A “Best Before” or “Best Buy” date is being
adopted by more companies rather than limiting the sale of their products by using the wording "Exp" or "Expiration"
date (“Exp Date”). The former implies extended usage after the date while the latter, at least in my mind, tends to suggest, “No good after this
date;” it’s expired, no longer good for consumption or use. Quite the opposite
is true of course, like buying a dented can of beans versus a non-dented can of
beans from an appearance angle; both are good. There is a persuasive perception of words and appearance in the minds of
shoppers using large chain grocery stores that shape buying habits.
Isn’t it ironic how discount grocers can
purchase the undesired “expired” food from major grocery retailers and sell it
at a discount to a less finicky public, allowed by the FDA by the way, which
goes to prove that the expiration date is not set in stone! With more
vulnerable goods like milk and eggs, however, the date is a persuasive element on whether or not I will purchase it. Naturally, we all want the freshest,
newest date from production over something pushing the expiration threshold if
we are paying the same price for it. If I don’t get a discount on a dented can
of beans, for instance, I will buy a non-dented one.
Words can be persuasive in influencing
buying habits. The mainstream public is more willing to purchase a pre-owned
automobile over a “used” automobile. When buying gas for our vehicles, we say
gas is $3.19 per gallon even though it is actually 1/100th of a dollar from being
$3.20! We may even go across town for a $.05 savings per gallon even though it
was a five-mile trip! Two digits ($.99) is more eye-catching than listing an
item at $1.00. It’s all in the marketing of the words and numbers that are
proven to manipulate consumer decisions in buying or not. So “best before” or “best
buy” dates are nothing more than clever marketing in avoiding its negative
cousin, “expiration” date, and improving sales. There is nothing immoral, unethical, or
illegal about doing so.
Do you know people put an expiration
date on the Scriptures, and this is nothing but being slanderous towards God. The more finicky and unbelieving
public believes that the “best buy” date on the Bible had run out centuries
before, having expired with the passing of the Dark Ages or earlier. And all those
Bible peddlers since are simply using slick marketing to sell what is
considered to be expired goods to the ignorant masses. The Bible is considered
outdated, out of touch, and irrelevant to 21st-century man. The intelligentsia
will tell all those who need a crutch in life, “Don’t waste your time or money
on the Bible; it's a bad investment.”
For the religious unbelievers, there
is always plenty of effort into developing a paraphrase entitled, “The Holy Bible
for Contemporary Man” to feed the “religious” nature of man without offending
him. Any mention of sin or hell or the blood is removed. Any negatives about
humanity are edited and softened in the spirit of positivism. Jesus is reduced
to an ordinary man with some good ideas for living for his time, not ours.
Any commandments must be restructured
as optional rather than imperative because sin is a hate word that declares and
imposes value statements that others may not share. We certainly do not want to
offend anyone in the spirit of brotherly peace! Ever notice that the world is
not too concerned with offending God, only other people? If we said things
about the world that the world says about Christians today, we would be
arrested for hate speech! In the Spirit of Christ, Christianity hates sin
but loves the sinner.
We are not, for example, homophobic but God-fearing who
declare that homosexuality is a sin against God and nature in accordance with
the Scriptures. Often secular media will bleep out an “F” word but permit the
GD’s…. Oddly, the most intolerant, and hateful peoples on the earth are those
who reject Christ and His message. Genuine Christianity makes no attempt to
wipe out any groups opposing Christianity or imprison them, only a desire to
reach others for Christ.
In the not-too-distant future, I can
foresee a demonic discovery made by some Nobel laureate identifying a social
virus that poses the greatest threat to the ideals of humankind as Christianity,
suggesting that the only alternative to preventing further infection of society
from religious nonsense is eradication. Christicide (or the killing of
Christians) will not be viewed as irrational or a radical departure from basic
human decency but deemed as for the greater good of mankind. Anyone claiming to
be of Christ will be targeted for quarantine and elimination unless, of course,
such claimants receive the mark of the beast which takes place during the tribulation
period (cf. Rev 13:15-17). Until then, societal conditions are in the process
of leading up to that point as more and more laws are anti-Christ in nature;
we are now living in those ramp-up times heading toward Christicide (2 Tim 3:12-13).
Take away the Word of God from society
and what do we have? We have a society with no spiritual moorings of what is
right and wrong, drifting into the “open” waters of relativity, the sea of non-absolutes
where the tides of right and wrong are in and out. Tack on a couple of
generations with the absence of the Bible being taught and anarchy and chaos will
reign. It would be a worst-case scenario of Jdg 21:25 without the Word. I don’t
think it would be a stretch to speculate that the spiritual condition of man
manifesting itself physically on the earth before the Great Flood in Noah’s
days would repeat itself in the near future (cf. Gn 6:5, 11-12; 7:1).
