June 13, 2009

"The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God." Psalm 14:1

One of the big themes of this week's posts has been the contention that behind the push for Evolution and against Creationism is the promotion of an anti-God agenda. Most of the prime movers of this agenda show an arrogance and a ignorance that refuses to acknowledge God and to demean the intelligence of those who do.

When the Psalmist wrote the Psalm I referenced above, he was referring not to the intelligence or the intellect of a person who denies the existence of God and His role in the origin of man, it refers to his morality. The word "fool" means "morally deficient". Question the morality of anyone who denies Creation.

Early attacks in this movement began with attacks on the veracity of the Bible and then challenges to the Christian foundation of our nation. Fortunately, there are still a few courageous and principled men who are willing to stand for the truth. Watch this and be encouraged.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpQOCvthw-o

Know what you believe. Know why you believe it. Live like you believe it and stand courageously for it!

June 12, 2009

"Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." I Corinthians 1:20-21

Evolutionists try to infer that those of us who believe in Creation and Intelligent Design are simple-minded fools. They imply that we are intellectually inferior because we "cling to faith and religious fables".

The purpose of this post is to show that Christians who believe in the Genesis account of Creation do not have to be intimidated by evoluntionists. We ARE people of faith, but it takes a giant leap of faith to embrace the "Big Bang" and evolution as the origins of the universe.

Consider this reference to former atheistic evolutionist, Fred Hoyle, was an astronomer who, in 1953, figured out the preconditions necessary for the formation of carbon. He reasoned that the likelihood of this happening by chance, as the Big Bang theory suggests, were phenomenally low, and this revelation lead him to convert from atheism to a belief that the universe reflects a "purposeful intelligence." Hoyle admitted that the 'probability of life originating at random is so utterly miniscule as to make the random concept absurd.'" Again, Hoyle's conclusion does not prove that there is a God or an Intelligent Designer; however, it is important to note that Hoyle's intellectual honesty about evolution led him to the conclusion that it, too, required a great act of faith. Hoyle's conclusions then, suggest that it takes as much or more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in a purposeful Designer.1

Hoyle is not alone. Over the past century and a half, paleonologists have examined an estimated 1 billion fossils representing 250,000 to be the oldest in which fossils of living creatures have been found. Interestingly, all of these remians foudn within the Cambrian rocks are fossils of fully formed creatures. Life-complete, fully mature creatures - appears en masse.

This "Cambrian explosion" - the term coined to refer to the puzzling fact that these creatures seemed to have "burst on the scene" -- brings to the surface a fact particularly troubling for the evoluntionary theory. Each of these living forms appears suddenly - completely developed - in fossil record, not through gradual transition as evolution would suggest. Charles Darwin himself recognized that the earth's fossil record does not reveal this long-sought "intermediate varieties." Regarding this complete lack of transitional fossils, Darwin had to admit, "This, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory."

So, with a complete and honest examination of the evidence, it takes a greater leap of faith - and logic - to believe that God did NOT create the universe. Who is the fool and who is the wise man?

1 -"The 10 Most Common Objections to Christianity" - Alex McFarland, pp. 58-59

June 11, 2009

"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.

June10, 2009

Imperial Majesty, which costs $215,000 a bottle, is the most expensive perfume in the world. Would it smell as sweet at any other price?

The extravagant price of Imperial Majesty is due largely to it's creator. It is a Clive Christian signature scent. Sold simply as No. 1, the fragrance is priced at $2,150 an ounce. But the reason Imperial Majesty costs so much is that Christian, a British designer-turned-perfumer, poured 16.9 ounces of No. 1 into a Baccarat crystal bottle, stuck a five-carat diamond into the 18-carat gold collar.

How about a nice pair of designed boots? There are a lot of exotic leathers--alligator, snake and ostrich, to name a few. The more leather, the higher the price, so there were a lot of boots, too, including the pair of $14,000 Manolo Blhanik alligator boots that topped our list!

Wow! Why would anyone pay $14,000 for a pair of boots? Oh, I forgot, they were created by Manolo Blhanik!

Anyone need a nice new pair of jeans? The popular worker’s denim trousers have become modern day fashion and status symbols. Designer jeans come in and out of popularity but in early 2000’s, expensive jeans started coming back into fashion with brands such as APO Jeans, Chip and Pepper, Paper Denim & Cloth, Seven for All Mankind, True Religion and many other brands costing $200 or more per pair.

The Guinness Book of Records lists a pair of Gucci genius jeans featuring elaborate feathers, beads, rips and buttons as most expensive jeans off-the-rack at a cost of $3,134.

But recently Forbes has showcased Escada’s Swarovski crystal-encrusted expensive jeans which sell for $10,000 US.

When it comes to fashion, it seems that the value of an item is associated with its creator. Apparently people will pay big money to get their hands on items created by famous designers. So, value of a fashion article is tied directly to who created it.

Following that line of reasoning you would naturally assume that people would want to tie their own personal value to the greatest Creator and Designer ever, God!

If you make that assumption - you would be wrong! Some of the very same people who covet jeans, or perfumes, or handbags, or boots created by the best known designers, do not value their own creator! In fact, they devalue themselves by insisting that they are the product of the evoluntionary process rather than a special creation of an ominiscent, omnipotent, infinite, and loving God.

There is nothing wrong with having valuable things, but when you have to depend on those things to give you value - that is a problem. How would you know when you have enough? How do you handle those people who have more valuable things than you?

If you feel like you have to acquire value by possessing and attaining valuable stuff, maybe you ought to stop and think through that a little better.

