The next logical question then is “why can’t we communicate with them“? Isaiah 59:1, 2, and Hebrews 10:12 answer this very important thought. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,” (This “right hand of God” is another reference to the throne room, or Sanctuary.) We are isolated here because of sin. Jesus had to die to save us from sin, but only once and only here. He did not have to go to any other planet and die for anyone there. So there is therefore no other world in rebellion against the Lord. All the rest of creation is at peace with God.
This brings up a very important point. They were there. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Since death is the penalty for sin, and there is no sin in the rest of the universe, these beings have lived through countless eons of time and have watched every moment of human history unfold. They haven’t just had the privilege of seeing things from our point of view; they have also watched God as He worked to save this world.
Think about the full realities of this point. For however many years these ‘people’ have lived, they never once have had to experience any pain or suffering at all. Before this world began, they never knew what it was like to be lied to, or stole from. Yet now they have seen every murder, every broken home, every wrong thing that’s ever happened in this world.
In Job chapters 1 and 2 Satan came as earth’s representative because he did in fact steal this planet from Adam and Eve as is told in Genesis 3:1-7. Just as Adam is called a son of God, Lucifer (Satan’s original name) is referred to as “son of the morning” in Isaiah 14:12. Therefore he was once the highest angel, next in line to the Lord Himself. This reference along with Ezekiel 28:12-17 and Revelation 12:3-9 are the three most notable descriptions in the Bible of the devil. Ezekiel 28:15 says “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.” Lucifer at some point traded away the perfection God had originally given him and became Satan. Why did he do this? Isaiah 14:13 gives us the answer. “For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north”. This desire for pride and self-exaltation lead to war in Heaven. Lucifer became Satan when he desired a place higher than he already had. The only place left was that of the Lord Himself. According to Revelation 12:4, 9 Satan took a full one-third of the angels with him as they were cast down to this earth.
Yet here he is in Job chapters 1 and 2 still in Heaven! He still had some level of access to the rest of the universe and was not fully cast down at this point. There must have been some questions raised in the minds of those who live on the other planets when Lucifer started this rebellion. God had to take time to answer them, which is what world history is really all about. We can give a reasonable guess as to what those questions were simply by examining the kinds of questions people here ask today. “Does He really love us?” “Is He really fair?” “Why does His law say if you’re not in complete submission to Him, you must die?” “How can I be expected to live up to God’s law anyway?” “Is the Lord right in demanding our worship and adoration, or is He just on some sort of ego-trip?” One more very important question as well “If You are going to let the people of earth whom You save join the fellowship of these other planets Lord, how can we be sure they can be trusted?” This is of course not the question we ask, but it must be the question the rest of the universe is asking about us.
All these questions and whatever others there may have been are getting their answers in a living demonstration as world history plays out. In fact, when you study it out completely, the earth is one big giant experiment to test if there is any possible way to run the universe other than God’s. The Lord is really the one on trial. Not only did Adam and Eve fall, but in every generation their children have carried on the family business. Yet the Lord has been continually offering mercy and kindness, even to those who don’t care about Him. All of world history from the fall of our first parents (highlighted by the story of Cain and Abel) to the flood can be summed up in one sentence: God gave the rest of the universe a demonstration of just how bad things would get elsewhere if sin were allowed to run rampant. The rest of the Old Testament time period can also be described with one simple statement: The Lord gave man a chance to recover through obedience. The Ten Commandments are God’s Law. Violating them is what 1 John 3:4 says is sin. In Exodus 24:3 “all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words which the Lord has said we will do.’” However they were trying in their own strength. Their history showed just how futile it is for any of us to try to make ourselves good enough for God.
The next phase of human history is in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. This is simply put as: God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. From the New Testament we can see a progressive decline in the place Satan has in the universe. Cross reference Luke 10:18 with Revelation 12:12 and you will see that Satan has now lost his place and is confined to this world. “And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” “Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” When you think about it, the devil spent at least 4000 years telling everyone who would listen that he was the real victim, yet Jesus, who is God the Son, came and proved every one of the devil’s charges to be false.
Philippians 2:5-8 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Jesus “humbled Himself”, though He should not have had to, He did. His example shows the humility of God, that He keeps His own law and that He really does love us to go to such great lengths to save us. After putting his own Creator on the cross, Lucifer lost all credibility with the rest of the universe. The planet He stole was now bought back by Jesus.
When Jesus went back to Heaven, they were ready to receive Him. He returned in triumph to make everything ready for when He would come back to earth and rescue us. Jesus can now judge us fairly, because He knows what it’s like to live the way we do. Human history now entered its fourth phase as the results of Jesus achievement were to be shared across the entire world and also demonstrated in the lives of those who received Him as their Saviour. The angels and the beings on the other planets have watched the progress His followers have made over the last 20 centuries in fulfilling His calling.
They will also watch in triumph as God works through His people in this fifth phase of history, what the Bible calls “the last days” to bring this entire controversy to its rightful conclusion. This is the time period we live in today. It’s the one where people are running to and fro with an increase of knowledge which began a little over 150 years ago. It’s the one with man trying desperately to create a heaven on earth for himself and take back his place among the stars while the Lord is working at the same time to make people ready His way, with the full and complete truths of the Bible restored in their lives. As mentioned in the last chapter and one of the most important points of this whole book, the dark ages were a spiritual as well as an intellectual darkness. That which most people today think the Bible says is only what they were told the Bible says by the influence the dark ages had on western civilization. Jesus spoke in Matthew 7:21-23 of a great many people alive at His Second Coming that He will say He didn’t know even though they thought they were His people. Why is that? Because when given a chance to fully recover from the darkness they turned it down. More on this will be discussed in another chapter.
Though the discussion here has been of the entire world on the grandest possible scale, each and every human life is also a repeat of this same controversy. Psalm 91:11 says, “For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.” This “charge” does not mean “control”; it instead means “responsibility”. Just like in the old cartoons, when someone has to make a moral decision there was a good angel on one shoulder and a bad angel on the other, each whispering advice. God sends His angels to influence and protect us, while Satan is using his angels to lead us astray in any way possible. The interest the angels and the beings of the other planets have is just as much in your life and mine as it is in everyone else’s.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Chapter Three Post One Bible Proof There's Life on Other Planets
Welcome to "SCIENCE, THE BIBLE AND LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS" the contents of a book examining issues between faith and our modern values. Each chapter will be divided into 3 or 4 posts of about a page and a half each. May all who read this be challenged to think in new ways and experience personal growth because of it. Sincerely, Les Miller "Mr. Les"The blog will be divided into 10 chapters, each one sub-divided into 3 or 4 posts, about a page and a half each.
The contents are as follows:
TRANSLUCITE
SCIENCE FICTION AND THE MEANING OF OUR MODERN AGE
BIBLE PROOF THERE’S LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS
JOB LEARNED WHAT WE ALL MUST
OF COURSE THEY LANDED ON THE MOON
WHY HAVEN’T THEY GONE BACK?
THE (NOT SO) SECRET KEYS THAT UNLOCK THE REAL TRUTH
JOHN 3:16 IN DEPTH
MR. SPIELBERG HAVE I GOT A SCRIPT FOR YOU
EPILOGUE “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
Chapter three BIBLE PROOF THERE’S LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS
Alberta, Canada is well known as an important source of dinosaur bones. Dinosaur Provincial Park, where many specimens have been discovered, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town of Drumheller plays host to the “Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology”. A half hour’s drive north from there the “Big Valley Creation Science Museum” exists in the town of Big Valley. My wife and I happened to visit this museum the day before its grand opening a few years ago. The displays were very professional. Some of which presented quite reasonable challenges to the theory of evolution while others gave highly compelling evidence of the Genesis account of early world history. We purchased a few books that also made their case for creation the same way.
“In the Beginning - Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood (7th Edition)” by Walt Brown Ph.D., Director of The Center for Scientific Creation, was one of those books. It’s actually very sad to say, but even if he is completely right with all the rest of his theories (and I’m not a scientist so I can’t say for sure) Mr. Brown totally invalidates himself with two sections dealing with the issues of life on other planets and the age of the universe. He might as well be trying to prove the world is flat after all. The modern non-biblical world view is so ingrained into today’s youth; his opinions on these topics will have no credibility in their eyes (see “In the Beginning” pages 232-235 and 247-248).
Ultimately no one can really prove creation or evolution. Rocks and flowers prove one or the other if that’s what you want them to. Most people take a similar approach to the Bible by reading their pre-conceived notions into it rather than a careful study to let it speak for itself. Pastor George Vandeman was speaker /director of the “It Is Written” television show from the 1950’s to the early 1990’s. He therefore witnessed the transition from the previous generation’s mindset influenced by the Bible, into that of the Baby Boomers and beyond. On page 5 of “Planet in Rebellion”, Pastor Vandeman writes “For who of us is not aware that during a few short decades the planet that was once our universe has dwindled into a planet that can never again be completely isolated from its stellar neighbors”.
However the discoveries of science did not threaten his faith at all. “But nothing, I believe, will help us get our bearings and settle our confusion than to look through our giant telescopes to the stars fixed in the planned precision of their unfailing orbits – and discover who is back of it all” (page 12). His position that there is in fact life on other planets is illustrated by quoting Isaiah 45:18 “For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.” He then adds “Therefore if this world were not the abode of life, its creation would have been in vain – useless. Would it not naturally follow that if such be true of this little speck of cosmic dust, then much if not all of God’s creation would likewise be in vain if not put to some intelligent use” (page 22)?
