How would you like to suffer from diarrhea AND dizziness for TEN LONG, AGONIZING YEARS because while on a tour boat vacationing in the Bahamas a fellow tourist persuaded you to eat a good tasting, well cooked eel that just happened to have some heat resistant CIGUATERA TOXIN (a type of DIVINELY CREATED NERVE POISON) in it, and because you trusted verse skipping, mainstream Christianity’s claim that you can now eat anything? Mainstreamers insist that it is Biblically okay to eat that kind of fish, but the Bible actually warns you to NEVER eat an eel, which does not have the Scripturally required fins AND scales (smooth, slick skin eels have no scales).

After you read this page be sure to read 7 VERSES MAINSTREAMERS CLAIM ABOLISH THE FOOD LAWS.

Isaiah 66:17: “‘Those …… feasting on pork and rats and other detestable meats—will come to a terrible end,’ says the Lord.”

(New Living Translation) Translation: God will kill you (at least eventually after the judgement if not sooner) if you eat pork, or even any of its derivatives. The context of Isaiah 66:17 appears to be pre-Christian Millennial, so TO THIS VERY DAY and on into the future unrepentant pig eaters are risking death for breaking a very simple, easy to obey rule. Mainstream Christians have a hard time explaining away Isaiah 66:17, so they often conveniently just ignore it like they ignore dozens of other “plain as day” law keeping verses. Remember, Isaiah 7:14 and 53:7 successfully predicted, about !!685!! years in advance, that a virgin would give birth to our precious Savior, and also successfully predicted over !!600!! years in advance that Jesus would remain silent during His trial. So the prophecies of Isaiah are not to be taken lightly. Think the Mosaic safe meat laws have been abolished? Try proving that with the New Testament’s ORIGINAL GREEK and OBVIOUS, CORRECT CONTEXT instead of with the verses mainstream Christianity insists on twisting out of context, sometimes totally ignoring the correct definition of pivotally important Greek words. GENESIS 7:2,8 and 8:20 prove that certain food was “unclean,” or forbidden to eat long before the Mosaic dietary laws were codified. Those verses show that Noah somehow knew which animals were forbidden to eat. To incorrectly claim that the safe meat laws were abolished after the death of Jesus, when “unclean meats” already existed over 1,000 years before the dietary laws were formally listed by Moses, and especially when ISAIAH 66:17 reveals that forbidden food IS STILL FORBIDDEN TO EAT, transcends the illogical, descending into what is wild, mindless insanity and raw arrogance, the essence of Satan.

The enduring practice of the Apostles (who practiced what they preached) and the early Church members was to continue not eating forbidden food as shown by ACTS 10:14: “But Peter said, ‘Not so, Lord! For I have NEVER eaten anything common or unclean.” The other like minded Apostles must have also obeyed the protective dietary laws, too. You would think that if the dietary laws were done away with, the Lord, to be fair, would have also abolished the harmful, sometimes deadly medical consequences of eating the forbidden foods. The fact that these prohibited foods are still just as harmful as ever provides additional verification of the continuing validity of the dietary laws. Try explaining away the New Testament verse in REVELATION 18:2 that says “Babylon the great is fallen ……… and has become a dwelling place of demons ……… and a cage for every UNCLEAN and hated bird!” This verse proves that some birds are still classified as “unclean” or still forbidden to eat. The verse refers to a time shortly before the second coming of Jesus Christ. The author of Revelation, the Apostle John, was not stupid, and he was not a liar. So why in the world did he still call some birds unclean if the Mosaic dietary restrictions really were abolished? Answer: He called them unclean because the food laws NEVER were annulled.

