One man, given a job cutting potatoes for planting, quit because he just couldn’t stand making decisions about where to cut the potatoes to leave at least one eye in each piece! Decision-making is difficult, and carrying out one’s decision after it is made is probably even harder, but life is full of decisions. Some decisions are momentous, making all the difference in our lives, as Robert Frost pointed out in his 19l5 poem, “The Road Not Taken.” Some choices made all the difference for Bible people. Joshua set the stage for all decision makers when in Joshua 24:15 he set forth the options and chose for himself and his family to serve Jehovah rather than other gods. Moses made a choice that changed his life dramatically (Hebrews 11:24-26). One alternative could have led to his becoming a mummy like Ramses whose remains people viewed in the USA some years ago. Instead, he is known as the deliverer of Israel, a converser with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration and the first in a whole line of prophets who were “like unto Moses” (Deuteronomy 18:15, 19). Ruth chose to cast her lot with Naomi’s people in Israel (Ruth 1:15-18). Staying in Moab would have been more comfortable, and going to Bethlehem meant hard work gleaning, but it made all the difference – she is listed in Matthew’s genealogy of Christ (1:5). Many other Bible people made choices that have resulted in all the difference for themselves, for their people and

[West Virginia Christian, Volume 8, No. 6, June 2001] “Dear Aebi: “How should a Christian feel about cremation? Will cremation affect the soul? Also, is it proper for a Christian to leave his body to science, or parts of his body to anyone else?” First of all, it is important to understand that the body without the spirit or soul is dead (James 2:26). When the spirit returns to God who gave it, the body returns to dust or earth (Ecclesiastes 12:7). The body is composed of dust and decays and returns to dust (Genesis 3:19). Scientifically, there is little difference between slow decomposition (decay) and rapid decomposition (cremation or fire). The end result is the same — dust. When a Christian dies, his soul or spirit — his real being — is commended into the hands of God (Luke 23:46) and enters into the presence of Christ (Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:1-9). This being the case, whatever happens to the body after death has no effect on the soul, which has already departed from the body. Whether the body returns to dust by way of slow decay in the grave or rapid decomposition by cremation, explosion or other catastrophe is irrelevant to the status of the soul. And if the body is given to science, it ultimately arrives at the same end — decomposition, one way or another. If parts of the body are given to others who can use them as tissue or organ transplants, when the recipients

Armageddon is mentioned only once in the Bible, in connection with the sixth bowl of wrath in Revelation 16:16. “And they [the three unclean spirits of demons that came out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet at the sixth bowl of wrath, 16:12-14] gathered them [the kings of the whole earth, 14] together into the place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon [or mountain of Megiddo, or mound of Megiddo, a fortress-city in the Plain of Megiddo/Jezreel/Esdraelon during the times of Kings Omri, Ahab, and others].” This quotation is from the American Standard Version. Being in the center of the “Fertile Crescent” and being one of the few places level enough to use chariots in fighting, the Plain of Esdraelon or Megiddo was a major battlefield of the ancient world. Armies from Egypt or Ethiopia would meet armies from Syria or Assyria or Babylonia in the Plain of Megiddo. The Plain of Megiddo was the place where Deborah and Barak defeated Sisera and Jabin; where Gideon and his 300 defeated the Midianites; where Saul and Jonathan lost their lives in battle against the Philistines; where Sennacherib’s 185,000 were slain; and where King Josiah was killed in battle against Pharaoh-necoh. So, it is easy to see how Megiddo became known as the battleground of the middle eastern world, and how it, therefore, would be an appropriate term to use in describing a spiritual battle between the forces of good and evil. Frank Pack in his