As we saw from Hebrews 1:1-3, God made all that we can see “out there”. Did He make it all for the benefit of planet earth on day four of creation? If so, why bother to put mountains on the moon or a red spot on Jupiter since we didn’t find them until Galileo? Why have galaxies billions of light years away if we can’t even see them with the naked eye? What about life out there then? Isaiah 40:15 says “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.” If the 226 nations of earth are a drop in the bucket (this is where that phrase came from), then there are obviously millions of planets with inhabited, developed societies on them throughout the universe.
In Nehemiah 9:6 the “host” of heaven worships God. These are beings, not inanimate objects. “You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, The seas and all that is in them, And You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.” “Host” is an old English word for large group of people. Elsewhere the Bible says He is the Lord of “hosts”, as in more than one group.
One particular large group is mentioned in Daniel chapter 7. This is a vision the Lord gave the prophet Daniel of world history from his time forward. After the rise and fall of the Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires and their transition into “Christendom”, the nations of Europe under the domination of the church; the vision finishes with a special emphasis on heaven’s point of view. Daniel is shown the actual throne room where God the Father and Jesus begin the first phase of Their judgement of planet earth. Elsewhere in the Bible this room is referred to as the “Temple in Heaven”, or the “Sanctuary”. We will examine this judgement and what it means for us more closely in “The (Not So) Secret Keys That Unlock the Real Truth”.
For now let’s look at verses 9 and 10 “I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.”
What is ten thousand times ten thousand? 100 million! The largest stadium in this world is in the Czech Republic and holds almost 250,000 people. Yet this one room holds 400 times more. Now, in many countries on earth, there is a regular army and then there is an elite inner guard charged solely with protecting the Head of State. Are these 100 million angels the sum total of all the angels out there? Likely this is not the case because the text also said “thousands of thousands”.
The text in Nehemiah cross references well with what Paul called the “third heaven” in 2 Corinthians 12:2. (This is one point where I disagree with Mormonism. They have some strange belief based on this verse that makes no sense.) The three levels of heaven are: 1. the blue sky; 2. what we now call outer space, which is where the hosts live; and 3. the holy city, New Jerusalem, where God’s throne is now and in which He receives worship. This is one reason some people can find the Bible confusing as sometimes when the Bible says “heaven(s)” it is only talking about our blue sky. Revelation 21:1 for instance, is not talking about the rest of the universe, its just talking about our atmosphere. “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.” The Lord knew that pollution would be an issue in our time. He promises that when He makes the earth anew, He will give us a clean atmosphere again. (Not that we shouldn’t take care of the world the best we can now, of course. But the thought that we actually will destroy this earth through pollution is a lie.)
One of the most striking texts in the Bible is a multi-level prophecy that has recently been fulfilled once more. From Obadiah verse 4 we can draw the conclusion that our Heavenly Father knew the conflict in science and religion would take place with two differing views of Heaven as a hot button issue. In it He says “Though you ascend as high as the eagle, And though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down,” says the Lord.” Though began by the Soviet Union with Sputnik in 1957 and continued today by many nations including Japan, China, Canada and the European Union, the nation with the eagle as its symbol claims to have won the space race as the United States was the one country that has landed men on the moon. The U.S. has also lead out in the development of the International Space Station. Obadiah 4 promises we will see Jesus come back to this world from the same realm of physical space that this permanent resting place, or “nest” for mankind has been established in.
The fact that there is life out there is proven most clearly by cross-referencing a few texts. A sort of heavenly convention is discussed in Job 1:6, 7 and again in chapter two, but we’ll only look at this first reference. Notice the phrase “sons of God” “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ So Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.’” In Luke 3:38 Adam is listed as a son of God “… the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. “ The other sons of God at this meeting then are the Adam type beings, the first created ones, or the leaders of the other planets. Evidently the Lord holds meetings with representatives of all the other planets on a regular basis as Satan returns quickly to discuss Job again in the next chapter.
The contents are as follows:
TRANSLUCITE
SCIENCE FICTION AND THE MEANING OF OUR MODERN AGE
BIBLE PROOF THERE’S LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS
JOB LEARNED WHAT WE ALL MUST
OF COURSE THEY LANDED ON THE MOON
WHY HAVEN’T THEY GONE BACK?
THE (NOT SO) SECRET KEYS THAT UNLOCK THE REAL TRUTH
JOHN 3:16 IN DEPTH
MR. SPIELBERG HAVE I GOT A SCRIPT FOR YOU
EPILOGUE “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
Chapter three BIBLE PROOF THERE’S LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS
Alberta, Canada is well known as an important source of dinosaur bones. Dinosaur Provincial Park, where many specimens have been discovered, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town of Drumheller plays host to the “Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology”. A half hour’s drive north from there the “Big Valley Creation Science Museum” exists in the town of Big Valley. My wife and I happened to visit this museum the day before its grand opening a few years ago. The displays were very professional. Some of which presented quite reasonable challenges to the theory of evolution while others gave highly compelling evidence of the Genesis account of early world history. We purchased a few books that also made their case for creation the same way.
“In the Beginning - Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood (7th Edition)” by Walt Brown Ph.D., Director of The Center for Scientific Creation, was one of those books. It’s actually very sad to say, but even if he is completely right with all the rest of his theories (and I’m not a scientist so I can’t say for sure) Mr. Brown totally invalidates himself with two sections dealing with the issues of life on other planets and the age of the universe. He might as well be trying to prove the world is flat after all. The modern non-biblical world view is so ingrained into today’s youth; his opinions on these topics will have no credibility in their eyes (see “In the Beginning” pages 232-235 and 247-248).
Ultimately no one can really prove creation or evolution. Rocks and flowers prove one or the other if that’s what you want them to. Most people take a similar approach to the Bible by reading their pre-conceived notions into it rather than a careful study to let it speak for itself. Pastor George Vandeman was speaker /director of the “It Is Written” television show from the 1950’s to the early 1990’s. He therefore witnessed the transition from the previous generation’s mindset influenced by the Bible, into that of the Baby Boomers and beyond. On page 5 of “Planet in Rebellion”, Pastor Vandeman writes “For who of us is not aware that during a few short decades the planet that was once our universe has dwindled into a planet that can never again be completely isolated from its stellar neighbors”.
However the discoveries of science did not threaten his faith at all. “But nothing, I believe, will help us get our bearings and settle our confusion than to look through our giant telescopes to the stars fixed in the planned precision of their unfailing orbits – and discover who is back of it all” (page 12). His position that there is in fact life on other planets is illustrated by quoting Isaiah 45:18 “For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.” He then adds “Therefore if this world were not the abode of life, its creation would have been in vain – useless. Would it not naturally follow that if such be true of this little speck of cosmic dust, then much if not all of God’s creation would likewise be in vain if not put to some intelligent use” (page 22)?
As we saw from Hebrews 1:1-3, God made all that we can see “out there”. Did He make it all for the benefit of planet earth on day four of creation? If so, why bother to put mountains on the moon or a red spot on Jupiter since we didn’t find them until Galileo? Why have galaxies billions of light years away if we can’t even see them with the naked eye? What about life out there then? Isaiah 40:15 says “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.” If the 226 nations of earth are a drop in the bucket (this is where that phrase came from), then there are obviously millions of planets with inhabited, developed societies on them throughout the universe.
In Nehemiah 9:6 the “host” of heaven worships God. These are beings, not inanimate objects. “You alone are the Lord; You have made heaven, The heaven of heavens, with all their host, The earth and everything on it, The seas and all that is in them, And You preserve them all. The host of heaven worships You.” “Host” is an old English word for large group of people. Elsewhere the Bible says He is the Lord of “hosts”, as in more than one group.
One particular large group is mentioned in Daniel chapter 7. This is a vision the Lord gave the prophet Daniel of world history from his time forward. After the rise and fall of the Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires and their transition into “Christendom”, the nations of Europe under the domination of the church; the vision finishes with a special emphasis on heaven’s point of view. Daniel is shown the actual throne room where God the Father and Jesus begin the first phase of Their judgement of planet earth. Elsewhere in the Bible this room is referred to as the “Temple in Heaven”, or the “Sanctuary”. We will examine this judgement and what it means for us more closely in “The (Not So) Secret Keys That Unlock the Real Truth”.
For now let’s look at verses 9 and 10 “I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.”
What is ten thousand times ten thousand? 100 million! The largest stadium in this world is in the Czech Republic and holds almost 250,000 people. Yet this one room holds 400 times more. Now, in many countries on earth, there is a regular army and then there is an elite inner guard charged solely with protecting the Head of State. Are these 100 million angels the sum total of all the angels out there? Likely this is not the case because the text also said “thousands of thousands”.
The text in Nehemiah cross references well with what Paul called the “third heaven” in 2 Corinthians 12:2. (This is one point where I disagree with Mormonism. They have some strange belief based on this verse that makes no sense.) The three levels of heaven are: 1. the blue sky; 2. what we now call outer space, which is where the hosts live; and 3. the holy city, New Jerusalem, where God’s throne is now and in which He receives worship. This is one reason some people can find the Bible confusing as sometimes when the Bible says “heaven(s)” it is only talking about our blue sky. Revelation 21:1 for instance, is not talking about the rest of the universe, its just talking about our atmosphere. “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.” The Lord knew that pollution would be an issue in our time. He promises that when He makes the earth anew, He will give us a clean atmosphere again. (Not that we shouldn’t take care of the world the best we can now, of course. But the thought that we actually will destroy this earth through pollution is a lie.)