CLAMS, OYSTERS, CRABS, CRAYFISH, LOBSTERS, and SHRIMP, called ABOMINATIONS by the Lord (LEVITICUS 11:10-12), are the MARINE EQUIVALENT of one of His land based organic garbage disposal units, the useful but toxic pig. These mostly bottom dwelling marine scavengers could also be described as the RATS and FLIES of the sea, the GARBAGE COLLECTORS, CLEANUP CREW, VULTURES, or COCKROACHES of the sea, preferring to eat dead fish or the putrefying remains of anything dead, which often contain hideous parasites such as liver flukes, tapeworms, viruses, etc. If cockroaches were as big as lobsters and could stay under water for an extended period of time, you could probably bet your last dollar that many people would eat them, too, if they tasted as good as lobsters. Stationary shellfish such as clams and oysters absorb whatever has settled near the bottom of oceans and lakes, which is often toxic and polluted. These scavenging aquatic creatures do not have BOTH SCALES AND FINS, a requirement for cleanliness or edibleness according to LEVITICUS 11:9-12. These scavengers were not intended to be food for human beings. Forbidden pork is so potentially dangerous to eat that I have devoted a separate page, 28 REASONS HOW EATING PORK CAN BE UNHEALTHY, DEBILITATING, OR FATAL AND WILL CERTAINLY BE FATAL EVENTUALLY, for pigs, which could almost be called walking sewers.

LEVITICUS 11:2-23, 29,30,41,42, and DEUTERONOMY 14:4-20 explain which animals cannot be eaten, and which animals can be consumed.

ANIMALPLANET’S “monsters-inside-me/parasites” websites describe the potential danger of eating some forbidden food such as raw or undercooked oysters, clams, crabs, crayfish, snails, rats, raccoons, or pork, or even briefly coming into contact with them or their excrement, which can literally kill you. Many creatures forbidden to eat have or are vectors for hideous, sometimes even INVISIBLE FLESH EATING PARASITES.

MILLIONS of people have died prematurely or have been seriously injured by eating foods forbidden by the Scriptures. Still living, still apparently healthy Christians who continue to physically survive eating many of the forbidden foods by cooking them are seriously sinning. Forbidden pork, even though cooked, is still the meat most suspected of causing stomach cancer. THESE POTENTIAL SAINTS CONTINUE TO OUTDO ADAM AND EVE’S FIRST SIN MANY, MANY TIMES OVER BY EATING FOOD WHICH WAS NOT CREATED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. ADAM AND EVE HAD ONLY A BRIEF, VERBAL WARNING ABOUT THE FORBIDDEN FOOD, BUT WE HAVE HAD A WRITTEN WARNING FOR OVER 2,000 YEARS! Most mainstream Christians are firmly convinced that they are “saved,” which glaringly conflicts with the words of Jesus in MATTHEW 7:23: “…….. DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.” The Greek for lawlessness in verse 23 is the relatively rare word anomia, defined primarily as an abandonment of Mosaic law keeping. Most of these “Christians” also DO NOT EVEN HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT, a basic requirement for salvation since Acts 2:38 reveals that the Holy Spirit will be given ONLY after a person starts or continues to keep the law, which includes observing the safe meat, tithing, and mostly prophetic festival laws. Christians are now under grace, but grace is Biblically defined only as allowing for the FORGIVENESS of sin when FULLY REPENTED OF. Grace is never defined as freedom from law keeping, as shown in Romans 3:24,25 quoted near the bottom of this page.

ACTS 2:38: “Peter replied, ‘All of you MUST TURN AWAY FROM YOUR SINS and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then your sins will be forgiven. You will receive the gift of the HOLY SPIRIT.” (New International Reader’s Version) 1 JOHN 3:4: “…… SIN IS THE VIOLATION OF THE TORAH.” (exeGeses Companion Bible)

The Bible’s Old Testament (Mosaic) laws are the Torah. It appears then that the majority of mainstream Christians are still not yet saved because Acts 2:38 DEMANDS that they obey the laws of Moses (which include the food laws) just to acquire the Holy Spirit in the first place. “Turn away from your sins” means to stop breaking Biblical laws. The ONLY way to stop breaking Biblical laws is to OBEY Biblical laws. The Apostles singled out the sacrifice, circumcision, Levitical priesthood, and eternal death penalty laws as now abolished, but they left the safe meat, mostly prophetic festival, tithing, and refreshing Saturday rest and other laws fully intact, indicating they must still be obeyed to receive the critically important Holy Spirit. (The Feast of Trumpets, for example, celebrates annually, in advance, the exact day in September or October of the still unknown year that Jesus will return with the sound of trumpets heard around the world. [Matthew 24:30,31, 1 Thessalonians 4:16].) During these latter days in which “iniquity (anomia) shall abound” (MATTHEW 24:12), mainstream Christians need to be holy in all things yet think nothing of sinfully chewing on pollution and toxin absorbing, SEWAGE consuming oysters, clams, and other shellfish!

