Sc ience and the Bible by Bolton Davidheiser, Ph.D. LEAVEN
N e w s r e p o r t s indicate that Chris tians and Communists are ap proaching each other to seek common ground whereby each may find some thing beneficial in the other. This, of course, is another evidence of the increasing apostasy of the nomi nal Christian church, foretold in Scripture. A prominent Communist who favors this trend is reported to have stated that while Karl Marx called religion the opium of the peo ple, it is now becoming the yeast of the people. In the Bible yeast is called leaven. The Hebrew word for leaven is seor. Leaven decomposes dough to a con dition where it ferments and pro duces alcohol and carbon dioxide. The dough becomes acidic and is called sour. It is believed that in this way our word sour came from the Hebrew seor. Leaven was forbidden in any sac rifice to the Lord which was placed upon the altar. (It was permitted in offerings eaten by the priests and not placed upon the altar.) The reason that leaven was not permitted in these offerings to the Lord was be cause of the quality it possesses to decompose materials. An attribute of the Lord is His unchanging and eternal being. Something which has qualities of decomposition and cor ruption was not suitable to be in cluded in sacrifices to Him. Leaven was particularly forbidden in the Passover meal. The Passover was also called the feast of unleav ened bread. In the Passover there is much symbolism related to the aton ing death of Christ. At the last sup per, which occurred at the Passover time, the Lord Jesus Christ said of the bread, “ This is my body.” His body did not experience corruption in the tomb. The instructions were very explicit that the bread which represented His body should have no leaven in it. On the other hand, offerings to the Lord were to be seasoned with salt (Lev. 2:13). In contrast to the sym bolism of corruption in leaven, salt tends to prevent corruption and it represents a purifying and preserv ing influence. The Lord said to His disciples, “ Ye are the salt of the earth.” When the Communists said that religion is the opium of the people,
it was obvious that this was a de rogatory point of view. If the new propaganda line proclaims that re ligion is the yeast of the people, this will sound hopeful to some, but it is a deception. It will describe the pene trating corruption of false religion. The Lord warned His disciples to beware of the leaven of the Phari sees and Sadducees (Matt. 16:6-12). We need to beware of the infiltrating and corrupting influence of all false doctrines. A CLARIFICATION In this column last March there was a critical account of a speech in praise of Teilhard de Chardin published in the Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation. Ob jection has been raised by some readers because of the reference to the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellow ship in connection with this speech. The article in the A.S.A. Journal carried a footnote which said in part: “ Paper read at the 20th An nual Convention of the American Scientific Affiliation and the Inter- Varsity Christian Fellowship. . . .” The program of the convention said on the cover: “ Twentieth Annual Convention of the American Scien tific Affiliation and joint meeting with the Inter - Varsity Christian Fellowship.” However, on the inside of the program it is stated that the meetings of the A.S.A. ran from August 23rd to 25th, while those of the I.V.C.F. ran from the 25th to the 27th. The Teilhard speech was given on the 23rd. Thus it appears that the I.V.C.F. was not involved. The statements made in The King’s Business were based on the copy of the speech and the appended foot note printed in the Journal of the A.S.A. A copy of the program was received later. The convention was held in Au gust of 1965 and a copy of the speech with the footnote was published in September, 1966. Communication with both the A.S.A. and the I.V. C.F. reveals that previous to the article in this column, no one raised any objection, either to the speech or to the association of the name of the I.V.C.F. with the A.S.A., in this presentation of the laudatory speech about Teilhard.
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JULY, 1967
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