One of the most striking texts in the Bible is a multi-level prophecy that has recently been fulfilled once more. From Obadiah verse 4 we can draw the conclusion that our Heavenly Father knew the conflict in science and religion would take place with two differing views of Heaven as a hot button issue. In it He says “Though you ascend as high as the eagle, And though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down,” says the Lord.” Though began by the Soviet Union with Sputnik in 1957 and continued today by many nations including Japan, China, Canada and the European Union, the nation with the eagle as its symbol claims to have won the space race as the United States was the one country that has landed men on the moon. The U.S. has also lead out in the development of the International Space Station. Obadiah 4 promises we will see Jesus come back to this world from the same realm of physical space that this permanent resting place, or “nest” for mankind has been established in.
The fact that there is life out there is proven most clearly by cross-referencing a few texts. A sort of heavenly convention is discussed in Job 1:6, 7 and again in chapter two, but we’ll only look at this first reference. Notice the phrase “sons of God” “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ So Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.’” In Luke 3:38 Adam is listed as a son of God “… the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. “ The other sons of God at this meeting then are the Adam type beings, the first created ones, or the leaders of the other planets. Evidently the Lord holds meetings with representatives of all the other planets on a regular basis as Satan returns quickly to discuss Job again in the next chapter.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Chapter two final post
People today have the same needs their ancestors have had since the beginning and are simply trying to meet them in other ways. This happens not only through fiction, but also in real life. We talked already about the meaning of the atomic bomb. There is actually much more meaning that can be drawn out of our modern age. Think about what the Lord took away from Adam and Eve on the day they sinned and then think about all we have achieved. Let’s look at Genesis 3:16-24 first:
To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Advances in agriculture have given us pesticides and herbicides to rid us of thorns and thistles as much as possible. For centuries various societies used slaves to compensate for the toil put upon us. Today much of what slaves used to do we do using machines. Death and pain were to be constant reminders of our sin. We would even be born through great pain to our mothers. How much of this do we believe we have overcome through advances in medicine?
The Garden of Eden was a perfect world, they didn’t need clothes because as Genesis 2:25 says “they were … not ashamed”. This means in a spiritual sense when they had an unbroken connection with God, being naked was not wrong for them. It also means in a very practical way that the world they lived in had a balanced temperature (on a side note, what does that say about global warming?). After they were cast out, the world changed into the four seasons we now have. We can’t control the weather outside, though some scientists think we may someday, but we can control the weather inside with furnaces and air conditioning units.
Inside the Garden was a special tree called the tree of life, the fruit of which gave us immortality. Now at the most popular tourist destination in the entire world, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, U.S.A., there is an attraction called the “Animal Kingdom”. In it stands a man made “tree of life”. Through Einstein, Hahn and Mietner we now know how to turn matter into energy. Creation is the reverse, turning energy into matter. Since the Lord created life and not just inanimate objects, we are trying to do the same through cloning and genetically modified organisms. Genesis 1:26 has God creating humanity “in His image”. With robotics and artificial intelligence we believe we will soon create beings in our own image, something which is very common in science fiction.
Adam and Eve were created perfect. Whatever that means exactly, it likely includes better mental abilities than we have today. They probably did not need to use written language. Since our memories are so poor, we have compensated by the use of modern media and created an impressive record of history today, through video, print and audio. From Genesis 11:1-9 the story is told of the Tower of Babel, where all the languages and cultures of this world originate. They were then plunged into darkness in the sense that they lost contact with each other. The whole earth has now been explored and everyone knows about everyone else. This same media system has grown from local outlets to ones that cover the globe.
Every society throughout history has always been ruled by an elite few. Usually they claimed some sort of divine right to be exalted above the common people. With the American Revolution and the rise of democracy, “power to the people” is now a vital part of Western civilization. However the Lord allowed the previous systems to exist because we do need someone like us to look up to. We need to be part of something bigger than ourselves. When in democratic societies the clergy and nobility were no longer venerated, people turned to the likes of Hollywood, the music industry and the world of professional sports to have someone to look up to. Within the last few years there has been a worldwide cultural revolution through what is now called “user generated content” on websites like Youtube and various social networking sites like Facebook. Bulletin boards and blogs are everywhere. Finally instead of waiting for someone else to tell us what to think, we all get to have our say.
Combine all this with the fact that we now have ventured beyond our world into the great heaven above and you can sum it all up in one thought. Mankind was once isolated from the rest of the universe by the Lord Himself, now we believe we have fully recovered from all the restrictions He placed upon us and are ready to take our place in the universe back for ourselves.
What possible purpose could God have had in mind when He allowed us to do all this through the last 500 years of growth? Well we think we’ve recovered, but are we really perfect yet? No. Though many may disagree, I believe the intellectual, cultural and political freedoms we have today were the result of the spiritual freedom that came to the world again when Martin Luther realized “The just shall live by faith.”, Romans 1:17. Jesus said in John 12:31, 32 “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” By looking to Him we won’t need any other heroes. Acts 16:31, last part, says “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Knowledge has increased but has wisdom? Jesus said in Luke 18:8 “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” The modern mindset, being inspired by the principles of the French Revolution has now almost completely restored all that those revolutionaries tried to achieve in France from 1789-1799. The time of trouble to come will in part be shown to repeat the anarchy that came about as a direct result of setting aside God’s word. Trying to achieve intellectual, cultural and political freedoms without the first and most important freedom of being free from sin in Christ will be a failure.
It is a principle that for everything God does, Satan has a counterfeit. The devil will attempt to distort and change anything God does in every way he possibly can. I remember many years ago talking about the meaning of our modern age with my wife, Melissa. She gave me a great take on what purpose the devil must have today too. His message to us is “don’t you want to stay, don’t you want to believe you really can do achieve heaven on earth in your own power and strength after all?”
In the storyline of the original “The Day the Earth Stood Still” an alien came to visit us with an important message. Since we had discovered atomic weapons and were now experimenting with rockets; we were a threat to the rest of the universe, who all live in harmony. Is this not also another parallel to what is really happening today? Are there really beings out there watching us? What does the Bible really say about life on other planets? We will visit this question and more next.
To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”
And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Advances in agriculture have given us pesticides and herbicides to rid us of thorns and thistles as much as possible. For centuries various societies used slaves to compensate for the toil put upon us. Today much of what slaves used to do we do using machines. Death and pain were to be constant reminders of our sin. We would even be born through great pain to our mothers. How much of this do we believe we have overcome through advances in medicine?
The Garden of Eden was a perfect world, they didn’t need clothes because as Genesis 2:25 says “they were … not ashamed”. This means in a spiritual sense when they had an unbroken connection with God, being naked was not wrong for them. It also means in a very practical way that the world they lived in had a balanced temperature (on a side note, what does that say about global warming?). After they were cast out, the world changed into the four seasons we now have. We can’t control the weather outside, though some scientists think we may someday, but we can control the weather inside with furnaces and air conditioning units.
Inside the Garden was a special tree called the tree of life, the fruit of which gave us immortality. Now at the most popular tourist destination in the entire world, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, U.S.A., there is an attraction called the “Animal Kingdom”. In it stands a man made “tree of life”. Through Einstein, Hahn and Mietner we now know how to turn matter into energy. Creation is the reverse, turning energy into matter. Since the Lord created life and not just inanimate objects, we are trying to do the same through cloning and genetically modified organisms. Genesis 1:26 has God creating humanity “in His image”. With robotics and artificial intelligence we believe we will soon create beings in our own image, something which is very common in science fiction.
Adam and Eve were created perfect. Whatever that means exactly, it likely includes better mental abilities than we have today. They probably did not need to use written language. Since our memories are so poor, we have compensated by the use of modern media and created an impressive record of history today, through video, print and audio. From Genesis 11:1-9 the story is told of the Tower of Babel, where all the languages and cultures of this world originate. They were then plunged into darkness in the sense that they lost contact with each other. The whole earth has now been explored and everyone knows about everyone else. This same media system has grown from local outlets to ones that cover the globe.
Every society throughout history has always been ruled by an elite few. Usually they claimed some sort of divine right to be exalted above the common people. With the American Revolution and the rise of democracy, “power to the people” is now a vital part of Western civilization. However the Lord allowed the previous systems to exist because we do need someone like us to look up to. We need to be part of something bigger than ourselves. When in democratic societies the clergy and nobility were no longer venerated, people turned to the likes of Hollywood, the music industry and the world of professional sports to have someone to look up to. Within the last few years there has been a worldwide cultural revolution through what is now called “user generated content” on websites like Youtube and various social networking sites like Facebook. Bulletin boards and blogs are everywhere. Finally instead of waiting for someone else to tell us what to think, we all get to have our say.
Combine all this with the fact that we now have ventured beyond our world into the great heaven above and you can sum it all up in one thought. Mankind was once isolated from the rest of the universe by the Lord Himself, now we believe we have fully recovered from all the restrictions He placed upon us and are ready to take our place in the universe back for ourselves.
What possible purpose could God have had in mind when He allowed us to do all this through the last 500 years of growth? Well we think we’ve recovered, but are we really perfect yet? No. Though many may disagree, I believe the intellectual, cultural and political freedoms we have today were the result of the spiritual freedom that came to the world again when Martin Luther realized “The just shall live by faith.”, Romans 1:17. Jesus said in John 12:31, 32 “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” By looking to Him we won’t need any other heroes. Acts 16:31, last part, says “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Knowledge has increased but has wisdom? Jesus said in Luke 18:8 “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” The modern mindset, being inspired by the principles of the French Revolution has now almost completely restored all that those revolutionaries tried to achieve in France from 1789-1799. The time of trouble to come will in part be shown to repeat the anarchy that came about as a direct result of setting aside God’s word. Trying to achieve intellectual, cultural and political freedoms without the first and most important freedom of being free from sin in Christ will be a failure.