For many decades studies have shown that “clean” meats are healthier to eat than “unclean” meats. For example, toxicity levels in unclean meats are substantially higher than those in clean meats. All SHELLFISH are forbidden to eat because they lack the Biblically required fins and scales. Shellfish routinely filter large volumes of water every day. It has been shown that when shellfish are placed in a body of water that has been contaminated with cholera bacteria, shellfish such as oysters, scallops, clams, and mussels will purify the water by filtering out the bacteria. The harmful bacteria were then concentrated in these Biblically inedible creatures. Shellfish also, since they don’t have the fins they need to be able to swim freely in the water, are stuck on the bottom where they absorb and accumulate the pollution and toxins, including RAW SEWAGE, that settle to the bottom of lakes, rivers, and oceans. Intense research on the causes of Alzheimer’s Disease has shown that eating any shellfish regularly may be a contributing factor in acquiring the disease since heavy metals such as lead, mercury, zinc, cadmium, iron, etc. that have settled to the bottom are sometimes ingested and stored in shellfish. Such metals have been identified in the “plaque” inhibiting normal electrical activity between brain cells in Alzheimer’s patients. Cholera, typhoid, Norwalk virus, salmonella, and hepatitis A can be transmitted to people by eating shellfish. It seems that almost every time I research the ailments caused by eating shellfish, new types of harmful, sometimes hard to kill parasites, bacteria, viruses, or toxins have been recently discovered in oysters, clams, or scallops.

Millions of people who eat raw or undercooked OYSTERS each year do not realize that they are almost BEGGING FOR BIG TROUBLE. The potentially FLESH EATING bacterium Vibrio vulnificus, which may be described as less severe than the more publicized flesh eating killers Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, but which can be just as serious as Pasteurella multocida flesh eating bacterial infections contracted from mountain lion, Komodo dragon, and even severe cat and dog bites, is in the same family as those that cause cholera. First recognized in 1975, Vibrio vulnificus is ALMOST ALWAYS found in oysters and sometimes even in crabs and can cause septicemia in individuals with weakened immune systems, or blood poisoning, fatal in over 50% of the cases with death usually occurring within 2 days. Vibrio vulnificus cannot be seen, smelled, or even tasted in oysters, and it lives freely in salt water. Oysters and other shellfish ingest the bacteria as they filter the water by pumping large amounts of water over their mucus covered gills. When bacterial concentrations in oysters reach a certain level Vibrio vulnificus can become toxic. The bacterium can increase by a factor of 10-100 from the time of harvest to retail sale because of a lack of refrigeration. Even minor skin wounds can become infected with potentially deadly or disfiguring Vibrio v. organisms while even swimming in salt water, sometimes resulting in necrotizing fasciitis and even amputation of limbs in rare cases.

Survivors of occasionally fatal AMNESIC SHELLFISH POISONING (ASP) who had trusted in the common myth that the Mosaic dietary laws have been abolished are sometimes rewarded with having some of their brain cells responsible for certain memory functions PERMANENTLY ABOLISHED by DOMOIC ACID, an unforgiving, powerful nerve poison in shellfish that sometimes causes ASP. PARALYTIC SHELLFISH POISONING (PSP), caused primarily by the poison SAXITOXIN, has caused thousands of human deaths worldwide by paralyzing the respiratory muscles. DOMOIC ACID, a major toxin in a variety of phytoplankton produced poisons that include saxitoxin, brevetoxins, ciguatoxin, and okadaic acid, was first identified only relatively recently in 1988. DOMOIC ACID has been known to kill even large whales. Fortunately or perhaps mercifully, that tasteless, invisible, odorless, marine toxin that cannot be destroyed by cooking is not common, but it has occurred in the past and continues to occur without warning in spontaneous algal blooms that produce the toxin, which in turn is ingested by ocean filtering oysters, clams, mussels, scallops, and even crabs. Shellfish do not appear to be directly harmed by these poisons.

