The BIBLE for NEWBIES

 

It's time to dump your fears revolving around the most published, translated and read book in human history, the Bible. I'm here to help you. So let's get right into it.

The Bible is actually 66 smaller books rolled into one volume. It is broken into 2 sections. The Old Testament, which is the stuff that happened before Jesus came, and the New Testament, which are the things that happened since Jesus came.

Every book of the Bible is divided into chapters. Each chapter is divided into verses. This is how we find our way around the Bible.

When I write Psalms 119:105 (the 'P' is silent. it's pronounced "salms")

I mean the Book of Psalms, Chapter 119 and Verse 105.

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalms 119:105)

So now when you see Christians posting John 3:16 everywhere you know they are referring to the Book of John, Chapter 3, Verse 16.

Easy. Let's move on. 👉

What Translation to Use

And there are OODLES of them! Many are ‘not fit for human consumption’.

If you speak English go for the

NIV (New International Version)

or

NKJV (New King James Version)

No doubt later you will wish to try other versions but for now, pick a version and stick to it for a while. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament was originally written in Greek and dealing with all the different translations can lead to a lot of confusion in the beginning.

If English isn't your first language, then there IS a version in your language. If you have access to the internet then you have access to a Bible in your language of choice.

Entire Bibles can be Downloaded for FREE from any app store.❗️(How great is that?) 😃

Where to Begin Reading

I'm going to do an odd thing and tell you NOT to begin at the beginning of this book. You should begin in the book of Matthew, which is at the beginning of the New Testament. It tells the story of the life of Jesus. It is followed by the books of Mark, Luke and John, who were also witnesses of the things Jesus did. And just like witnesses in a court of law, you can get to the truth of what really happened through their testimonies.

Then proceed to the following book, which is called the book of Acts. It tells the stories about the first Christians.

The remainder of the New Testament  is a bunch of letters written by Christians to teach and encourage each other.

After you read these first 5 books I've recommended, then you can continue your reading anywhere you wish. 🤷‍♀️ You can go back and start at the beginning and read the book of Genesis and it will make a whole lot more sense to you than if you had started there right out of the gate.

I would also recommend that you don't listen to other people tell you what they think the Bible says or read a bunch of commentary on it just yet. There is a time and place for Bible teachers (plug for myself because I am one 😉), but for now, just read it for yourself.  

 Remember, ☝️ I started reading the Bible when I was only 9 years old and, although I didn't understand a lot of it (and I still don't), I understood most of it and you will too. 🙂

Like a draught of fresh air in a stuffy room or a cold drink filled with ice on one of those blistering hot days, the more you get of the Bible the more you will want.

Enjoy. 

“Let's get into it!” 🫠

The Truth with Love,

Always Laura-Lee 

🌸🌿🌸🌿🌸

Here's a little something extra for those of you who scrolled to the bottom. The book of PSALMS is actually a bunch of songs. Basically the pop songs of the day. The words were written down but the tunes didn't survive the centuries.

It is encouragement off the charts and boy don't we need that these days! The book of Psalms can be found really easily. It's smack-dab in the middle of the Bible. If you are reading the Bible in PAPER form (which I highly recommend but not essential at this time), then you just flip it open to the center and (Boom!) there are the Psalms.

Easy-Peasy. Not scary at all. 🤷‍♀️☺️

LINK "Thy Word" (Lyric Video) 🎶

Happy Birthday to MARTYN ILES 😃

 

Martyn Iles, Executive CEO of Answers in Genesis, will shortly celebrate his thirty-sixth birthday. Let's see where his previous thirty-five years have brought him.

🔴 He runs a Theme Park.

🔴 He is going to put an AI controlled VR visor on everybody. Not just while at the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter, not just everyday for school but everywhere they go so they can view all of life with a “Biblical world view”.

NOT a Mockup 

🔴 He is selling his book, “Who Am I?: Solving the Identity Puzzle” everywhere he can and is getting people primed to Pre-Order (that means paying full price for something BEFORE you have any idea what's in it) his new book, “Living in Babylon”.

🔴 He wants people to pay for a Subscription to Answers TV so they can watch his new show, “Apologies Apologetics with Martyn Iles”.

🔴 He's rebuilding the Tower of Babel next to the Ark Encounter as a new ride (and the latest addition to his Theme Park)

What am I missing? 🤫 

Oh, right. He's spreading the “saving gospel” (whatever he conceives that to be) 🤷‍♀️ and, oh yeah, he's ...