It is a principle that for everything God does, Satan has a counterfeit. The devil will attempt to distort and change anything God does in every way he possibly can. I remember many years ago talking about the meaning of our modern age with my wife, Melissa. She gave me a great take on what purpose the devil must have today too. His message to us is “don’t you want to stay, don’t you want to believe you really can do achieve heaven on earth in your own power and strength after all?”
In the storyline of the original “The Day the Earth Stood Still” an alien came to visit us with an important message. Since we had discovered atomic weapons and were now experimenting with rockets; we were a threat to the rest of the universe, who all live in harmony. Is this not also another parallel to what is really happening today? Are there really beings out there watching us? What does the Bible really say about life on other planets? We will visit this question and more next.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Chapter two continued
Question – Is everyone born with a need for the things only God can offer them? I believe the answer is yes. So those who turn from the Bible will try to meet that need with something other than a relationship with Jesus Christ won’t they? Why have so many today that have turned from God to the modern mindset of science and “reason” have then gone the extra step of turning to science fiction?
Have you ever wondered why science fiction is so popular? Think for a moment about the very first Star Wars movie, now called “Episode IV-A New Hope”. I was 12 years old when my uncle took myself, his brother and my cousin to see it in 1977. I remember there was really only one point in the movie with a large amount of alien creatures; and they were visible for only a few seconds. It was in a scene that took place in a Cantina. The rest of the film was almost entirely cast with human beings. Now compare that to “Episode I-The Phantom Menace”, which is about ten years old now. This movie has aliens all through it. It starts with a set of bad guys who sound a lot like Asian people speaking English with an accent. There is also a character called Jar-Jar who essentially looks and sounds like a Jamaican.
It seems to be a reasonable conclusion that the film from the 1970’s was meant for an American audience of mostly nominal Christians who did not really believe in life on other planets at the time. The newer one however, was meant for an international, less Christianized audience more ready to accept the idea after so many years of exposure to the concept. A story came recently from a remote jungle village in the Philippines of a missionary working to save a man who had been possessed by demons. After the man had been healed he told the missionary that the demons he saw looked a lot like the beings in the Star Wars movies.
There are biblical and religious parallels in many films and science fiction stories. What is the Jedi’s weapon of choice but essentially a flaming sword like what kept Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden after they sinned? Star Wars Episode 1 also borrows from the Bible with the virgin birth of Anakin Skywalker. “Battlestar Gallactica” has often been referred to as a mix of “Chariots of the Gods” and Mormon theology (sfbd.org.uk/view/Battlestar-Gallactica-TV-Series) I am not a Mormon nor do I agree with much of what the LDS Church teaches, but I remember I found the spiritual aspects of the show to be its most appealing feature when it originally ran in 1978.
Science fiction as a genre is usually paired with another genre called “Fantasy”. Many of these films take place in the distant past like the stories of Genesis and therefore offer us an alternative to the Bible’s teaching of our origins. “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy is a recent example. Any film about dinosaurs would fit this category also. Parallels can even be found in such fantasy stories as “The Wizard of Oz”, where Dorothy and her friends travel to the “Emerald City” down the “yellow brick road”. Compare this to Revelation 4:3 and 21:21 where God’s throne has a rainbow “in appearance like an emerald” and “the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass”. If you enjoy British sci-fi you no doubt have perused “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, where the earth is one big giant experiment to find the answer to “the ultimate question of life the universe and everything”.
There is a also sub category within science fiction called “Post Apocalyptic” filled with movies that take place in the not so distant future, after the great crisis of Daniel 12:1. Some are utopian, where man is improved after the crisis. Most are anti-utopian, where the world returns to some sort of primitive state. The “Mad Max” trilogy or Kevin Costner’s “Waterworld” comes to mind here. Either way the message is the same. Man in his present state survives the crisis, though the Bible says otherwise.
Undoubtedly the most successful sci-fi franchise of all time has been “Star Trek” in all its forms from the original TV show to the four spin off series, books, films and the cult following of trekkers (not trekkies) who go to fan conventions. Now that a new Star Trek film is out, think about the first 6 Star Trek films with the original cast from the television show. Star Trek 1 has someone looking for their god, their creator. The power of creation is a central theme in the second movie, which ends with Mr. Spock dying to save the rest. He not only saves his friends but this very special new planet that was just created at the end of the film. Spock is half human and half Vulcan, which is a planet that supposedly is better than earth is, because its culture is more logical and self-controlled. He comes back to life in Star Trek 3. Then Spock and the whole crew return again to the earth in our time in movie number 4. Star Trek 5 deals with the subject of Heaven, and in Star Trek 6 we make total peace with our enemies. This opens the door for the rest of the films that follow as they take us into a brave new world of exciting adventures.
Does that sound familiar? That is point for point the exact same process world history is going through and the same process anyone individually needs to understand in order to become a born-again Christian. In order to find peace with God we first need to admit our need of Him. As soon as we look for Him He is right there ready to work in our lives. Then we learn that He is the Creator, and that He sent His Son Jesus, who is at once fully God and fully man. Jesus is perfect and completely self-controlled. He came from heaven above where the other planets are to die and rise from the dead for our sins. This plan of salvation the Father and Son worked out is now being offered to the whole world, but it also is for each individual person in this world. Christ promised to return again to rescue His friends and take us to Heaven, something which Bible prophecy says will happen very soon. When all is said and done on the last day of human history, when every question is answered and God’s just dealing with His enemies has been fully satisfied, the Lord will open the universe up to those who accepted His salvation. We will live with Him forever and yes indeed; every day will then be a grand and exciting adventure.
Think about all these films and television shows and I’m sure you’ll agree in order for science fiction to be successful, not only does it need compelling characters, riveting action sequences and really great special effects, it also needs one more thing. What it needs is to somehow some way draw from these great themes of religious history. Why? The answer is that ultimately they are the real truth and deep down every single human being knows it.
Have you ever wondered why science fiction is so popular? Think for a moment about the very first Star Wars movie, now called “Episode IV-A New Hope”. I was 12 years old when my uncle took myself, his brother and my cousin to see it in 1977. I remember there was really only one point in the movie with a large amount of alien creatures; and they were visible for only a few seconds. It was in a scene that took place in a Cantina. The rest of the film was almost entirely cast with human beings. Now compare that to “Episode I-The Phantom Menace”, which is about ten years old now. This movie has aliens all through it. It starts with a set of bad guys who sound a lot like Asian people speaking English with an accent. There is also a character called Jar-Jar who essentially looks and sounds like a Jamaican.
It seems to be a reasonable conclusion that the film from the 1970’s was meant for an American audience of mostly nominal Christians who did not really believe in life on other planets at the time. The newer one however, was meant for an international, less Christianized audience more ready to accept the idea after so many years of exposure to the concept. A story came recently from a remote jungle village in the Philippines of a missionary working to save a man who had been possessed by demons. After the man had been healed he told the missionary that the demons he saw looked a lot like the beings in the Star Wars movies.
There are biblical and religious parallels in many films and science fiction stories. What is the Jedi’s weapon of choice but essentially a flaming sword like what kept Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden after they sinned? Star Wars Episode 1 also borrows from the Bible with the virgin birth of Anakin Skywalker. “Battlestar Gallactica” has often been referred to as a mix of “Chariots of the Gods” and Mormon theology (sfbd.org.uk/view/Battlestar-Gallactica-TV-Series) I am not a Mormon nor do I agree with much of what the LDS Church teaches, but I remember I found the spiritual aspects of the show to be its most appealing feature when it originally ran in 1978.
Science fiction as a genre is usually paired with another genre called “Fantasy”. Many of these films take place in the distant past like the stories of Genesis and therefore offer us an alternative to the Bible’s teaching of our origins. “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy is a recent example. Any film about dinosaurs would fit this category also. Parallels can even be found in such fantasy stories as “The Wizard of Oz”, where Dorothy and her friends travel to the “Emerald City” down the “yellow brick road”. Compare this to Revelation 4:3 and 21:21 where God’s throne has a rainbow “in appearance like an emerald” and “the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass”. If you enjoy British sci-fi you no doubt have perused “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, where the earth is one big giant experiment to find the answer to “the ultimate question of life the universe and everything”.
There is a also sub category within science fiction called “Post Apocalyptic” filled with movies that take place in the not so distant future, after the great crisis of Daniel 12:1. Some are utopian, where man is improved after the crisis. Most are anti-utopian, where the world returns to some sort of primitive state. The “Mad Max” trilogy or Kevin Costner’s “Waterworld” comes to mind here. Either way the message is the same. Man in his present state survives the crisis, though the Bible says otherwise.
Undoubtedly the most successful sci-fi franchise of all time has been “Star Trek” in all its forms from the original TV show to the four spin off series, books, films and the cult following of trekkers (not trekkies) who go to fan conventions. Now that a new Star Trek film is out, think about the first 6 Star Trek films with the original cast from the television show. Star Trek 1 has someone looking for their god, their creator. The power of creation is a central theme in the second movie, which ends with Mr. Spock dying to save the rest. He not only saves his friends but this very special new planet that was just created at the end of the film. Spock is half human and half Vulcan, which is a planet that supposedly is better than earth is, because its culture is more logical and self-controlled. He comes back to life in Star Trek 3. Then Spock and the whole crew return again to the earth in our time in movie number 4. Star Trek 5 deals with the subject of Heaven, and in Star Trek 6 we make total peace with our enemies. This opens the door for the rest of the films that follow as they take us into a brave new world of exciting adventures.