Eels, especially moray eels, which do not have the Biblically required scales, can be dangerous to eat. These carnivorous creatures often live around reefs where algae and phytoplankton produced CIGUATERA POISON is consumed by small fish, which in turn are consumed by the eels. People who eat these eels sometimes acquire CIGUATERA fish poisoning, which is usually not fatal but has a worldwide mortality rate of about 11%. Medical science so far has been unable to develop an effective treatment or antidote for CIGUATERA poisoning, the most commonly reported type of marine seafood poisoning from eating a variety of fish. Up to about 100,000 people acquire CIGUATERA poisoning each year. CIGUATERA toxin is invisible, odorless, tasteless, and cannot be destroyed by stomach acids or cooking. Mild, chronic symptoms such as TINGLING or NUMBNESS in the EXTREMITIES, ITCHINESS, CRAMPS, DIARRHEA, NAUSEA, DIZZINESS, and STRANGE TEMPERATURE SENSATIONS can last up to not just 10 hours, not just 10 days, not just 10 weeks, not just 10 months, but 10 YEARS in rare cases. CAN YOU IMAGINE HAVING CHRONIC DIARRHEA, NAUSEA, OR DIZZINESS FOR 10 YEARS? HOW ABOUT SUFFERING FROM ALL THREE AT THE SAME TIME FOR 10 YEARS? No wonder Isaiah 66:2 basically shows that Christians would do well to tremble at the words of God in the Bible, for safety and salvation. Plankton consuming SHRIMP, a relative of crabs and lobsters, also have been known to be vectors of CIGUATERA poisoning.

Smooth, slick skin CATFISH, another forbidden food because they HAVE NO SCALES, are also unusually efficient at cleaning the water of impurities, pollutants, and other harmful material, then depositing the toxins in their body fat. For example, a peach farmer once sprayed his trees with a pesticide, and then a rainstorm washed the chemicals off the trees. The insecticide drained into the farmer’s pond. Catfish in the pond cleaned the water by sucking up the potent pesticide, but most of them later died, floating to the top of the water. None of the other fish in the pond that had fins and scales died, according to Rex Russell, M.D. in his 1999 book, What the Bible Says About Healthy Living. Catfish always show the highest levels of contamination in water that has been chemically polluted, compared to other fish in the same water, that are commonly eaten. The publication Consumer Reports once tested fish in American retail markets. They discovered that nearly all catfish had excessively high counts of bacteria (ABOUT 3 TIMES the amount of bacteria required to classify fish as spoiled), even when they were properly prepared. Merely handling catfish, also, can be hazardous. People have been forced to have limbs amputated after chronic infections developed in puncture wounds from the sharp, serrated spines behind the dorsal and pectoral fins of catfish. The spines are sometimes coated with bacterial slime that can cause severe infections. Catfish meat has a higher concentration of fatty material than most fish, and that fat is where most of the accumulated toxins are typically deposited. Just by looking at the meat of catfish and the meat of “clean” fish, you can readily tell that more white, fatty material is in catfish meat. Nearly all fish contain some mercury, but catfish is in that class of fish that contains the HIGHEST LEVELS OF MERCURY.

A significant number of people worldwide, even in the United States consider FROGS (frog legs) and SNAILS delicacies and actually eat them. In 1964 an invisible, potentially deadly parasite named Angiostongylus cantonensis, often called RAT LUNGWORM, was discovered in those animals, including occasionally freshwater shrimp and crabs that have eaten the feces of infected rats. Rain can wash rodent excrement into ponds, lakes, and rivers. Infected people may suffer severe headaches, tingling and sensitive skin, hallucinations, nausea, vomiting, stiffness in the back and neck, and in severe, sometimes fatal cases eosinophilic meningitis, which is an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Fortunately or mercifully, the parasite dies within months without treatment. Eating these crabs, shrimp, frogs, or snails that have been boiled for less than 5 minutes, or even ingesting the slime left from snails on unwashed produce, can produce infection in humans. Potentially deadly GNATHOSTOMIASIS WORMS, though rare, can also infect people for 10 YEARS from eating undercooked frogs and snails, or possibly even from just handling these animals before cooking them. Another serious parasite is the paragonimiasis LUNG FLUKE that can infect humans ingesting these undercooked creatures. Diarrhea, fever, stomach pain, and tuberculosis like symptoms can develop. Since none of these non-flying Biblical “abominations” have both fins, scales or cleft hooves and chew their cud, they are forbidden to eat.

