"Imagine" by John Lennon

Imagine there's no Heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

I have posted the lyrics to John Lennon's song, Imagine, to illustrate the utter hopelessness of the liberal, humanistic, evolutionary mind. The only reality is what we can see. Nothing has such great value, no principle, truth, or person, that we would devote or give our lives for that entity. The hopelessness of Lennon's stated philosophy is that without someone being willing to die for that philosophy and impose it upon the world, his view of life will remain only the words of a catchy song. Yet, his rejection of wealth, of which he had massive amounts, truth, national identity, principle, and most of all, God, shows how misguided he was. I wonder why he never gave up his wealth? Maybe he did not really believe the words of his own song.

The New American Standard Bible

I have chosen to use the New American Standard Bible as the reference version for my studies. I will on occasion cite the King James Version, and at times will offer my own translation. I like the NASB because of its academic quality and usefulness as an accurate translation for study purposes.

The UBS Greek Text

The UBS edition was designed to meet the practical needs of translators of the Greek New Testament. The 4th Edition of the UBS text provides an apparatus that presents the various readings of the many manuscripts available to textual researchers. In some places, a choice between certain well-attested readings will have an important affect upon translation. The apparatus (similar to footnotes) will show the textual evidence for the reading the editors of the UBS text chose. For each of these places, the reading of the text is graded A, B, C, or D, according to whether the reading was adopted by the editors with certainty, near certainty, with difficulty, or with great difficulty. For the convenience of translators, a punctuation apparatus is given below the textual apparatus, showing how the text is punctuated in several other texts and versions. Beneath that, cross-references are given together with specification of the words and phrases to which they refer. The text is set in paragraphs and larger sections, and supplied with section headings in English. The UBS text is widely used among academic scholars and pastors.

The Septuagint

What is the Septuagint? Septuagint (typically abbreviated LXX) is the name given to the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures. The Septuagint has its origin in Alexandria, Egypt and was translated between 300-200 BC. This Greek translation was produced because many Jews spread throughout the empire (commonly called Hellenistic Jews) were beginning to lose competency in the Hebrew language. The production of the Septuagint also gave many non-Jews a glimpse into Judaism. According to an ancient document called the Letter of Aristeas, 70 to 72 Jewish scholars were commissioned during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus to carry out the task of translation. The term “Septuagint” means seventy in Latin, and the text is so named to the credit of these 70 scholars. A fanciful legend says the 70 scholars took 70 days to complete their work.