The Answerer

(The person who asked this question says that they have visions about the future)

This is a very serious question. Why? Well God is capable of doing anything and this world which,I  believe, is heading towards perhaps ‘the end of the age’…a very big upheaval…and it could happen any day. And He can send dreams to special people…but beware, so can Satan.

For centuries many people have told others of dreams or visions they say they have had (99% of them were wrong) . They were deceived, and started a new religion, but they faded away because the vision was not from God.

I know of missionaries who have had a dream vision of their future, and a Chaplain too. They did not ‘tell everyone’ and make a big show of how God had spoken to them. No, they quietly thought and prayed about it and waited for God to take things onto the next step and it worked out very well.

I did not have a dream or a vision, but on the occasion of my being baptised a ‘voice’ (like on the telephone) said very clearly: “You’ll be working with children.” I had never done that in my life before. But, several years later I broke my back, then university, then teaching, then Bible College and 26 years Scripture teaching. God knew what was to come in the future (yes, even these questions and answers – over 250 and counting).

So my answer: You may very well be getting messages about the future and may God bless you in all you do. But always check it out to ensure that directions agree with the bible – our guidebook. And finally if you are unsure of anything think and pray: “ What would I do if Jesus was standing next to me now?” ie. would He be pleased with my actions?

Yes indeed it helps to ruin the world. My only son died from cancer at four years old.

What caused it? We cannot tell yet but maybe one day keen research doctors will be able to trace what causes cancers. Many things cause cancers: diesel smoke, cigarettes, too much alcohol, poisons in the air, water and food that we eat and chemicals we put on plants and into animals to make them grow better. There are many others- like too much sun giving us skin melanomas etc.

I think about this problem often, and this bothers me a lot. On many foods in the supermarket there is a long list of additives like preservatives, anti-caking agents, humectants etc, etc with lots of numbers that mean nothing...unless you buy a book and check each number out, but you still cannot be happy with it all. I just refuse to buy most of them.

How can the manufactures be 100% sure that a diet of all these additives will do us no harm over 30 years of eating them. They CANNOT!

Here is one you CAN avoid! On the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission) radio I heard today 3/11/13,t hat a ‘back yard’ tattooist who does not have clean clothes and hospital-like studios, can give you hepatitis- a virus in the blood that can give you liver cancer. Be aware! Look it up on the www.

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To all readers please note these questions about Joseph. .....I tell the story of Joseph and the many trials and troubles he endured to the children (11 to 12 years old) to help them to see that sometimes God allows bad things to happen to His people . See Genesis Chapters 37 to 50 (or even from Ch. 12 on) (this is the beginning of the nation of Israel and later Christianity) . Joseph believed God and accepted that God is in charge of those who belong to Him, even when unexplained bad things happen. God has His long range plans for all those who belong to his family. And Joseph was committed to God. Obviously his dad, Jacob, taught him all the beginnings from Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and his mum Rachel and how they obeyed God. The same goes for us today.  Sooner or later you will decide if you do, or if you do not believe God. It is a choice we all have to make at sometime in our lives.  It means heaven or hell with God or without God for eternity.  Everybody does not automatically go to heaven – it is our own choice.

I have answered this one before in Question 264 but a bit extra detail won’t hurt. Jealousy and money – people kill for it today – just as people did in Bible times.

I like the telling of bad bits in the Bible because it shows that it is not a lovely tale of lovely people doing lovely things all over the world, and everything in the garden is lovely. It was not!

Joseph’s brothers were older than him, had wives and children with flocks and herds of their own. Money and power change people – not everyone can handle it well.

Happening this year, 2013, in Perth, my home town in Western Australia, where the richest woman in the world lives,s he is being sued in the supreme court by her children over money. A lot of it, and when and how much her children will get from her estate, or family trust. That is the general idea of what the argument is basically about, money.

Joseph’s brothers were ‘first-in-line’ to get a larger share of their father's (Jacob) estate when he died. That was normal custom and Jacob was very rich. With his two dreams and after his very expensive coat (see Genesis Chapter 37) the brothers realised that Joseph was now ‘first-in-line’ for a bigger share of Dad’s estate. Hate grew.

I said this was a great Bible ‘Soap Opera:’ Love, hate, jealousy, greed conniving and back stabbing, it has got it all…with forgiveness and mercy.

Do read the whole story in Genesis, it is a great yarn. Start at Genesis Chapter 12 to 50. Abraham fathers a child at 100 years old and Sarah, his wife, has a baby boy at 90 years old, then right up to Joseph’s brothers coming to Egypt to escape the famine, and everyone bowing down to him just as his dreams had shown! That was the beginning of the modern state of ISRAEL.

A common joke: IF YOU ASK TWO JEWS A QUESTION, YOU WILL GET THREE DIFFERENT ANSWERS! It seems they love to argue about their interpretation of the Bible, or The Torah, the five books of Moses. God bless ‘em for all their faults and arguments. But they are, like it or not, eternally ”God’s chosen people.”

Benjamin grew up in Egypt with Jacob and his 11 sons. Jacob included Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph’s two sons from Asenath, the wife that the Pharaoh gave him in Egypt.

Benjamin led a normal life as all the other brothers and one of the twelve tribes of Israel is named Benjamin after him.

Well first of all he and his younger brother grew up together and mostly stayed at home with Jacob and his first wife Leah. Leah was like a real mum to them as Rachel had died giving birth to Benjamin.

Jacob, I guess, was not keen to have the two sons of Rachel, the wife he had loved so much, go out into the countryside as there were bears and lions in those days.

And I would expect that there would be some enmity (unpleasant thoughts and feelings) between the children of Leah and the two children of Rachel. Also Joseph had a kind, loving heart – even though as a youth, he could not keep his mouth shut about the dreams of his brothers bowing down to him.

The Bible does not mention much of love and family love, but it was there with Joseph wanting so much to set his eyes on his little brother Benjamin. Thank you for the question.