The unprecedented 2014 EBOLA virus outbreak in western Africa was almost inevitably caused by someone again eating forbidden food. In that area of the world the Straw-Colored Fruit Bat is thought to provide a natural reservoir for the dreaded, usually fatal Ebola virus. Primates and other animals presumably eat the fruit half eaten by these fruit bats. The animals then contract Ebola by coming into contact with the bat’s saliva contaminated partially eaten fruit. One or more people then eat the now Ebola infected animal, causing the virus to jump to humans. Fruit bats, African Cane Rats, and African Green Monkeys, called “bushmeat,” are some of the forbidden animals REGULARLY eaten by many people in that area of the world that includes Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Some of the hideous symptoms of Ebola can include bleeding from body orifices such as the eyes, ears, nose, and rectum. If these Ebola infected people had strictly obeyed Paul’s command to “not even touch what is unclean,” they never would have become infected.

Also, just as AIDS was suddenly, divinely created within recent decades to punish perversions like homosexuality and promiscuity, at any time now or in the future the Lord can invent new, previously nonexistent, debilitating poisons and toxins in animals forbidden to eat, to punish those who have no respect for the safe meat laws. It could take years or even many decades for medical science to just identify such toxins, and even longer to develop ways for treatment. Animals not normally eaten but which are Biblically edible include giraffes, pigeons, sparrows, and other songbirds. Deuteronomy 14:4-6, and Leviticus 11:3-23, 27, 29-31 explain how to determine which animals are fit to eat and which are not.

ANIMALS with unclean characteristics that are FORBIDDEN TO EAT INCLUDE the following: Swine: peccary, boar, pig, hog (bacon, lard, ham, most sausage and pepperoni). Canines: jackal, dog, fox, hyena, coyote, and wolf, which often eat dead or diseased animals. Felines: all members of the cat family such as the house cat, ocelot, bobcat, lion, leopard, cheetah, panther, and tiger which often eat dead or diseased animals. Equines: ass, mule, HORSE, donkey, onager, zebra. Other: ARMADILLO (about 50% of armadillos carry leprosy, so just handling these animals can transmit the bacteria that cause leprosy), badger, beaver, bear, CAMEL, elephant, hare, groundhog, gorilla, hippopotamus, kangaroo, llama, mole, monkey, mouse, muskrat, opossum, porcupine, skunk, raccoon, rat, rhinoceros, RABBIT, slug, snail (escargot), SQUIRREL, worm, weasel, wolverine, wallaby, all insects except some in the locust family. Marine Animals Without Scales and Fins: Fish: European turbot, catfish, eel, bullhead, MARLIN, paddlefish, shark, SWORDFISH, stickleback, sturgeon (most caviar included). Marine Animals with a Soft Body: limpet, octopus, cuttlefish, jellyfish, squid. Shellfish: oyster, lobster, clam, crab, abalone, crayfish, mussel, prawn, shrimp, scallop. Sea Mammals: dolphin, otter, seal, walrus, porpoise, whale. Scavenging Birds of Prey and Others: bat, albatross, pelican, OSTRICH, crow, crane, buzzard, condor, bittern, cormorant, coot, lapwing, kite, cuckoo, sandpiper, parrot, owl, swift, water hen, eagle, flamingo, grosbeck, grebe, gull, hawk, loon, heron, magpie, osprey, penguin, plover, rail, raven, swallow, stork, seagull, ROADRUNNER, vulture, and woodpecker. Reptiles: alligator, caiman, lizard, TURTLE, SNAKE, and crocodile. Amphibians: all of them.

GENESIS 7:2,8 and 8:20 prove that certain meats were “unclean,” or forbidden to eat long before the Mosaic dietary laws were codified. Those verses show that Noah somehow knew which animals were forbidden to eat.