... The Leader of an evil CULT attempting to enslave the human race with his eyes on Global Domination.❗️

LauraLee Was Here: Re AiG

 

My birthday wish for Martyn? 🤔

That he is granted the desire of his heart. To own a red, vintage sports car and will be …

GONE   IN  60  SECONDS ❗️❗️❗️🤨 (not one second too soon)

And believe me, I will not, I repeat NOT, be wishing him “many happy returns”.

BUT I do look forward to the day when Martyn "shakes the dust off his shoes" when leaving this evil place and rediscovers his individuality by putting on his   red sneakers,   red pants,   brown leather jacket and   (my personal favorite)   his blue, shiny shirt. 

 For that day I DO wish him  "many happy returns". 

🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂

Martyn Iles has been giving the SAME “Living in Babylon” talk for two years straight. I've heard it SO many times I could give it myself. In my SLEEP❗️😴

“Well, Good Evening  (Insert name of place). It's good to be here. With a welcome like that I can't wait to hear what I'll say either.” (pause for laughter)

(Undo Jacket button, lean on podium with left hand in pocket to appear relaxed and put people at ease)

Tell personal anecdote about having an Australian accent.

“Babylon is not just a place but a metaphor for systems of power.”

“Daniel was given the equivalent to a scholarship to Harvard and was on a fast track to the Whitehouse if only he would  EAT  the  KING's  food!”

“It was the first day of the rest of his life.”

“Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego weren't saved FROM the Fire but IN the Fire.” ( Point a lot at this point in order to make point)

TAKE THEM to MATTHEW 5 for the ROUND UP.

“Persecution is a ‘Feature not a Bug’  in the Christian Life.”

“Salt loses its saltiness when moisture seeps in and it is compromised by its environment.*

(Now ‘bring it on home’ with extra feeling)

“Dare to be a Daniel! Let’s pray.”

During the last lines of rehearsed prayer pack up tablet in order to exit stage quickly to appear humble.

(Save sales pitch for book until Q and A time. If no Q and A, refer to book during sermon)

🦖🦘🦖🦘🦖🦘🦖🦘

The man is preaching on autopilot,

I'm bored with reruns.

‘Please, what else is on?”

LINK "Take a Bow" Rihanna 🎶

I have also grown excessively weary of Martyn's posts where he  Praises the Lord for Russell Brand and equates him to Job❗️

Brand sexually assaulted a woman in the LADIES Restroom and then walked down the hall and gave an interview on BBC radio where he bragged about it.

Several women have come forward to accuse him of sexual assault, have signed reports to the authorities and he is being investigated by more than one police department in regards to this.

Now, that he is in serious hot water over this, he is playing the "I'm just good Christian-Folk" card.

He's an ACTOR! Any three-year-old can see he's a creep.

And regardless of whether or not he tweaked the nose of "Big Pharma" does not wipe his previous crimes.

This is the perfect example of Martyn losing his moral compass, his mental rot and erosion of spiritual discernment   "dizernment" .

👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣

👣👣👣👣👣👣

"Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten."

~ Nikolaus  von Zinzendorf

🌻🌹🌻🌹🌻🌹🌻🌹

LINK "What Makes a Cult (Simplified)

LINK 'Only Jesus" Casting Crowns 🎶

PLEASE NOTE

I have never met Martyn Iles or Ken Ham, nor do I know any employees of Answers in Genesis (present or past).

ALSO, my blogs have NO Ads and NO Store,

I wonder if by Martyn's next birthday he'll be an American citizen, have all his Teeth capped and starring in his own Reality Show.

And I GUARANTEE Martyn will STILL be working for AiG NEXT year. He is worth 100s of MILLIONS to Ken Ham, the Board and AiG Investors in future revenue  Even if Martyn wanted to quit they wouldn't let him.

It's a very pretty PRISON you walked into, Martyn.

 🤔

What Motivated Me to Investigate Answers in Genesis

 

I first encountered Ken Ham when I was still in high school in the early 1980s through a video he made about Creation Science when he was still in Australia, before “Answers in Genesis” even existed.

Then I encountered him again in the early 1990s during the years I worked for Focus on the Family. Then he came to the forefront of my attention again when he started doing fundraising for the Ark Encounter. 

Years later, when I joined YouTube, I discovered (to my delight) that Answers in Genesis had a YouTube Channel. I thought it was great and added a Link to it on my two main blogs. THAT's when my viewpoint of Ken and AiG began to change because I suddenly had access to LOTS of content from them.

