Someone poses a question respecting the deserted mate mentioned in 1 Corinthians 7:10-11, whether the deserted mate is helpless based on the whim of the mate who deserts the marriage. God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16), and at least one party to a divorce is guilty of sin. First Corinthians 7:10-11 represents an innocent party to a divorce for reasons other than fornication or adultery and a party who is guilty for deserting the marriage. (Irrespective of whether a legal separation or divorce is obtained, the physical departure or separation is essentially the same affect and sinful.) God through New Testament Scripture provides a single reason for which an innocent party to divorce may remarry another eligible candidate for marriage, and that is fornication or adultery (Matthew 5:32; 19:9). The scenario of 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 is desertion without inclusion of fornication or adultery, and lamentably, the innocent party under those circumstances has no biblical recourse whereby he may contract another marriage with God's approval. The guilty party who deserted in 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 continues to be guilty for the sin of breaking up the marriage, plus verse eleven cautions the one deserting the marriage not to compound the sin of breaching the marriage by committing fornication or adultery. However, often desertion is companion to fornication and adultery, and 1 Corinthians 7:11 even anticipates fornication or adultery by cautioning the one deserting a marriage to practice celibacy apart from one's marriage partner. When fornication or adultery enters the picture, the scenario is no longer one of merely desertion. The disciples recognized the hardship that may be involved in our Lord's restitution of God's original plan for marriage (Matthew 19:10-12).

Someone poses the question, "Where in the Bible does it talk about Halloween?" The Bible does not specifically mention Halloween. One reference work says of "Halloween," "the Scotch term for the eve of the feast of All-Saints" (McClintock and Strong). A dictionary definition of "Halloween" includes that it literally is "short for All Hallow Even (All Saints' Eve), but in our time, it is "October 31 observed especially with dressing up in disguise, trick-or-treating, and displaying jack-o'-lanterns during the evening" (Webster's).

First, "Halloween" pertains to a manmade religious holiday about which one cannot read in the Bible; on that basis, the child of God should have no regard for "Halloween" because it is not authorized in the Bible (Colossians 3:17). Second, to the extent that "Halloween" is practiced by its association with witches, ghosts and monsters, which type of things glorify what the Bible abhors (Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Revelation 21:8), the child of God should use good judgment respecting the same. Yet, if notice of "Halloween" pertains to national or local holidays or festivities where one is not making an unauthorized religious observance and not participating in questionable activities that conflict with Christianity, then the child of God ought to use good, personal judgment.

McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2000.

Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. CD-ROM. Springfield: Merriam-Webster, 1993.

Someone writes, "I would like to know what is the 'holy trinity' and where in the Bible scriptures is the answer supported." Though the word "trinity" does not appear in the English translation of the Bible, the matter represented by the word "trinity" is taught in the Scriptures. Scholars familiar with the original languages in which the Bible was written inform us that the word for "God" in Genesis 1:26 is plural, indicating that more than one person is meant by that term. In addition, the pronouns "us" and "our" in the same verse refer to a plural number of persons within the term "God" of Genesis 1:26. The word "Godhead" appears three times in our English Bibles (Acts 17:29; Romans 1:20; Colossians 2:9), and the term means "godlike" or "divine." This divinity is ascribed in Scripture to three divine persons (i.e., Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Matthew 3:16-17; 28:19; John 14:26). No more injustice is done by using the word "trinity" to refer to a biblical subject than is any injustice to Scripture incurred by using a term like "eschatology" to refer to final things (i.e., the Second Coming of Christ, the Great Judgment, assignment of eternal destinies). Understood in the context of doctrines taught in the Bible, either of these terms briefly announces a broad biblical subject.