Why Study The Bible

I have a poem I would like to recite.

It’s a wonderful poem, and it was once put to music.

Just sit

right back

and you’ll hear a tale,

a tale of a fateful trip,

That started from this tropic port,

aboard this tiny ship.

The mate was a mighty sailin’ man,

the Skipper brave and sure.

Five passengers set sail that day for a three hour tour.

A three hour tour.

The weather started getting rough,

the tiny ship was tossed.

If not for the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost.

The Minnow would be lost.

The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle,

with Gilligan, the Skipper too, the Millionaire

and his wife, the movie star, the Professor

and Mary Ann, here on Gilligan’s Isle.

OK, it’s not great poetry. But it is familiar.

These words were the lyrics of the theme song of the old television series, Gilligan’s Island.

Is there anyone here who has never ever seen or heard of Gilligan’s Island.

The show appeared to be all about seven stranded castaways.

But, in reality, it was a theological Bible Study!

And it was all about the Seven Deadly Sins.

1. Most obvious is the Professor, who fits PRIDE to a T. Any man who can make a ham radio out of some wire and two coconuts has to be pretty proud of himself.

2. For the sin of ENVY we need look no further than Maryann, who may have worn those skimpy little tops, but could never achieve Ginger’s glamour.

3. And who could doubt for a moment that Ginger is LUST incarnate?

4. What kind of person takes a trunk full of money on a three-hour cruise? Mr.Howell gets my vote for GREED.

5. Mrs. Howell is the embodiment of SLOTH. She did absolutely no work at all during her many years on the island and everybody knows it.

6,7. This leaves ANGER and GLUTTONY, either of which the Skipper had no shortage. He was, after all, a big guy with the tendency to hit Gilligan with his hat at least once an episode. So we give him two sins, covering the two remaining Deadly Sins.

So here we have the Seven Deadly Sins trapped in an endlessly recurring Hell of hope followed by denial and despair, forced to live with each other in our TVs until the last re-run ends. And who is their captor? What keeps them trapped there? Gilligan.

Gilligan is SATAN. Think about it.

Gilligan is the one who trapped everyone on the Island!

The SEVEN DEADLY SINS!

It is easy to see them in other people.

It is not so easy to see these sins in ourselves!

But we need to. We need to examine ourselves so we can grow in faith and in our Walk with God.

And that is why during the Summer we are going to be studying the Seven Deadly Sins.

It is NOT a how to course. This is a how NOT TO course.

This is a course that will help us understand parts of ourselves we don’t like to see.

This class will be taught be several different people, and many times as the leaders were inviting people to teach these classes, the response of those of us being asked was often, “I’m not leading a class on THAT sin!” Some of them struck too close to home.

Gluttony! Gluttony! I got stuck with Gluttony! My only explanation is that the leaders wanted someone who knew from first hand experience the sin of Gluttony.

I am trying to lose weight between now and the class on gluttony.

But we are all guilty of all of these sins. Some of us perfect these sins more than others, but we all have these in common and we will find that if we are honest with ourselves, we will grow during this study and learn to deal more effectively with these sins.

Seven Deadly Sins! Who came up with this list.

If it had been David Letterman, he would have come up with a Top Ten List of Deadly Sins.

But there are seven. Where are the listed in the Bible?

They are found in the Bible, but you won’t find them as a list of seven sins.

They are peppered throughout the Scripture.

The idea of coming up with a specific number of deadly sins – sins that are especially destructive to our lives, is a very old concept. Some early lists of deadly sins included as many as 8, and as few as 5.

Pope Gregory I came up with a list of the Seven Sins. He died in AD 604, so this list has been around for a while.

It’s interesting, however, that while Pope Gregory gets credit for coming up with what we now know of as the Seven Deadly Sins, he did not list laziness, or sloth. He put down Sadness as one of the sins.