Does that sound familiar? That is point for point the exact same process world history is going through and the same process anyone individually needs to understand in order to become a born-again Christian. In order to find peace with God we first need to admit our need of Him. As soon as we look for Him He is right there ready to work in our lives. Then we learn that He is the Creator, and that He sent His Son Jesus, who is at once fully God and fully man. Jesus is perfect and completely self-controlled. He came from heaven above where the other planets are to die and rise from the dead for our sins. This plan of salvation the Father and Son worked out is now being offered to the whole world, but it also is for each individual person in this world. Christ promised to return again to rescue His friends and take us to Heaven, something which Bible prophecy says will happen very soon. When all is said and done on the last day of human history, when every question is answered and God’s just dealing with His enemies has been fully satisfied, the Lord will open the universe up to those who accepted His salvation. We will live with Him forever and yes indeed; every day will then be a grand and exciting adventure.
Think about all these films and television shows and I’m sure you’ll agree in order for science fiction to be successful, not only does it need compelling characters, riveting action sequences and really great special effects, it also needs one more thing. What it needs is to somehow some way draw from these great themes of religious history. Why? The answer is that ultimately they are the real truth and deep down every single human being knows it.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Chapter two post two
The first thing we’ll look at is the fact that the Bible does not teach a flat earth. Isaiah 40:22 says “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.” Today’s Astronomers have carefully observed that the universe is in fact expanding. The rest of this verse confirms this truth to be both scientific and Biblical. Who is responsible for that expansion? The Lord is. “Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”
Isaac Newton theorized on gravity and the laws of motion after an apple fell and hit him on the head. Well according to Job 26:7, God has power over gravity. “He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing.” Indeed it is His power that keeps everything in motion safely. Colossians 1:16, 17 (this is how the New Revised Standard Version puts it) “For in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” If you’ve ever studied the atom you know that in its nucleus there are protons and neutrons. Because of their strong magnetic forces, those positively charged protons should make the nucleus of an atom fly apart. However, they are counterbalanced by even stronger nuclear forces that hold the protons and neutrons together. In other words, every single atom in the entire universe is held together by a power that the Bible says belongs to the Lord. The reference here speaks of Jesus as co-creator with the Father, and it includes everything from the smallest atoms to the largest star systems.
Today astronomers know that the Pleiades are a group of stars growing closer and closer together and the stars in Orion’s belt are hurtling away from each other at fantastic speeds. Arcturus, or the Bear, is one star to the naked eye but a group of seven small ones when you look closely. This was written down in Job 38:31, 32 around three thousand five hundred years before the invention of the telescope. “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the belt of Orion? Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs?”
If you’d like a few more, I invite you to look up these verses. On the number of stars: Jeremiah 33:22. On how different they are: 1 Corinthians 15:41. On the fact that air has weight: Job 28:25. On the cycle of rain: Job 36:27-29. On mountains under the ocean floor: 2 Samuel 22:16 and Jonah 2:6. And on springs under the ocean, a discovery only made in the last few years: Job 38:16 (we’ll take a detailed look at ALL the scientific statements in the last few chapters of Job in chapter 4).
Cross reference Hebrews 1:1-3, 10; Isaiah 40:25, 26 and Genesis 1:1, 2 and you will see that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were involved in creating the physical realm. While the New King James version uses the word “worlds” we will see it here in the New International Version, which uses the word “universe”. “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe (or worlds in NKJV). The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty in Heaven.”
“And: You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands.”
“To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing.” (We have a system called “New Galactic Catalogue” for labelling objects in the night sky - such and such a star or nebula is called “NGC 2160”. Here in Isaiah, we see that the Lord names all the stars.)
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
The issue of creation versus evolution is of course the most controversial aspect of the religion/science debate today. It is not my purpose to “prove” creation. There are several Christian based scientific organizations dedicated to that cause. Along with them, a number of “Creation Museums” have now come into existence in North America. They also provide interesting facts about the debate that can indeed challenge one’s point of view. However, I still don’t see them able to really “prove” that God did create the world in six literal days, though I do believe that He did. More on this will come in the next chapter.
Would you like something in the way of proof? Here is proof no geologist can dispute. During the early 1990’s, shortly after the various communist governments of eastern Europe fell in rapid succession, a number of Christian groups went in as quick as they could to teach the message of God’s love in giving Jesus to die for the sins of the world. At one meeting in one of those countries a man stood up to give his testimony. “You all know who I am”, he said to the audience. He was the former head of the secret police in that country. He went on to tell a little of his life story, focusing in on the fact that he had been an alcoholic and then he finished with “what atheism, evolution and communism could not do in 50 years, Jesus Christ did in one week”. This story was personally told to me by the speaker of that meeting, a Christian Pastor named Louis Torres.
That’s proof of creation. Psalm 51:10 says “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Hebrews 11:6 says, ”But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Those who have traveled the world for the last 150 plus years and found reasons to reject God in their search through geology, archaeology and history found those reasons because they chose to look for them in the first place.
Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution do represent the great divide from which science and faith departed. However that gap had already been widening. The French Revolution was the first time in history anyone anywhere ever attempted to build an atheist state. On November 17th, 1793, the leaders of the revolution held a symbolic event at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It was meant as an act in bold defiance of God, the Church and anything religious. In essence what they were saying was “from now on, worship no god but reason”. What did they mean? They made no difference between good and bad religious faith after more than 1200 years of superstition and oppression by the church. They ignored the fact that God had been working since the days of Martin Luther to eradicate those errors. They decided instead that by simply thinking long enough, using logic and deduction, they could solve every problem man has ever had.
Once the Bible had been made illegal and the Ten Commandments were fully voided by the French legislature, the horrors that followed caused historians to refer to this time period in France as the “reign of terror”, one of the most unreasonable times in history that there ever was. Did you know this event was actually predicted in Daniel 11:38? “But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses; and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things” (emphasis supplied). God knows the future. He knew what the issues of our day would be and He knows what the real solution is.
Notice carefully the words of Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.” The Lord Himself asks us to reason, not with ourselves, not with the world around us from which science has drawn all the knowledge it has gained so far, but with Him! The one promise science cannot keep, no matter how far and wide it searches for answers to life’s questions, the one thing we humans cannot do in our own power and strength; is clear our own consciences. Only be accepting Jesus’ death on the cross in our place can anyone truly have peace inside. Only by the hope that since Jesus rose from the dead to new life can we have life inside our hearts. When you know the Lord, there’s a quality and a peace to your life that you can’t even put into words. You just know it’s there. People who don’t have this peace will tell you plainly, “I’m really not living, I’m just existing”. The despair they feel cannot be filled with gadgets no matter how many new ones are invented.
Isaac Newton theorized on gravity and the laws of motion after an apple fell and hit him on the head. Well according to Job 26:7, God has power over gravity. “He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing.” Indeed it is His power that keeps everything in motion safely. Colossians 1:16, 17 (this is how the New Revised Standard Version puts it) “For in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” If you’ve ever studied the atom you know that in its nucleus there are protons and neutrons. Because of their strong magnetic forces, those positively charged protons should make the nucleus of an atom fly apart. However, they are counterbalanced by even stronger nuclear forces that hold the protons and neutrons together. In other words, every single atom in the entire universe is held together by a power that the Bible says belongs to the Lord. The reference here speaks of Jesus as co-creator with the Father, and it includes everything from the smallest atoms to the largest star systems.
Today astronomers know that the Pleiades are a group of stars growing closer and closer together and the stars in Orion’s belt are hurtling away from each other at fantastic speeds. Arcturus, or the Bear, is one star to the naked eye but a group of seven small ones when you look closely. This was written down in Job 38:31, 32 around three thousand five hundred years before the invention of the telescope. “Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loose the belt of Orion? Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs?”
If you’d like a few more, I invite you to look up these verses. On the number of stars: Jeremiah 33:22. On how different they are: 1 Corinthians 15:41. On the fact that air has weight: Job 28:25. On the cycle of rain: Job 36:27-29. On mountains under the ocean floor: 2 Samuel 22:16 and Jonah 2:6. And on springs under the ocean, a discovery only made in the last few years: Job 38:16 (we’ll take a detailed look at ALL the scientific statements in the last few chapters of Job in chapter 4).
Cross reference Hebrews 1:1-3, 10; Isaiah 40:25, 26 and Genesis 1:1, 2 and you will see that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were involved in creating the physical realm. While the New King James version uses the word “worlds” we will see it here in the New International Version, which uses the word “universe”. “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe (or worlds in NKJV). The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty in Heaven.”
“And: You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands.”
“To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing.” (We have a system called “New Galactic Catalogue” for labelling objects in the night sky - such and such a star or nebula is called “NGC 2160”. Here in Isaiah, we see that the Lord names all the stars.)
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
The issue of creation versus evolution is of course the most controversial aspect of the religion/science debate today. It is not my purpose to “prove” creation. There are several Christian based scientific organizations dedicated to that cause. Along with them, a number of “Creation Museums” have now come into existence in North America. They also provide interesting facts about the debate that can indeed challenge one’s point of view. However, I still don’t see them able to really “prove” that God did create the world in six literal days, though I do believe that He did. More on this will come in the next chapter.
