll hear older folks talk about “shacking up” but what does it really mean? From what I’ve gathered through debating this issue with older people (preachers included), is that it refers to a man and woman living together. I would also throw in the assumption that people of the opposite sex who live together must be having sex, and that’s considered “shacking up.”

If you read the welcome page, you know I’m not really one for tradition and old wives tales. The fact is, “shacking up” is not mentioned in the Bible, not once.  I’m not really a stickler for specific wording, so of course the phrase “shacking up” isn’t going to appear. I’m referring to the concept of “shacking up”.

The Bible does specifically cover marriage (Genesis 2:24), rape (Genesis 34:13), adultery (Exodus 20:14), homosexuality (Leviticus 20:13), bestiality (Leviticus 18:23), incest (Deuteronomy 27:20), and prostitution (Leviticus 19:29), but never sex between a consenting, single male and female, where sex is not exchanged for profit. For the sake of what the Bible really says, lets check out the usual suspects.

1. “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” – Exodus 20:14
2. “But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” – Matthew 5:28

I’ve heard the second verse used over and over again to support the “shacking up” position of older people in the church. So, lets take a look at the word adultery and see what it really means.

Adultery – voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than his or her lawful spouse.

The only way that applies to a single person, is to inform them that having sex with a married person is wrong in God’s eyes. Since we now know what adultery is, lets look at the word fornication, since that seems to be where most congregations get caught up, and most Preachers haven’t bother to look, because they assume they know what the word means.

Fornication – voluntary sexual intercourse between two unmarried persons or two persons not married to each other.

It would seem that I have totally disproved my point. I guess that was open and shut. I also found these few verses to support the no “shacking up” position.

1. “But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.” – Matthew 5:32
2. “Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.” – John 8:41
3. “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;” – Ephesians 5:3
4. “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.” – Revelation 2:14

Not So Fast, We’re Not Quite Done

I wish things were that simple, then we could all just continue on our merry way. Too bad i’m not that kind of Minister. Lets look at the origin of the word “fornication” and see what happens. The word first entered the english language around 1303 A.D. and the original meaning was changed over time to back religious positions, such as the one we are talking about now.

fornix –> fornicatio –> fornication

That is the word’s history in a nutshell, from Latin to English. Both fornix and fornicatio have something in common that that word fornication doesn’t share with them, its actual definition, as it was intended:

fornix/fornicatio – a vault, an arch, vaulted cellar

As you can see, it doesn’t make much sense, that is, until you understand that arch ways and vaults are where prostitutes worked in ancient times. It had no original reference to unmarried, consenting, men and women. Further more, the Bible provides us with another clue as to its true intended use.

1. “Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.” – Hebrews 12:16
2. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.” – Ezekiel 16:15

Maybe I’m slow or maybe I’m taking the verse out of context, or maybe I’m the only one that notices that the word “fornicator” is directly linked to Esau selling something special of his that he was born with, in order to gratify the desire of his flesh (he was hugry). I might be looking too deep or other people aren’t looking deep enough. Lets see what else the Bible says about prostitution.

1. “Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.” – Leviticus 19:29

The reason the Bible talks about “prostitution” or “fornication” so much, is because it was a religious practice of almost every other culture. The Jewish nation was to be set apart (sanctified) for God. On more than one occasion in the Bible, God refers to Israel as an adulterous wife and committing fornication with other gods (Jeremiah 3:1).

If you want to read more on ritual and religious prostitution, click here.

He Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Stone

If you recognize those words, good for you. They are the words Jesus spoke when the Pharisees wanted to stone the woman caught in the act of having sex with a man (John 8:7). Quite a few people believe this was Mary Magdalene. If that is true, we have more evidence that it was prostitution that she was guilty of, along with adultery.

Neither of those involve two single, consenting, males or females that aren’t exchanging something of value in return for a sexual encounter. Its also important to note what Jesus says to her:

1. “She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” – John 8:11

Jesus didn’t raise the issue of the woman’s adultery or assumed prostitution, if it was indeed Mary Magdalene, but He does directly address adultery and possibly prostitution as a sin.

The Samarian Woman At The Well

In John 4, we read about a Samarian woman at the well. I’m not going to recap the entire story, but just make a quick point. Jesus and the woman have a conversation, and He asks her to go get her husband. She tells Him that she doesn’t have a husband, to which Jesus responds:

1. “For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.” – John 4:18

What isn’t written is just as important as what is written. There are a few things not written here.

1. Jesus didn’t tell her to go and sin no more like he did with the other woman.
2. Jesus didn’t tell her she shouldn’t be living with that man.
3. Jesus doesn’t say anything negative at all about her living situation.

If this subject was going to be made clear anywhere in the Bible, Jesus had prime opportunity to talk about it. Think about it, He started the conversation, and then only complimented her for telling the truth, while ignoring the fact that she lived with a man she wasn’t married to.

Sex And Dating In Bible Times

Lets assume I’m completely off base with everything above, this point would still be valid: Dating was different in Bible times. You didn’t go out, meet a nice girl, get her number, take her out a few times, and hopefully have sex. There were basically two options to sex in ancient times: Marriage and prostitution. Marriages were pre-arranged from birth or even before birth in some cases. You could definitely forget about living with an unmarried woman and not being an outcast. Samarian’s were outcasts anyway, so they weren’t bothered by the social norms.

Prostitution was a big deal in Bible times. Consider how many times there is a reference made to prostitution and fornication:

Harlot – 38 times

Whore – 13 times

Whoredom – 22 times

Fornication – 32 times

Fornicator – 2 times

Words pertaining to prostitution are mentioned a total 107 times in 66 books of the Bible.

So Can I Live With My Girlfriend/Boyfriend Before We Get Married?

Again, there are a lot of people that might not agree, but I don’t see anything in the Bible that forbids it, but anyone is welcome to point out a verse they think I might have missed. In my opinion, the fact that Jesus completely ignored the subject is reason for me to believe it wasn’t as important as we think it is.

What About Sex Before Marriage?

I agree with, but don’t practice the no sex before marriage position. With that said, people have the right intentions for all the wrong reasons. My position is based on STDs and unwanted pregnancy, not on some mythological verse that doesn’t exist in the Bible, at least to my knowledge.

I’m a realistic Minister that lives here in the real world. Abstinence is the best way to go, but if you’re going to have sex, make sure you practice safe sex.

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