I was watching each new video as they were coming out  and was greatly disturbed to hear Ken repeatedly shining a spotlight on specific individuals who were professing Christians but didn't hold to Ken’s (and my) belief that the Earth is not millions of years old but only about six thousand years old. (otherwise known as the “Young Earth” theory) and stating they weren't true Christians and therefore were "lost" and heading to hell.

This judgment about the condition of other Christian's souls greatly disturbed me. As a Chistian, the Holy Spirit in me had a cringe response and, as a Behaviorist, all sorts of warning bells started to go off as I recognized very arrogant and hostile behavior. I decided it was time to take a closer look at Ken Ham.

I went back and viewed many videos of his again, but never found any overt doctrinal errors I could point to. My analysis as a Behaviorist was inconclusive because I couldn't get enough close ups of his facial expressions but only a “read” on his Body Language as he paraded around the stage during his lectures.

But one day I was watching a video where he was giving a talk at his home base at the Creation Museum where he was discussing how he was concerned that so many of the younger generation were no longer attending church (also a particular concern of mine).

He was telling the audience about a Church he had recently been giving a talk at and his annoyance with them  because they were constantly saying, (he took on a whiny voice to imitate them) “‘Tell me about Jesus. Tell me about Jesus.’ That's all I ever hear!” 

He suddenly realized his great mistake, a “deer in the headlights” look washed over him and he quickly tried to rectify the uncomfortable situation by stating, “Not that there's anything wrong with telling people about Jesus, but first we have to tell them what's in Genesis because that is the foundation of our faith in Jesus.” He quickly returned to standing behind his podium and moved on. 

But he had “outed” himself and I was through with Ken and Answers in Genesis! I took the AiG Links off my blogs and UnSubscribed from them across all their Social Media platforms. I thought that was the end of it.

Sometime during the following years I became aware of the Australian Christian Lobby and Martyn Iles through their YouTube Channels and was most impressed by what I saw both in Martyn and in the organization. I recommended them often and supported them financially, even though I'm a Canadian!

Then in 2022 Martyn posted a batch of photos he took while he was doing a Leadership Conference for Answers in Genesis in Kentucky and told how Ken and his people had rolled out the red carpet for him and had treated him like “The Queen of Sheba”.

I immediately thought, “Oh, Lord Jesus, help Martyn! Ken Ham has just leeched onto him!  I wonder how long it's going to be before Martyn is working for Answers in Genesis?”

Well, it didn't take long. Only a handful of months later Martyn had been fired from the Australian Christian Lobby, his work Visa had gone through and he was leaving Australia to go live and work in America as the new “Chief Ministry Officer” (whatever that was) for AiG. A few months later he became the “Executive Chief Executive Officer” of AiG. At that point the Lord gave me specific instructions to do some intense research and a deep analysis of Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis, which I have spent the past year and a half doing.

 I discovered profound corruption, exploitation of their workers, twisted Biblical Doctrine, ridiculous “Scientific” Conclusions and purposely deceptive behavior by Ken designed to control his workers and followers and (of course) to make oodles of money while doing it. 

I finally came to the conclusion that Ken Ham is a totally evil, greedy, narcissistic Scumbag and Answers in Genesis is a cult aiming to take over the world.

Another disheartening aspect to all of this has been watching the rapid and thorough decline of Martyn Iles's integrity, his amazing mental abilities and profound spiritual gifts as he has handed himself over to Ken’s tutelage. 

Martyn is now the Leader of Ken's cult, is intent on instigating his personal plans to bring himself prestige and (I suspect) make a great deal more money than he was making as the Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby. 

And if that's not bad enough, he is now “pimping” for Ken as he focuses on luring young people (predominantly those in Generation Z) into Ken's evil AiG cult.

Come to think of it, all the pimps I have encountered have always been young, good looking, well dressed and slick talkers. (Sound familiar?) Kudos Ken on choosing Martyn. He's become a chip off the old block.

You have just one, slight, little, teensy-weensy problem and it's NOT me. The Lord is not, I repeat, NOT happy with all of you and is about to expose your DECADES of corruption, rip down that little boat of yours, halt your reconstruction of the Tower of Babel and rain his righteous judgment upon you. 

Thus, He tells me my work investigating you is over. (Thank you, Jesus!!!) 

My task was to discover evidence against you and post it in order to warn people and also to “open a window of escape” for those imprisoned by you. I have done that (and then some) and it is now up to each individual to make their choice how to proceed.

You all have the information you need, which can be easily located by utilizing the Search widget in the right column, and I am free to spend my time on other things

“You are dismissed, Ken.