Would you like something in the way of proof? Here is proof no geologist can dispute. During the early 1990’s, shortly after the various communist governments of eastern Europe fell in rapid succession, a number of Christian groups went in as quick as they could to teach the message of God’s love in giving Jesus to die for the sins of the world. At one meeting in one of those countries a man stood up to give his testimony. “You all know who I am”, he said to the audience. He was the former head of the secret police in that country. He went on to tell a little of his life story, focusing in on the fact that he had been an alcoholic and then he finished with “what atheism, evolution and communism could not do in 50 years, Jesus Christ did in one week”. This story was personally told to me by the speaker of that meeting, a Christian Pastor named Louis Torres.
That’s proof of creation. Psalm 51:10 says “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Hebrews 11:6 says, ”But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Those who have traveled the world for the last 150 plus years and found reasons to reject God in their search through geology, archaeology and history found those reasons because they chose to look for them in the first place.
Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution do represent the great divide from which science and faith departed. However that gap had already been widening. The French Revolution was the first time in history anyone anywhere ever attempted to build an atheist state. On November 17th, 1793, the leaders of the revolution held a symbolic event at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It was meant as an act in bold defiance of God, the Church and anything religious. In essence what they were saying was “from now on, worship no god but reason”. What did they mean? They made no difference between good and bad religious faith after more than 1200 years of superstition and oppression by the church. They ignored the fact that God had been working since the days of Martin Luther to eradicate those errors. They decided instead that by simply thinking long enough, using logic and deduction, they could solve every problem man has ever had.
Once the Bible had been made illegal and the Ten Commandments were fully voided by the French legislature, the horrors that followed caused historians to refer to this time period in France as the “reign of terror”, one of the most unreasonable times in history that there ever was. Did you know this event was actually predicted in Daniel 11:38? “But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses; and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things” (emphasis supplied). God knows the future. He knew what the issues of our day would be and He knows what the real solution is.
Notice carefully the words of Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.” The Lord Himself asks us to reason, not with ourselves, not with the world around us from which science has drawn all the knowledge it has gained so far, but with Him! The one promise science cannot keep, no matter how far and wide it searches for answers to life’s questions, the one thing we humans cannot do in our own power and strength; is clear our own consciences. Only be accepting Jesus’ death on the cross in our place can anyone truly have peace inside. Only by the hope that since Jesus rose from the dead to new life can we have life inside our hearts. When you know the Lord, there’s a quality and a peace to your life that you can’t even put into words. You just know it’s there. People who don’t have this peace will tell you plainly, “I’m really not living, I’m just existing”. The despair they feel cannot be filled with gadgets no matter how many new ones are invented.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Science Fiction and the Meaning of Our Modern Age Post One
Welcome to "SCIENCE, THE BIBLE AND LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS" the contents of a book examining issues between faith and our modern values. Each chapter will be divided into 3 or 4 posts of about a page and a half each. May all who read this be challenged to think in new ways and experience personal growth because of it.
Sincerely, Les Miller "Mr. Les"
The blog will be divided into 10 chapters, each one sub-divided into 3 or 4 posts, about a page and a half each. The contents are as follows:
TRANSLUCITE
SCIENCE FICTION AND THE MEANING OF OUR MODERN AGE
BIBLE PROOF THERE’S LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS
JOB LEARNED WHAT WE ALL MUST
OF COURSE THEY LANDED ON THE MOON
WHY HAVEN’T THEY GONE BACK?
THE (NOT SO) SECRET KEYS THAT UNLOCK THE REAL TRUTH
JOHN 3:16 IN DEPTH
MR. SPIELBERG HAVE I GOT A SCRIPT FOR YOU
EPILOGUE “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
SCIENCE FICTION AND THE MEANING OF OUR MODERN AGE
For centuries Western civilization operated under a worldview thought to be Christian and Bible based. That is with the earth as pretty much the only physical place, a mysterious world above called Heaven, and another below called Hell. You went to one or the other as a ghost as soon as you died. There were of course five other planets and the constellations that could be seen with the naked eye, but very little was know about them. They and the sun itself were said to revolve around the earth in perfect circles. As society developed and our knowledge base expanded in the last 500 years, we have a very firm grasp on many scientific truths and now know we are a small part of a vast universe. Astronomers have actually identified about 300 planets that revolve around other stars. However not one person gazing into the night sky has ever reported seeing a ghost or an angel anywhere in outer space. Is all this somehow incompatible with the Bible?
There are many today who live in the 21st century all week with its worldview of planets, science and modernism; but then go back to the 1400’s for an hour on Sunday morning (or whenever they open their Bibles) without even realizing it. No wonder massive numbers of their children gradually lost interest in spiritual things over the past few generations. How many millions today have rejected the Bible because of this? How many will tell you that Christianity does not pass the test of critical thinking? Critical thinking is not something Christians need to be afraid of. This is totally unnecessary.
You may have heard the story of Galileo versus the Catholic Church used as evidence to support today’s rejection of God and the Bible. I still remember my Junior High School science teacher telling the class Copernicus’ and Galileo’s story and then saying it was Isaac Newton who set modern science on its firm foundation afterward. What the teacher didn’t say was how Newton was able to do that. Newton lived in a Protestant country that valued knowledge and truth and that during his time persecution was waning within Christendom. I learned later as a Christian that Newton wrote more on theology than on science and that his insights on the timing of the judgement coincide well with what we’ll be looking at a little later in this book.
There were others in Galileo’s time that did not become as famous as he is now because they were not persecuted the same way he was. Johannes Kepler stands out as a prime example. He lived in Germany, which had been under the influence of Martin Luther for about 100 years. Kepler was the one who figured out that planets actually orbit in ellipses, not circles. Even Galileo himself had not accepted this.
“Galileo was famous in other fields besides astronomy … but he has come down in history particularly for two … events. When he used his telescope on the heavens, he made a number of classic observations. He observed the mountains and craters on the moon, and he remarked upon the four satellites, or ‘moons’ of Jupiter. It was, however, his discovery that the planet Venus has phases like the moon which was destined to strike the death-blow to the … belief that the earth was at the centre of all things. … Galileo’s second claim to a place in history derives from his championship of the heliocentric theory, against the bitter opposition of the Church” (“Astronomy for Beginners” by Henry S Brinton F.R.A.S., pages 19-22). “The age old idea that the earth was the centre of the universe was beginning to be shaken at last. … Strangely, at least to modern ears, the idea that the earth, which is God’s creation, should not be at the centre of all things, was offensive to the Church” (page 18).
What people have forgotten today is that the Dark Ages were a spiritual as well as an intellectual darkness. The truths of the Bible were just as much kept from the people as was science and art. The science of the Dark Ages did not come from God’s Word. If common people were able to read their Bibles, which the Catholic Church did not allow at the time, they would have seen that scientists like Galileo were not challenging truth at all.
It wasn’t until 1633 that Galileo was put on trial by the Church for the scientific conclusions in his book “Dialogue on the Great World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican”. However, he had other troubles beforehand. “Although his theories were correct, and he proved them by experiments and demonstrations, Galileo was dismissed from his position at the University of Pisa in 1591. He had aroused the suspicion of his colleagues by his constant attacks on the dearly held, but erroneous physical theories of Aristotle” (“Giants of Science”, pages 34 -35 emphasis supplied). There you have it; they got their science from Aristotle and not God’s word. And! He wasn’t just persecuted by the Church, but also by his peers, the same kind of people who now hail him as a great champion of truth. They just didn’t have the power of life and death in the form of the Inquisition. Human nature being the same then as it is today; most people took their leaders at their word and put their faith in long held traditions whether they were really true or not. Will we soon discover that indeed most today are doing the same thing; they believe what they believe because they were told to?
“In fall 1980, Pope John Paul II ordered a new look at evidence in Galileo's trial. In 1992 came acquittal. But the basic conflict between established religion and modern science is still being played out” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/horizon/sept98/galileo.htm). “He was censured by the church and kept from teaching his views because his proofs were inadequate. The case was closed in his favor in 1992” (The “Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps and Timelines”, page 43). Since the Church maintains the doctrine of papal infallibility, she could not admit any real fault. In all the years I’ve ever read anything on this subject, this was the first time I ever saw any quote that didn’t treat Galileo like a great hero. Where exactly his “inadequate” proofs were I do not know. What I do know is that there is quite a bit of what we call modern science that does come from the Bible.
Sincerely, Les Miller "Mr. Les"
The blog will be divided into 10 chapters, each one sub-divided into 3 or 4 posts, about a page and a half each. The contents are as follows:
TRANSLUCITE
SCIENCE FICTION AND THE MEANING OF OUR MODERN AGE
BIBLE PROOF THERE’S LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS
JOB LEARNED WHAT WE ALL MUST
OF COURSE THEY LANDED ON THE MOON
WHY HAVEN’T THEY GONE BACK?
THE (NOT SO) SECRET KEYS THAT UNLOCK THE REAL TRUTH
JOHN 3:16 IN DEPTH
MR. SPIELBERG HAVE I GOT A SCRIPT FOR YOU
EPILOGUE “THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
SCIENCE FICTION AND THE MEANING OF OUR MODERN AGE
For centuries Western civilization operated under a worldview thought to be Christian and Bible based. That is with the earth as pretty much the only physical place, a mysterious world above called Heaven, and another below called Hell. You went to one or the other as a ghost as soon as you died. There were of course five other planets and the constellations that could be seen with the naked eye, but very little was know about them. They and the sun itself were said to revolve around the earth in perfect circles. As society developed and our knowledge base expanded in the last 500 years, we have a very firm grasp on many scientific truths and now know we are a small part of a vast universe. Astronomers have actually identified about 300 planets that revolve around other stars. However not one person gazing into the night sky has ever reported seeing a ghost or an angel anywhere in outer space. Is all this somehow incompatible with the Bible?
