46. Why did God give us a strong sex drive if He wanted us to avoid immorality?

47. Is there any evidence for or against Joshua's long day?

48. How could Adam live to 930 if he was to die on the day he disobeyed God?

49. If there is no fear in love, why are we commanded to love and fear God?

50. Why does Peter say the earth will perish when Psalms say it will last forever?

46. Why did God give us a strong sex drive if He wanted us to avoid immorality?

Our sex drive does seem so strong as to get us humans into a lot of trouble – ask any teenager, or their parents. Yet, without such a strong sex drive the human race would be in even more trouble. Compared to the animals, we lead lives that are so interesting and engrossing that without a strong and persistent sex desire we could easily fail to procreate at levels high enough to maintain the population. That’s the scientific, clinical way of saying that if we want to keep going as a race we need to make babies. If we need babies, we need to be interested in making them. That is why man, unlike all the other advanced animals on Earth, has a procreative capacity and interest that continues year round, not just during their “season.”

But, as in everything else, our sex drive is just perfect. It’s not too weak (thus, we can maintain a healthy population) AND not too strong (despite MTV evidence to the contrary)…

God has not left us without defenses against sexual immorality. The desire is not so strong that a person cannot live happily without sexual activity. And for most people, He has provided the gift of marriage. He even instructs us on how to grow in intimacy and sexuality with our spouses, suggesting that sex not be used merely as a means to procreate but as a way to enjoy ourselves with each other (within marriage, thank you). He has also instructed us on how to guard against sex outside of marriage. James, for example, warns us that we get into trouble when we meditate upon our unlawful desires and thereby become enticed. In the Old Testament Job shares his secret: he turns his eyes away from feasting on the form of any woman other than his wife.

47. Is there any evidence for or against Joshua's long day?

A rumor, rampant for about thirty years, is that NASA scientists proved with their computers that there was, indeed, an extra-long day at the time of Joshua. There is no basis to this rumor, though technically the calculation could be done. The procedure would be quite simple. We could calculate backward in time from current records to indicate when eclipses would have occurred; and, we could project forward in time from ancient records to predict the occurrence of future eclipses. By comparing the two calculations, we could discover discrepancies. But, the ancients did not record their solar eclipses accurately enough to tell. Unfortunately, we can neither confirm Joshua's long day nor deny it.

We need to be aware, too, that the Bible text is a bit ambiguous about Joshua's long day. It is possible to interpret the event as an extra long night rather than an extra long day. Moreover, the text does not require an adjustment in the movement of the Sun or the Earth. God could have caused an optical effect whereby, for example, extra light was refracted or reflected into the desired location. Optical effects happen everyday. In fact, because the atmosphere acts like a lens, when we think we are watching the sun go below the horizon at sunset, it has actually already done so. The atmosphere bends the light of the already set sun over the horizon so we can still see it.

These are just suggestions for how God may have done it. How He accomplished this, at the moment is pure speculation.

48. How could Adam live to 930 if he was to die on the day he disobeyed God?

In Genesis 2 God warned Adam and Eve that on the day they ate of the forbidden fruit they would die. Genesis 3 and much of the rest of Scripture help us understand what kind of death they died that day. Obviously, it was not physical. Romans chapter 5 says that all men died through Adam's one trespass. It also says that the death Adam passed along to us all is "death through sin," a kind of death that only human beings can experience, a point that is repeated in I Corinthians, chapter 15.

The word death refers to the end of life in some sense. That end can be physical, intellectual, emotional, or spiritual. In Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve sinned, they retained their physical capacities, but, they instantly lost their fellowship with God. They experienced death through sin. Later, God blocked their access to the tree of life, guaranteeing that they would some day experience physical death. Physical death became a necessary part of God's redeeming man from spiritual death. The ultimate victory over death, both physical and spiritual, came through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.

49. If there is no fear in love, why are we commanded to love and fear God?

In I John 4, God tells us that “there is no fear in love." "But, perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment." John's point is that a Christian has no basis for fear of punishment because in repenting and receiving forgiveness from Christ, all offenses are forgiven - past, present, and future. (Someone say, Amen!) Christ showed His perfect love in that He removed the spiritual death penalty from all those who come to Him and ask.

Yet, in the Old Testament we are often exhorted to fear God. What’s all this then?

It's helpful to note that there are eighteen different Hebrew words translated as fear in the Old Testament. (For once the Hebrew isn’t short on words.) The one consistently used for fearing God is yirah which means to respond with awe and respect and to have the same perspective on life. Proverbs 8 verse 13 gives an action definition of this fear, "To fear the Lord is to hate evil." We are to hate not only the evil in others but the evil in ourselves, especially the foolish attempt to meet our spiritual need in someone or something other than God Himself.

So, don’t be afraid to fear.

50. Why does Peter say the earth will perish when Psalms say it will last forever?

The Hebrew word, olam, often translated into English as "forever," when used with respect to the future, actually refers to an indefinite continuance into the distant future. It can mean forever, as for all eternity, or it can mean lasting for a long long time. (Not unlike our phrase – especially amongst teenagers, ?like this test lasts like forever!?)

If a Hebrew writer wanted to emphasize the lasting continuance of something into the future, he would repeat word olam. This combination is normally translated into English as "forever and ever." In Psalm 78, verse 69, the word olam appears only once, and there is nothing in the context to suggest that eternity is the implied definition. Therefore, there is no compelling reason to translate the verse as indicating that the Earth will last for all eternity. It is completely acceptable to translate it that the Earth will last for a long time into the future – as it has. Therefore, Psalm 78 is merely stating that the Earth will continue existing for at least several generations past the life of Asaph, the author, who lived about three thousand years ago.