Why aren't the women and children mentioned in the feeding of the 5000 miracle?

In the Bible it says that children are important. In the story of Jesus feeding the 5000, it says there were 5000 men, not including the number of women and children. Why is that?

That is an awesome question and you’re probably not going to like my answer! The fact is the Holy Bible was written in a time when the society was patriarchal, which means a society where men were considered more important. BTW, this was common in our world and still exists in many places today. Most references referring to men and women or even groups of people are referred to in the masculine form. You’ll see the pronoun “he” used a lot and the pronoun “she” used infrequently unless it relates to a specific woman.

We have to remember that the Bible was written during a time when men were considered more important and women were seen as not as significant. The same applies to children.

The truth of the matter is that Jesus probably fed closer to 10,000 people that day but only the 5000 men were acknowledged in number. Now, that’s not to say that that Matthew, a Jewish tax collector, didn’t, at least, acknowledge the women and the children. In Matthew 14:21, it reads, “The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.”

If Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden, why did they cover their bodies and not their mouths?

Another great question! So, prior to them taking a bite from fruit that was from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden and they were naked. But, because sin hadn’t entered into the world, they had no reservations about being naked because there was nothing unnatural or wrong with it. Think about it, no other creature or animal was clothed, there were no other people and there was no evil associated with it.

I am often reminded of very little children who are about 2-years old who insist on taking off their diapers and running around naked! They do it out of innocence and aren’t embarrassed at all and don’t care because they are oblivious to their nakedness. They just don’t see the difference between their face, their knees or the part of their body that we parents insist they cover. Adam and Eve were similar in that type of thinking.

BUT, once they ate the fruit, the Bible says “their eyes were opened and they realized they were naked.” Sin had entered into mankind and the evil associated with nakedness, primarily lust, made them embarrassed and so they covered the parts of their bodies that affected lustful thoughts.

The covering of their bodies wasn’t meant as punishment, it was a way to hide their sin. Of course, these days, I sometimes wish we could cover some people’s mouths with fig leaves because of all the unwholesome and sinful speech coming out of it!!!

I heard a preacher say that when Jesus comes back, dead Christian's bodies would have life again. But this isn't true.

Great question you raise! That preacher was not confused or mixed up. He was actually quoting 1 Thessalonians 4:16-16, which reads, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

When Jesus returns, all who died prior to Jesus’ Second Coming, who have accepted Him as their Lord and Savior, their physical bodies will be resurrected. Remember, we have a spiritual body (our souls) and a physical body. When we die, our spiritual bodies instantly go to Heaven but our physical bodies are still here. Anytime the Bible speaks of a resurrection, it is a physical event involving a physical body. So, those who area dead in Christ will receive resurrected bodies.

Don’t ask me how this works because it is one of the mysteries God chose not to reveal. However, we can be assured that those who died before Christ’s return will be first to ascend then those who are alive will go up to meet them. All of the believers will receive resurrected, “glorified” bodies.

If you are in Hell, can you actually see what Heaven looks like?

Yikes! Great question! The Bible doesn’t say outright but we do get a slight glimpse of the possibility of being able to see Heaven from Hell from the story of the rich man and a man named Lazarus. In the story, the rich man dies and ends up in Hell and sees Lazarus in Heaven with Abraham. The rich man asks Abraham to give him some relief because he is in agony and Abraham say that he cannot because, “…Between us and you a great chasm has been fixed so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross from there to us.” (Luke 16:26) In this story, we know that the rich man can see towards Heaven and can see partially into Heaven but we cannot know for sure that he can see all of Heaven. What we do know is that, once you are condemned to Hell, you are stuck there for eternity.

So, how can a person avoid the same fate as the rich man and live in Heaven with God like Lazarus? Honestly, there is only one way to get to Heaven and the great thing about it is that it doesn’t involve you or me having to be good! The truth is: Jesus is the only way to Heaven. He makes this quite clear in John 14:6, when He says, “I am the truth, the way and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It’s not about being good because we can never be “good enough.” It’s about being forgiven and being saved through the grace of Jesus Christ.

Where do animals go when they die?

Wow! That is an awesome question! And I believe what you are asking me is if animals go to Heaven when they die. I get this question a lot because when kids lose their pets, they want to know if their pet gets to go to Heaven.

The truth is we don’t really know and this question has been debated among Bible scholars for a long time. It is one of the mysteries that God has chosen not to reveal to us.

Some Bible scholars claim that animals, however smart they can be, have no souls so they cannot have an immortal spirit that can survive after death. They also argue that animals were created inferior to human and they are not equal to us. Genesis 1:26 says, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Still other Bible scholars make the argument that there are animals in Heaven and reference Biblical passages such as Isaiah 65:25, which talks about the new Heaven and new Earth and describes all sorts of animals living together, and Revelation 19:14, which describes Jesus and his army returning on horses.

I tend to believe what it says in Matthew 19:26, “…with God, all things are possible.” I also know God’s character and I personally believe that God, in His infinite love and wisdom, created a Heaven that is a place of perfect happiness. For me, perfect happiness would include all of God’s beauty and creation, including animals.

Is my hope based on complete Biblical truth? Nope. I’m just hoping that I’m right!

What happens to your spirit when you die?

Wow, what an awesome question! And it’s also a very difficult question to answer because so many Bible scholars have different opinions on it. The truth is that no one knows for sure what happens the moment we die and I think that God had a good reason for keeping us wondering about the mysteries of heaven. Perhaps our brains just couldn’t grasp the realities of eternity.

BUT, the Holy Bible does reveal the following truth about the afterlife. We know that while our earthly bodies will die, our spirit will continue on for eternity. The million dollar question then becomes, where are you going to spend eternity? And there are only two choices there; you can spend eternity with God or apart from God.

You see, the choice is really yours. God gave you free will to either choose Him or reject Him. If you choose to follow God and accept Jesus as your Savior, you will spend eternity with God in Heaven. If you choose to reject God, then you will spend eternity separated from God in a place that God never meant for you. The Bible even says this place, Hell, is a place that God “prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

Remember when I said earlier that no one knows for sure what happens the moment we die? Well, there are many Bible scholars who believe your spirit goes somewhere else before you get to Heaven and that you’ll only get to Heaven once Jesus returns. However, there are other Bible scholars that believe you enter God’s presence at death. We just don’t know.

Here’s what I’m confident of: If you believe that Jesus is who He says He is and you’ve received Him as your Lord and Savior, you will be with God forever (Psalm 23:6) and that Jesus is preparing a special place for all us believers in Heaven! (John 14:1-3) Not only are you with God forever, you will never die again (Revelation 21:1-4).

What is Calvary?

Calvary is the name of the hill where Jesus was crucified. In the New Testament, it is also called “Golgotha,” which means “the Place of the Skull” in the Aramaic language (Aramaic is an ancient form of the Hebrew language that was very likely Jesus’ primary language). The Greek translation for “skull” is kranion, which is where we get the English word cranium but the Latin word for "skull" is calvaria, which is where we get the English word, Calvary.

So, when you hear it mentioned in a song, it simply refers to the place where Jesus was crucified.