Tuesday, August 23, 2011

August 24, 2011

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.' God's Wrath Against Mankind The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles." Romans 1:16-23

Remember the good news, bad news jokes?

Doctor: I have some good news and I have some bad news.

Patient: What's the good news?

Doctor: The good news is that the tests you took showed that you have 24 hours to live.

Patient: That's the good news? What's the bad news?

Doctor: The bad news is that I forgot to call you yesterday!

Doctor: I have some good news and some bad news.

Patient: What's the good news?

Doctor: The good news is they are naming a disease after you!

In Romans Chapter 1, Paul tells you about some Good News and some bad news. I suggest you pay close attention.

Before I pursue that thought let me call your attention to the fact that their is no such thing as "Neutral" news. There is "Good News" or "Bad News" and you are involved in one or the other.

The good news is that the "Good News" IS the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "Gospel" means "good news". Jesus came to bring good news from God for mankind. Jesus came to be the Redeemer that would take away the sins of the world.

Paul says that the Gospel is "the power of God for salvation". Salvation from what? Salvation from the bad news.

How does that work? What is that power?

The "Gospel" is the good news that there is a righteousness that can deliver you from the bad news. That righteousness is found in a Person, Jesus Christ. The "Gospel" is good news exposes the bad news and points to the way out. When you place our faith in that good news of God's righteousness, you enter into a relationship with Jesus that gives you His righteousness.

Part of having faith in His good news requires you to confront and confess the bad news in your life. As you cling to His righteousness and repent of your "rottenness", you enter into a personal relationship with God through Christ that gains you access to all His power and holiness! "Rottenness" is rooted in your refusal to believe the goodness and avail yourself of His righteousness. Bad news loves being rotten and revels in it.

The first chapter of Romans lays it out simply. There is good news about God's righteousness and bad news about our rottenness. It also clearly details the choices, the motives and the ultimate outcomes of each way. And it issues an ultimatum:

Live in righteousness or die in rottenness. Have the joy of knowing you are right with God or suffer the shame of rejecting Him.

August 23, 2011

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." Hebrews 11:1-3

To believe in creation requires faith. Accepting the evolutionary theory of origin also takes faith. Because faith is defined as "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see". Neither creationists or evolutionists have seen their "first cause" each is certain of its existence. Creationists put their faith in Scripture while evolutionists put their trust in science. Which do you think forms the best foundation?

Frank Crick is a Nobel-prize winning biologist who helped with the discovery of DNA. He is a man who has devoted his life to science and has invested great faith in it. Here is a quote from him relating to the origin of the universe, "An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to almost be a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have to have been satisfied to get it going."

Science journalist and author, Charles Siefe observed, "It seems like a tremendous conincidence that the universe is suitable for life."

Coincidence? Miracle? Random chance occurance? What is the origin of our universe?

One thing is sure, the tolerance for error in the beginning of the universe was extremely slight. Astro-physicist, Lawrence Krause, for instance, wrote that if the force of gravity were changed by 0.0000000000000000000000000000000001%, both the planet Earth and the sun would be nonexistent.

Honest examination of the facts and the evidence and the mathematical probabilities strongly favor supernatural creation as the origin of our universe. But your final answer will come down to where you place your faith. And faith is based on what you hope to be true.

Evolutionists hope that God does not exist and that the universe spontaneously exploded into existence. Why would they not want God to be the Creator of the universe?

Again, I hearken by to my two main reasons offered previously:

1) They want to be in control of their own lives.

2) They want to sin without having any consequences.

If, as Scripture records, God is the Creator, then He is in control and we are accountable to Him. But, if the scientific theory of the "Big Bang" and evolution are correct, then their is no God and we are in charge.

That is the essence of sin. St. Paul expressed it this way:

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." Romans 1:19-21

I would caution you against hoping God away from the creation process. If there is no God and if all that we see in our world and universe is an incredible coincidence, then where is our security? If it all came together via a random occurance of matter and energy, what is to keep it from all coming apart? How can you have hope in the midst of that uncertainty? If we can only be certain of the moment in which we live then what is the purpose of living? If we are gods, what has our diety gained us?

If you are trusting in science, has science ever been wrong? Are you sure that you want to pin your hopes on something as inexact as science?

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for...." Be careful what you hope for.