GENESIS 7:2,3,5,8, 8:20: “You shall take with you seven each of every CLEAN animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are UNCLEAN, a male and his female; 3 also seven each of birds of the air, male and female …… 5 And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him …… 8 Of CLEAN animals, of animals that are UNCLEAN, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth …… 8:20: Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every CLEAN animal and of every CLEAN bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” To incorrectly claim that the dietary laws were abolished after the death of Jesus, when “unclean meats” already existed over 1,000 years before the dietary laws were formally listed by Moses, and especially when ISAIAH 66:17 reveals (in a distant, future age when all the big cats will be eating grass instead of meat) that certain meats will still be forbidden to eat another 1,000 years from now after the millennium, transcends the illogical, descending into raw arrogance, the essence of Satan.

1 John 3:4: “…… SIN IS THE VIOLATION OF THE LAW”

Romans 2:13: “For not the hearers of the LAW are just in the sight of God, but the DOERS of the LAW will be justified.”

Romans 6:1,2: “…… Shall we continue in SIN that grace may abound? 2 CERTAINLY NOT! How shall we …… live any longer in it?”

Romans 6:1,2: “What shall we say then? Shall we keep on doing WRONG THINGS so that God will be more kind to us? 2 NO, SURELY NOT! We died to our WRONG WAYS and no longer live in them.” (Worldwide English [New Testament])

Romans 6:1,2: “So what do we do? Keep on SINNING so God can keep on forgiving? I SHOULD HOPE NOT! 2 If we’ve left the country where SIN is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? (The Message) The word “SIN” appears in this and other verses, so remember, according to 1 John 3:4 above, it means ONLY one thing, BREAKING either the food, festival, tithing, Saturday rest, or some other OT or NT law or a combination of those laws.

Romans 3:31: “Are we abolishing Moses’ Teachings by this faith? THAT’S UNTHINKABLE! Rather, we are SUPPORTING Moses’ teachings.” (God’s Word Translation)

Still trust verse skipping mainstreamers’ LIE that you can now eat anything? Then read the following:

Romans 6:19: “…… For just as you presented your members as slaves of UNCLEANNESS, and of LAWLESSNESS leading to more lawlessness, SO NOW PRESENT YOUR MEMBERS AS SLAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR HOLINESS.”

The ORIGINAL, LITERAL Greek definition of UNCLEANNESS INCLUDES the Levitically “unclean” or forbidden foods!

The Greek definition of LAWLESSNESS refers primarily to breaking the Old Testament, Mosaic LAWS. The word “righteousness” in these Roman verses usually refers to the Jewish LAW keeping type of righteousness. So according to the green, capitalized phrase above, Paul clearly commands us to start or to continue obeying the LAW, which includes continuing to avoid eating the forbidden meats.

Matthew 19:17: “….. BUT IF you want to enter into life, KEEP the commandments.”

Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are those who DO His commandments, that they may HAVE THE RIGHT to the tree of life ……” Remember, the Ten Commandments contain the one requiring rest on Saturday, not Sunday, which was started by the Catholics.

Yes, the death of Jesus did wipe away and atone for our sins (violations of the law), BUT IT WAS GENERALLY ONLY FOR OUR PAST, REPEAT, PAST SINS, NOT DELIBERATE, UNREPENTED OF SINS AFTER INITIAL REPENTANCE AND BAPTISM, according to the following verses!!

ROMANS 3:24,25: “…… GRACE, through …… Jesus: …… 25 in His pity God let the SINS OF EARLIER TIMES GO UNPUNISHED.” (Bible in Basic English) That is why we need to keep on obeying the law after our baptism. New, post baptismal sins, though, when confessed and sincerely repented of, can also be forgiven (1 John 1:9, 2:1,2). Abandoning one’s conversion and baptism, however, or deliberately and consistently sinning may ultimately be judged as unforgiveable according to Hebrews 6:4-6, and 10:26-27.

Disclaimer: The preceding scientific information was provided by sources deemed reliable, but the reader is encouraged to pursue his own verifying research for any questionable issue. Since this page is not being used to try to illegally practice medicine, it is for general information purposes only and is not necessarily intended to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any specific medical problem or dispense medical advice. Consult a licensed professional care provider if expert assistance is required.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Unless indicated otherwise, all Biblical quotations are from the New King James Version.