There are many today who live in the 21st century all week with its worldview of planets, science and modernism; but then go back to the 1400’s for an hour on Sunday morning (or whenever they open their Bibles) without even realizing it. No wonder massive numbers of their children gradually lost interest in spiritual things over the past few generations. How many millions today have rejected the Bible because of this? How many will tell you that Christianity does not pass the test of critical thinking? Critical thinking is not something Christians need to be afraid of. This is totally unnecessary.
You may have heard the story of Galileo versus the Catholic Church used as evidence to support today’s rejection of God and the Bible. I still remember my Junior High School science teacher telling the class Copernicus’ and Galileo’s story and then saying it was Isaac Newton who set modern science on its firm foundation afterward. What the teacher didn’t say was how Newton was able to do that. Newton lived in a Protestant country that valued knowledge and truth and that during his time persecution was waning within Christendom. I learned later as a Christian that Newton wrote more on theology than on science and that his insights on the timing of the judgement coincide well with what we’ll be looking at a little later in this book.
There were others in Galileo’s time that did not become as famous as he is now because they were not persecuted the same way he was. Johannes Kepler stands out as a prime example. He lived in Germany, which had been under the influence of Martin Luther for about 100 years. Kepler was the one who figured out that planets actually orbit in ellipses, not circles. Even Galileo himself had not accepted this.
“Galileo was famous in other fields besides astronomy … but he has come down in history particularly for two … events. When he used his telescope on the heavens, he made a number of classic observations. He observed the mountains and craters on the moon, and he remarked upon the four satellites, or ‘moons’ of Jupiter. It was, however, his discovery that the planet Venus has phases like the moon which was destined to strike the death-blow to the … belief that the earth was at the centre of all things. … Galileo’s second claim to a place in history derives from his championship of the heliocentric theory, against the bitter opposition of the Church” (“Astronomy for Beginners” by Henry S Brinton F.R.A.S., pages 19-22). “The age old idea that the earth was the centre of the universe was beginning to be shaken at last. … Strangely, at least to modern ears, the idea that the earth, which is God’s creation, should not be at the centre of all things, was offensive to the Church” (page 18).
What people have forgotten today is that the Dark Ages were a spiritual as well as an intellectual darkness. The truths of the Bible were just as much kept from the people as was science and art. The science of the Dark Ages did not come from God’s Word. If common people were able to read their Bibles, which the Catholic Church did not allow at the time, they would have seen that scientists like Galileo were not challenging truth at all.
It wasn’t until 1633 that Galileo was put on trial by the Church for the scientific conclusions in his book “Dialogue on the Great World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican”. However, he had other troubles beforehand. “Although his theories were correct, and he proved them by experiments and demonstrations, Galileo was dismissed from his position at the University of Pisa in 1591. He had aroused the suspicion of his colleagues by his constant attacks on the dearly held, but erroneous physical theories of Aristotle” (“Giants of Science”, pages 34 -35 emphasis supplied). There you have it; they got their science from Aristotle and not God’s word. And! He wasn’t just persecuted by the Church, but also by his peers, the same kind of people who now hail him as a great champion of truth. They just didn’t have the power of life and death in the form of the Inquisition. Human nature being the same then as it is today; most people took their leaders at their word and put their faith in long held traditions whether they were really true or not. Will we soon discover that indeed most today are doing the same thing; they believe what they believe because they were told to?
“In fall 1980, Pope John Paul II ordered a new look at evidence in Galileo's trial. In 1992 came acquittal. But the basic conflict between established religion and modern science is still being played out” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/horizon/sept98/galileo.htm). “He was censured by the church and kept from teaching his views because his proofs were inadequate. The case was closed in his favor in 1992” (The “Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps and Timelines”, page 43). Since the Church maintains the doctrine of papal infallibility, she could not admit any real fault. In all the years I’ve ever read anything on this subject, this was the first time I ever saw any quote that didn’t treat Galileo like a great hero. Where exactly his “inadequate” proofs were I do not know. What I do know is that there is quite a bit of what we call modern science that does come from the Bible.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Translucite Post three
The Bible gives us quite a bit of insight into how to survive this final period in earth’s history. One thing it is completely silent on is the exact nature of the crisis that will start off the end of time. Theologian and author Marvin Moore discusses his theory that a comet will strike the earth in “The Coming Great Calamity”. On page 44 he clearly says in big, bold letters, “I MAY BE WRONG”. Personally, I believe we will likely see nuclear terrorism if current trends set in motion by the Sept. 11, 2001 tragedies continue. However I too admit this is only a theory.
Why do I feel this way? That question answers itself when you consider the meaning of the bomb. Two hundred million electron volts for fission verses five electron volts for regular chemical reactions makes this power for destruction so complete and so unstoppable, it is essentially a human version of what the Bible calls the “second death” or hellfire. We in our desire to cast God aside have substituted ourselves for Him and we honestly believe we can hold this power of final death in our own hands. Would it not make sense for the Lord, who is the Only One with the benevolence and wisdom to truly hold this power, to teach us a lesson we’ll never forget? Isaiah 66:16 says “For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.” The word “fire” could easily be taken to mean natural disasters of various kinds while the “sword” is obviously warfare and conflict on a scale never before seen. This is from the King James Version. Newer Bibles use the word “judge” where “plead” is here. However, “plead” says something about the character of God doesn’t it? Can you just imagine him up in Heaven saying “don’t you see you really do need Me?” Whatever happens, the great crisis at the end of time will be a big enough event to fulfill Jesus words in Luke 21:26 “men’s hearts failing them from fear”.
One thing is for sure. Even though so far we may think we have the ability to save ourselves, for as long as any form of human selfishness exists on this planet, we will always be at risk. The one story I’ve heard the most over the years to illustrate the popular idea that science has triumphed over the church, and therefore over God Himself, is the story of Galileo and how the Catholic Church persecuted him. We will look at that and spend some more time on just what our day really means in the next chapter:
"SCIENCE FICTION AND THE MEANING OF OUR MODERN AGE" .
Why do I feel this way? That question answers itself when you consider the meaning of the bomb. Two hundred million electron volts for fission verses five electron volts for regular chemical reactions makes this power for destruction so complete and so unstoppable, it is essentially a human version of what the Bible calls the “second death” or hellfire. We in our desire to cast God aside have substituted ourselves for Him and we honestly believe we can hold this power of final death in our own hands. Would it not make sense for the Lord, who is the Only One with the benevolence and wisdom to truly hold this power, to teach us a lesson we’ll never forget? Isaiah 66:16 says “For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.” The word “fire” could easily be taken to mean natural disasters of various kinds while the “sword” is obviously warfare and conflict on a scale never before seen. This is from the King James Version. Newer Bibles use the word “judge” where “plead” is here. However, “plead” says something about the character of God doesn’t it? Can you just imagine him up in Heaven saying “don’t you see you really do need Me?” Whatever happens, the great crisis at the end of time will be a big enough event to fulfill Jesus words in Luke 21:26 “men’s hearts failing them from fear”.
One thing is for sure. Even though so far we may think we have the ability to save ourselves, for as long as any form of human selfishness exists on this planet, we will always be at risk. The one story I’ve heard the most over the years to illustrate the popular idea that science has triumphed over the church, and therefore over God Himself, is the story of Galileo and how the Catholic Church persecuted him. We will look at that and spend some more time on just what our day really means in the next chapter:
"SCIENCE FICTION AND THE MEANING OF OUR MODERN AGE" .
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Translucite post two
“Giants of Science” is a book that chronicles the development of western civilization’s knowledge through short biographies. It starts with the early Greek thinkers, like Euclid and Hippocrates; goes on to the Middle Ages featuring people like Copernicus and Galileo, finally on to our time with the likes of Einstein and Neils Bohr. In the story of Friedrich Wohler, the father of organic chemistry; who was able to synthesize urea in 1828 we read, “For the first time man was able to produce in the laboratory a compound which had been manufactured heretofore only by living animals.” ("Giants of Science", page 97)
The story told of Louis Pasteur says that his “accomplishments were a result of a kind of chain reaction in thinking. One thing seemed inevitably to lead to the next. His studies of crystals led him to consider the mysteries of life. The studies of life led him into the problem and the solution of fermentation, which he stubbornly and accurately held to be accomplished by microscopic beings – microbes. This study brought him to grips with the advocates of spontaneous generation or the theory that living things arose from inanimate matter. Men had ceased, since the time of the Italian scientist Fransico Redi, to believe in the spontaneous generation of such creatures as grubs, maggots, tapeworms and mice, but it was still held possible that the microbes came out of inanimate organic materials” (Ibid, page 108).
“Pasteur died on September 28, 1895. He summed up his philosophy as follows: ‘I am utterly convinced that Science and Peace will triumph over ignorance and war, that nations will eventually unite not to destroy but to edify, and that the future will belong to those who have done the most for the sake of suffering humanity’” (page 108).
We could discuss other examples such as the popular story that in Christopher Columbus’ time people still thought the earth was flat. Yes we have learned a great many things. The world we live in is not the same as it once was. We have cured many diseases. New discoveries are opening before us every day. We can rearrange and duplicate matter into many forms, but can we create, truly create? Can we really solve all of our own problems?