There were no thoughts of repentance
and returning to God during the time of Noah, only the absence of such (Gn 6:5)
which resulted in massive death and destruction. Though God promised Noah (and
us) that He would never again flood the earth (Gen 9:11-17), He will allow in
the future (2 Thes 2:7, stepping aside but present) a second great flood not of
water but of spiritual darkness to come upon an unbelieving world that makes
the time of the antediluvian civilization (Noah’s day) pale in comparison. This
is the time known as Jacob’s trouble (Jer 30:7) or more commonly referred to as
the Great Tribulation period (42 months), a time of unprecedented persecution,
fear, and terror that spreads throughout the earth (Dan 12:1; Mt 24:21-22; Rev
6-19 describes this period in detail), ending with Christ’s advent or return
and the establishment of His millennial kingdom on earth (Rev 20:4-6).
On a side note, there are three major
schools of thought on the church’s relationship during this time of widespread
corruption, ungodliness, injustice, death, and destruction throughout the earth:
pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, and post-tribulation. Pre-trib espouses
that the rapture of the church (Jn 14:1-3; 1Thess 4:13-18) precedes the seven
years of tribulation on the earth; mid-trib maintains that the rapture of the
church takes place at the end of the first three and a half years of
tribulation but prior to the Great Tribulation, and post-trib advocates that
the church will experience all seven years of tribulation.
This writer subscribes to a
pre-tribulation point of view: the literal rapture of the church which is considered
to be the next big eschatological event, followed by a literal 7 years of tribulation on earth while the church is in heaven, followed by a literal
millennial reign of Christ and the church reigning as priests and kings under
God, followed by a literal Armageddon (final battle of good and evil). Then old geological
features of the earth are reshaped and its history and monuments of and to man are
literally removed, leaving no trace (cf 1 Jn 2:17; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 21:1), saved
for its record in the eternal Word of God. Afterward, eternity hits a
higher gear (my personal take) with worship and fellowship in the very presence
of God for all, no more beyond-the-ceiling prayers to an invisible God (Rev
21:3) for He is before our very eyes, and no more death, sorrow, or crying (Rev
21:4)! Glory!!
Coming back down to present-day earth,
it sounds like a lot of trouble for the inhabitants of the earth (including
Christians) when the Scripture is not the authority on all matters of faith and
practice, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t you agree as a believer that it is better to be
in trouble with man because of our stand for what is right than to be in
trouble with God for doing what is wrong? Paul commanded Timothy in spite of persecution, "You must continue in the things you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them" (2 Tim 3:14). We must not lose heart for God will never leave us or forsake for these things to come (the good and the bad) have been prophesied and will come to pass.
Do you know why the Bible is never out of date and very relevant regardless of what the non-believing world may say about not being worthy of consumption? It is because the Bible talks much about the heart of man, that spiritual organ that is the seat of the intellect, the emotions, and the will or as one old sage put it, the thinker, the feeler, and the chooser. The heart is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow without the Holy Spirit living within it. There is an awkward phrase in theological circles that talk about the perpetual contemporaneous of the Scriptures. What makes the Bible all-time relevant is the basic truth that the heart of Adam since the fall and the heart of man today are still one and the same (Jer 17:9). This is why you and I can relate to ancient personalities because every human trait revealed in Scripture is evident today, different times but the same sinful heart (cf. Rom 15:4; 1 Cor 10:11).
Do you know why the Bible is never out of date and very relevant regardless of what the non-believing world may say about not being worthy of consumption? It is because the Bible talks much about the heart of man, that spiritual organ that is the seat of the intellect, the emotions, and the will or as one old sage put it, the thinker, the feeler, and the chooser. The heart is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow without the Holy Spirit living within it. There is an awkward phrase in theological circles that talk about the perpetual contemporaneous of the Scriptures. What makes the Bible all-time relevant is the basic truth that the heart of Adam since the fall and the heart of man today are still one and the same (Jer 17:9). This is why you and I can relate to ancient personalities because every human trait revealed in Scripture is evident today, different times but the same sinful heart (cf. Rom 15:4; 1 Cor 10:11).
Given the fact that the revelation of
God is eternal (we are worshiping and dealing with the same God that Adam
did) and that all men are born with a sinful heart (Rom 5:12) makes the Word of
God relevant yesterday, today, and tomorrow. There is no expiration date;
there is no best buy or best before date. This is God's revelation of Himself to
us. Everything He expects or does for us is in accordance with His Word that He
has given unto us. We need to read it, love it, and obey its principles until
the rapture or death!
The same good taste that David
referred to in Psa 34:8 or the sweetness spoken of in Psa 119:103 was the same response
of Jeremiah roughly 27 centuries ago (Jer 15:16). Even Peter made mention of
the taste of the Word as gracious (1 Pet 2:2-3). Anybody who knows anything
about proper spiritual nutrition knows that the Word of God is as fresh and
tasty and full of spiritual vitality (2 Tim 3:16, 17) as the day it came out of
the oven and revealed to man with no expiration, best before, or best buy date
needed!
“The
grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isa
40:8).
“Heaven and earth
will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mk 13:31, ESV). <><
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