Here's a better idea - BE a valuable thing! Find your value in the God who designed you, created you, redeemed you and desires to re-create you from the inside out. Put down that Gucci and pick up God. Quit trying to add value and accept the value God placed on you when He gave His Son for you!

June 9, 2009

Our Founding Fathers wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are create equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights..."

Why did these distiguished and learned men not have trouble deferring to God's wisdom and being accountable to His principles? Could it be that they were more committed to a pursuit of truth than to believing the lie?

The lie? What lie?

The lie that rules the world, the deception that we can be in control of our own lives and live without consequences. It began, of all places, in Heaven! It spread to another unlikely venue, Paradise (Eden). I chronicled that in my last post.

Unfortunately, it continues to spread:

"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. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie (or "the lie"), and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen." Romans 1:21-25

We don't seem to do too well when we take control of our own lives and when we don't worry about the consequences of our sinfulness. The future trend doesn't seem too hopeful:

"The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe 'the lie' and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." II Thessalonians 2:9-12

What must you do to resist "the lie"? The text I just referenced tells us that we must believe the truth. Actually, that should be "Truth" with a capital "T" because it is not referring merely to statements and concepts but to a Person! Jesus is "the Way, the TRUTH, and the Life". Are you clinging to Him? Have you surrendered control of your life to Him? Have you sought His forgiveness for your sins?'

Bottom line, there are just two ways to approach life - two ways to view your world - The Truth or The Lie.

June 8, 2009

My apologies to the "blogosphere", my computer was down for awhile. I couldn't seem to get online.

In my message yesterday I'm not sure I adequately supported my claim that there are two main reasons why atheists or agnostics work so hard to reason God out of existence. While I am sure that I was correct, I want to make sure I do a better job of validating my statements that unbelievers refuse to believe in God because they want to control their life and they don't want consequences for their sins.

Those self-centered desires contributed significantly to the original sin:

"How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit." Isaiah 14:12-15

This is a record of Lucifer's sin - motived by a desire to be in control and not have to account to anyone for his actions. Well, he got his wish - but not like he thought. According to Revelation 12, he pulled 1/3 of the heavenly angels into his deception:

"Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth....And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him." Revelation 12:2-4; 7-9

Apparently these angelic beings gave into the lure of control and freedom from accountability - even in the presence of God!

As tragic as this event was, it didn't end there. Lucifer, once and an exalted angel, appears to Adam and Eve in the form of a lowly serpent. He shows up to spread the lie:

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' " "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." Genesis 3:1-7

The lie spreads. Why? Because of the power of the temptation to grab control of your life and sin without consequences is hard to resist. And thanks to Adam and Eve, it is now a part of our moral nature.

One of my all-time favorite teachers, Warren Wiersbe, calls this lie, "the lie that rules the world". I'll have more to say about this in my next post, but let me pause and ask you, "Is this law ruling your life?" It is inherent in your moral nature, what are you doing to resist it or oppose it? It destroyed Lucifer, it damned one-third of the angels, and it corrupted Adam and Eve. Unless you cling desparately to God's truth, you will fall prey to it's deception, as well.

June 6, 2009

Before I begin my devotional thought I want to take a moment to wish my beautiful bride, Barbara, a happy anniversary! Thanks for sharing this journey with me, believing in me and for being such an incredible ministry partner! I love you very much!

Another way that God proves His existence is:

Communication Requires A Communicator

When you desire a love relationship with someone you want to communicate that fact to the object of your love. If you believe that God is love and that we human beings are the objects of His love, then you can expect that He would attempt to communicate His love to them.

Here are just a few ways He has tried to communicate with us that also evidence His existence.

Creation. The creation of the universe tells us there IS a God. It tells us that He is a powerful and infinite God. It gives evidence of an orderly and highly intelligent God.

Consciousness. God created us with self-awareness and intelligence and an internal moral guidance system called a conscience. He gave us this "radar" so that we can become aware of His existence and seek to know more about Him.

Chosen People. God communicated with several chosen people through whom He could communicate to the Human race. Men like Abraham, Noah, Joseph, Moses, and King David showed the power and purpose of God. He used these chosen men to raise up a Chosen Nation through Whom He could reach the world.

Changed Lives. Through men and women who heard God and obeyed Him, He demonstrated the amazing positive impact of His love, power and holiness. For instance, Saul of Tarsus was an antagonist of Christians bent on their elimination. But due to a supernatural encounter with God, Saul became Paul the Apostle who established the Christian faith through his writings and planting churches.

Christ. God's desire to communicate with mankind reached its zenith when God Himself became a man in order to reach men and women. His teachings, His example of holy living, His miracles, His death and His resurrection proved that Jesus was, indeed, the Son of God.

Because God knew that man was uncapable of seeking Him, He came to seek them. As the incarnate Son of God, Jesus, was uniquely qualified to die as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Three days after his brutal death by crucifixion, He rose again from the dead. That is a clear message of God's person, power, and purpose to all who believe in Him.

Church. Following Jesus' return to Heaven, God sent the Holy Spirit into the world to infill and empower those who hear and obey His voice. Through the teaching, preaching and ministry of the Church, God seeks to become real to those who are honestly seeking Him.

We live in an age of instant communication. I can choose one of several ways to communicate immediately with whoever I want to talk with. I can call on my cell phone, I can send a text message on my phone, or I can send an email on my computer. If I get lonely for one of my children or need to communicate with Barbara, I can dial a number to speak to them and hear their voices within a matter of seconds.

It is natural to want to communicate with those you love. You have a deep desire to know them and be known by them. So it is with God.

I find it amazingly humbling that God would want to communicate with me! The fact that He has gone to great effort and expense to be able to know me and make Himself known to me!

God wants to communicate with you right now. Will you take the time to listen?