Pack up your tongue, take a bow and leave.”

The Truth with Love,

Always, Laura-Lee 

DISMISSED by ZoeGirl 🎶

TAKE a BOW by Rihanna

 "For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?"

 (1 Peter 4:17)

YOU GOTTA LEAVE by Connie Talbot 🎶

FINAL 3 DISCOVERIES

There are still three final things I discovered that didn't make it into any previous posts that you should be made aware of.

FIRSTLY, Martyn Iles is constantly trying to recruit people into what he calls the “Answers Army”.

When he was the Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby they grew consistently as a grassroots movement which included a network of thousands of volunteers. But the ACL was basically the only Christian Political rallying point there was in Australia. Now Martyn's attempt to enlist Australians into his “Answers Army” isn't working well because Aussies are very clever, fiercely loyal and know when they've been thoroughly dumped!

But apparently not ALL Aussies❗️🤨

Martyn Iles and Dan Flynn (the Head of Answers in Genesis AUSTRALIA and also Martyn's Right-Hand Flunky Man previously at the Australian Christian Lobby) are trying their "Hand out Gospels of Luke" trick again to get more volunteers into their "Answers Army".

At the end of 2021 Martyn had ideas about influencing the 2022 Federal Election in Australia but he didn't have enough people in his ACL "army of activists with boots on the ground" (quote from Martyn), so he cooked up the scheme to "draft" them by distributing gospels of Luke to households at Christmas 2021.

It worked❗️

Thousands of Australian Christians signed up unaware that they were about to be used for the ACL's political agenda.

Now Martyn and Dan are doing it again, but this time it's in order to sign up people to the "Answers Army" to "draft" more people to sell AiG merchandise.

Plus, the version of Luke they are using is the Legacy Standard Version which is a brand new, very loose version which Ken Ham and his Pals all get kick backs from.

Recruiting is not going well in America either because there are lots of grassroots Christian organizations there and when people visit the Creation Museum and “world renowned” Ark Encounter they just want to have a holiday with their family not join a political movement.

The SECOND thing you should know is that there are  people who live on site at the AiG compound. They do manual labor and menial tasks for no pay and nothing more than a bed in a crowded dorm room and food. Ken refers to them (in Orwellian Doublespeak) as “long term volunteers”.

Housing for "Long Term Volunteers"

THIRDLY, (and the thing I loathe to point out) revolves around ProLife. 

When Martyn was the head of the Australian Christian Lobby he spoke at many ProLife rallies all across Australia, but that was part of his job. He was paid to do it. Since it is no longer part of his job description at AiG he has ceased to do it.

At the Creation Museum there is a ProLife exhibit and Answers in Genesis has published several books on the topic of Sanctity of Life, but Ken and Martyn (and the AiG lineup of “experts”) do not speak at ProLife rallies, nor do they give talks dedicated to this topic. They only mention them briefly in passing (and usually with a reference to the latest AiG book about it).

There are BILLIONS of adults yet to know anything about Jesus but AiG's sole focus is on CHILDREN. (Why? 🤔)

The Creation Museum and ArKENcounter are riddled with Dinosaurs.

They are constantly pumping out curriculum nonstop.

  VBS, Homeschooling, Answers Academy, Answers Kids (Magazine), Answers TV, the Truth Traveller (and on and on it goes).

 It's reminisent of LGBTQ tactics, except with the LGBTQ they do it OVERTLY in blue hair and sequined gowns and Answers in Genesis does it COVERTLY behind smarmy smiles and "Christian" concern.

"None" is the FASTEST growing "religious affiliation"  amongst young people and I don't blame them. They have become aware that they are being preyed upon for their buying power.

The motivation behind Ken Ham and the reason for Answers in Genesis to exist is to make money.

Greed and power is their goal and they are making their money off of Christians, the Bible, Parental Fears (of losing their children to the world) and the slaughter of babies in the womb.

Maybe Ken started off with higher ideals. I don't know. But I do know that Ken began his Answers in Genesis journey when he quit his job as a science teacher to open his book store.

But you don't need to take my word for it. These facts are readily available to anyone who desires to take the time to find “The Truth of It”.

"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

(1 Timothy 6:10l

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LINK "Happy Birthday to Martyn Iles"

PLEASE NOTE

My blogs have NO Ads, NO Store and I have never met Ken Ham, Martyn Iles or anyone who works for Answers in Genesis (now or in the past).

"WHAT MAKES a CULT? (Simplified)"

LINK "Dynasty" by MIIA 🎶