Two parallel movements developed in western society over the last 500 – 700 years. One was Protestantism and the other was secularism. They both came about as a result of two parallel events. One was the Reformation and the other was the Renaissance. They both saw the Catholic Church at one time or another as the “big bad wolf” and the cause of all the barbarism and repression during the Dark Ages, a time that had gripped the western world ever since the fall of the Roman Empire. This theme will recur in the next few chapters, but it is imperative to state that no matter what story you tell about how backward people were in the Dark Ages, what they said the Bible says is not really what the Bible says. There is much more to this modern world view that is compatible with the scriptures than the average person realizes. However most people, at least in North America and Europe seem ready to abandon the Bible, or relegate it to childhood fables with moral lessons only.
Though many people over the course of centuries have made advancements in the studies of chemistry, light, heat, electricity, motion and molecular theory; all these branches of science were essentially fused into one by Albert Einstein’s theories of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. And what was the end result? Atomic Weapons! Einstein himself did not invent the bomb. In fact, “Albert Einstein regretted the atomic bomb. He had hoped that its force would be demonstrated to representatives of the Japanese Government, without the necessity of dropping this deadly device on the Japanese people – but this was not to be. He hoped that atomic power would be used for the benefit of mankind” (Ibid, page 147).
It definitely was Einstein’s work that set the stage for its development however. The American “Public Broadcasting Service” or PBS television network ran “Path to Nuclear Fission: The Story of Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn” on Monday, June 5, 2006. The show not only described how Otto Hahn is officially given credit for the discovery of nuclear fission, it also gave the untold portion of the story. Hahn, a chemist, (along with his assistant) had been able to turn Uranium into Barium in the lab and he didn’t know how or why until his friend Meitner, a physicist, advised him. She was the one who realized the now famous E=mc2 formula could explain what happened. In Hahn’s experiment some of the Uranium atoms had split leaving Barium and Krypton behind. Meitner actually coined the phrase “nuclear fission” to describe the process. Meitner and her assistant, Otto Frisch, “quickly understood that fission would create a large amount of energy, and balanced nuclear equations indicated additional neutrons would be produced. They calculated the energy associated with pushing the two positively charged nuclear fragments apart to be approximately 200 million electron volts (MeV) per uranium atom. By comparison, the most energetic chemical reactions release approximately 5 eV per atom” (http://www.chemcases.com/nuclear/nc-03.htm).
And what was the end result of that great discovery? The previously unheard of but now commonplace “weapons of mass destruction”. Otto Hahn went on to win the Nobel Prize. Lise Meitner’s contribution faded out of the spotlight. On Hahn’s tombstone the formula for nuclear fission is inscribed. On Meitner’s, the message written is “A physicist who never lost her humanity.”
Let’s take a look at Revelation 13:13, 14 “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.” The first time I ever looked at this text, atomic weapons came to my mind as the obvious fulfillment. Now an astute Bible student will immediately note that the text refers to fire “coming down” and that a mushroom cloud goes up as an atom bomb explodes. Let me defend my position by noting that there is such a thing as what I like to call “Multi-level prophecy”. That is, Bible prophecies that have been fulfilled more than one way at more than one time, because different meanings can be drawn out of them to suit different situations.
An example would be our previous text, Daniel 12:4. During the early 1800’s there was a great revival throughout the Christian world. The book of Daniel, which for so long had remained mysterious, was being unlocked like never before. People “ran to and fro” by cross-referencing Daniel with other parts of the Bible and their study of history. As they realized just how incredibly accurate the prophecies were, their “knowledge” of Daniel’s prophecies was increased, which led to their increased interest in spiritual things. That is an equally valid fulfillment that some people still argue is the right way to look at the aforementioned verse. My take is they’re both right, each in their respective times.
So even though Revelation 13:13, 14 has much more to say that is beyond the scope of this book; (I’ll give you a hint, the last half of this chapter refers to the rise and fall of the United States) for the purposes I have in mind here, the “great signs” are the advances in technology that have led the vast majority of us to think we no longer need God and the “fire coming down” is atomic weapons. What will be the end result? One great deception at the end of time! Daniel 12:1 comments a little further by saying “At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book.”
The story told of Louis Pasteur says that his “accomplishments were a result of a kind of chain reaction in thinking. One thing seemed inevitably to lead to the next. His studies of crystals led him to consider the mysteries of life. The studies of life led him into the problem and the solution of fermentation, which he stubbornly and accurately held to be accomplished by microscopic beings – microbes. This study brought him to grips with the advocates of spontaneous generation or the theory that living things arose from inanimate matter. Men had ceased, since the time of the Italian scientist Fransico Redi, to believe in the spontaneous generation of such creatures as grubs, maggots, tapeworms and mice, but it was still held possible that the microbes came out of inanimate organic materials” (Ibid, page 108).
“Pasteur died on September 28, 1895. He summed up his philosophy as follows: ‘I am utterly convinced that Science and Peace will triumph over ignorance and war, that nations will eventually unite not to destroy but to edify, and that the future will belong to those who have done the most for the sake of suffering humanity’” (page 108).
We could discuss other examples such as the popular story that in Christopher Columbus’ time people still thought the earth was flat. Yes we have learned a great many things. The world we live in is not the same as it once was. We have cured many diseases. New discoveries are opening before us every day. We can rearrange and duplicate matter into many forms, but can we create, truly create? Can we really solve all of our own problems?
Two parallel movements developed in western society over the last 500 – 700 years. One was Protestantism and the other was secularism. They both came about as a result of two parallel events. One was the Reformation and the other was the Renaissance. They both saw the Catholic Church at one time or another as the “big bad wolf” and the cause of all the barbarism and repression during the Dark Ages, a time that had gripped the western world ever since the fall of the Roman Empire. This theme will recur in the next few chapters, but it is imperative to state that no matter what story you tell about how backward people were in the Dark Ages, what they said the Bible says is not really what the Bible says. There is much more to this modern world view that is compatible with the scriptures than the average person realizes. However most people, at least in North America and Europe seem ready to abandon the Bible, or relegate it to childhood fables with moral lessons only.
Though many people over the course of centuries have made advancements in the studies of chemistry, light, heat, electricity, motion and molecular theory; all these branches of science were essentially fused into one by Albert Einstein’s theories of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. And what was the end result? Atomic Weapons! Einstein himself did not invent the bomb. In fact, “Albert Einstein regretted the atomic bomb. He had hoped that its force would be demonstrated to representatives of the Japanese Government, without the necessity of dropping this deadly device on the Japanese people – but this was not to be. He hoped that atomic power would be used for the benefit of mankind” (Ibid, page 147).
It definitely was Einstein’s work that set the stage for its development however. The American “Public Broadcasting Service” or PBS television network ran “Path to Nuclear Fission: The Story of Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn” on Monday, June 5, 2006. The show not only described how Otto Hahn is officially given credit for the discovery of nuclear fission, it also gave the untold portion of the story. Hahn, a chemist, (along with his assistant) had been able to turn Uranium into Barium in the lab and he didn’t know how or why until his friend Meitner, a physicist, advised him. She was the one who realized the now famous E=mc2 formula could explain what happened. In Hahn’s experiment some of the Uranium atoms had split leaving Barium and Krypton behind. Meitner actually coined the phrase “nuclear fission” to describe the process. Meitner and her assistant, Otto Frisch, “quickly understood that fission would create a large amount of energy, and balanced nuclear equations indicated additional neutrons would be produced. They calculated the energy associated with pushing the two positively charged nuclear fragments apart to be approximately 200 million electron volts (MeV) per uranium atom. By comparison, the most energetic chemical reactions release approximately 5 eV per atom” (http://www.chemcases.com/nuclear/nc-03.htm).
And what was the end result of that great discovery? The previously unheard of but now commonplace “weapons of mass destruction”. Otto Hahn went on to win the Nobel Prize. Lise Meitner’s contribution faded out of the spotlight. On Hahn’s tombstone the formula for nuclear fission is inscribed. On Meitner’s, the message written is “A physicist who never lost her humanity.”
Let’s take a look at Revelation 13:13, 14 “He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.” The first time I ever looked at this text, atomic weapons came to my mind as the obvious fulfillment. Now an astute Bible student will immediately note that the text refers to fire “coming down” and that a mushroom cloud goes up as an atom bomb explodes. Let me defend my position by noting that there is such a thing as what I like to call “Multi-level prophecy”. That is, Bible prophecies that have been fulfilled more than one way at more than one time, because different meanings can be drawn out of them to suit different situations.
An example would be our previous text, Daniel 12:4. During the early 1800’s there was a great revival throughout the Christian world. The book of Daniel, which for so long had remained mysterious, was being unlocked like never before. People “ran to and fro” by cross-referencing Daniel with other parts of the Bible and their study of history. As they realized just how incredibly accurate the prophecies were, their “knowledge” of Daniel’s prophecies was increased, which led to their increased interest in spiritual things. That is an equally valid fulfillment that some people still argue is the right way to look at the aforementioned verse. My take is they’re both right, each in their respective times.
So even though Revelation 13:13, 14 has much more to say that is beyond the scope of this book; (I’ll give you a hint, the last half of this chapter refers to the rise and fall of the United States) for the purposes I have in mind here, the “great signs” are the advances in technology that have led the vast majority of us to think we no longer need God and the “fire coming down” is atomic weapons. What will be the end result? One great deception at the end of time! Daniel 12:1 comments a little further by saying “At that time Michael shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, Every one who is found written in the book.”
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