Jesus went into the original Sanctuary when He went back to Heaven after rising from the dead and appearing to His disciples. What He is doing now according to the Bible is going through the real cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary. He is applying the promised forgiveness from the cross to the legal record of those who accepted it, those who were willing to afflict their souls.
Think about it this way, God knows all things right? None of His creatures do though. However many billions of people who have lived here on earth have committed however many trillions or quadrillions of sins through world history and it’s all written down in these books! Imagine you are not an earthling but a being from another planet. You have lived through countless eons of time in perfect harmony as a result of your world’s complete submission to the Lord’s will all this time. Then you saw how Lucifer, who was once the highest angel, corrupted himself and was cast out of heaven for it. After that Adam and Eve started the rebellion here as well. You have seen every single rape, theft and murder even though these things are completely unheard of on your planet.
You then watched Jesus, Whom you knew as your Royal Commander, come down to this world, live a life of suffering and humiliation; and finally be crucified at the very hands of the ones He was trying to save. Now even though you saw how much God worked to save humanity through every generation culminating in Jesus’ death and resurrection, you might not yet feel guaranteed that the people He’s about to admit back into the family of the universe can actually be trusted not to do it all again at some point in the future. This is especially true as you see the majority of the world’s population trying in its own way to achieve that place. Wouldn’t you want a guarantee?
That the promised assurance is being given now is shown by Daniel 7:26 and 27 ‘”But the court shall be seated, And they shall take away his dominion, To consume and destroy it forever.Then the kingdom and dominion, And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” The dominion taken away here is that of Satan and his man on earth, the antichrist. The dominion given is the earth. Jesus is proven right here in all His decisions regarding whom to save and whom not to. He now has he legal right to return to this world and rescue His people.
WHAT JESUS IS DOING NOW BY LOOKING AT THE RECORD IN SUCH FINE DETAIL IS TO PROVE TO THE REST OF THE UNIVERSE THAT THE ONES HE WILL SOON RESUCE FROM THIS WORLD REALLY WERE SORRY FOR EVERY WRONG THING THEY EVER DID AND REALLY DID SUBMIT TO GOD COMPLETELY! There is another level to the judgement where before God curses those who weren’t sorry with hellfire He explains to His people why He’s going to do it. However, that’s a topic for the next chapter.
Really the Lord Himself is the One on trial here. The questions the whole universe needed to have answered every since Satan rebelled are simply: “Is God fair?” “Does He really have our best interests at heart when He demands our complete loyalty?” and “Is His way really the only way for the universe to coexist in peace?”
Put all three of these secret keys together and you will realize that heaven is in the same physical reality as this world. There is no such thing as a ‘spirit world’ as someone with a 14thcentury mindset would say. And modern minded people who say heaven is in some sort of other dimension are really saying the same thing in pseudo-scientific terms. This understanding, this fullness of truth will protect one from the errors of the modern view of evolution and the errors of the 14th century mindset already discussed here in this blog. Most Christians who misunderstand certain key Bible passages such as the creation story do so because they have clung to errors on these important topics. Their view of death is that you become a ghost as soon as you die and that you face the judgement alone instantaneously thereafter. Just as their view of the universe was once earth centered and therefore human centered, so their view here is as well.
When you die you fall asleep and don’t go anywhere. People aren’t in heaven yet enmasse. Jesus, His angels and every other being out there are as real as the desk you are sitting at right now. Angels are not ghosts they are physical beings, we are simply being prevented from seeing them. They’ve been working through every generation of history to help people in various ways. And they’ve seen every single If you had a space ship fast enough and knew where to go, you could fly to what Revelation 21 calls the New Jerusalem, what Paul called the ‘third heaven’ God’s Holy city with its Sanctuary itself, right now.
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Secret key two then is the fact that Jesus did exist before being born here on earth. The theology of most Christian Churches emphasizes His time here and that He went off to heaven after rising from the dead. Though they will speak of the over three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament that foretell Christ’s coming, they don’t always have a clear handle on the fact that he is mentioned in the Old Testament as being present. He simply hasn’t used the name “Jesus Christ” yet.
Most people today have seen Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments”, starring Charlton Heston. It’s on TV practically every Easter. If you’ve seen the film or any other Bible movie on Moses, you’ll be familiar with the story of how God appeared to Moses and spoke to him out of a burning bush. Yet look very carefully at the actual reference from Exodus 3:2-6.
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
Notice it was an “Angel” who talked with Moses, yet He is clearly God. This is why of all the modern English Bibles I could have quoted form in this blog, I chose the New King James Version. Wherever in the Old Testament of the NKJV Bible you see “Angel”, that’s Christ. There are 59 such references with another 2 that use the ‘angel’ asnd then in the margin have ‘Angel’.
This maybe a hard concept to grasp as it’s so easy to conjure up old pictures of angels being winged human–like creatures who may have great power and strength, but are clearly not God. The misunderstanding comes from the word itself. It simply means “messenger” According to Isaiah 59:1, 2, we are cut off from God the Father by sin. Therefore God the Son comes as His messenger, or Angel.
Similarly in Joshua 5:15 He is “Commander of the Lord’s Host”. We see the same message given to Joshua here to remove his footwear. Therefore it’s the same being giving the message as the One who appeared to Moses. He is Holy and therefore no ordinary angel. “Then the Commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.”
Here are a few extra texts to look up if you feel so inclined. In Judges 13:20-22 Samson’s parents offered a sacrifice and the Angel accepted this worship. Ordinary angels don’t do this, see Revelation 19:10. Genesis 19:24 is from the story Sodom and Gomorrah. Read the whole story and you will see three beings from heaven who appear to Abraham. Two of whom are angels, one of whom is God. Here we have two references to “the Lord”. One “Lord” is on earth calling the judgements down and the other “Lord” is in Heaven raining down those judgements. Jesus must be one while God the Father is the other.
Daniel 10:13 calls Michael “one of the chief princes”. A prince is a royal term. The Hebrew word in verse 13 for ‘chief princes’ actually refers to the Trinity. So Michael is one of the Trinity! Verse 21 calls Him “your prince”. Our Lord and Saviour has over three hundred names in the scriptures. Some are titles, others are descriptions. None of them take away from His divinity. This includes the title of ‘Michael’.
I’ll have a little more to say on this in the chapter “John 3:16 in-depth”. For now the important thing is the effect this truth can have one your understanding of who Jesus is. He is not a mortal man who was deified by later generations of believers. That would make the gospels useless. Indeed the whole Bible would be pointless. No, Jesus is God. And God became a man in the early first century, AD to die on the cross for our sins. That one wonderful weekend was the end all and be all of the plan of salvation in one sense; and yet in another it wasn’t. Jesus has working through every generation of human history from the very first day Adam and Eve sinned and the world needed a Saviour. He has also been working since His time on earth to bring world history to where it is today. Soon we will be ready for the next great change to come. That change will be His return in the clouds to rescue His people.
Most people today have seen Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments”, starring Charlton Heston. It’s on TV practically every Easter. If you’ve seen the film or any other Bible movie on Moses, you’ll be familiar with the story of how God appeared to Moses and spoke to him out of a burning bush. Yet look very carefully at the actual reference from Exodus 3:2-6.
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
Notice it was an “Angel” who talked with Moses, yet He is clearly God. This is why of all the modern English Bibles I could have quoted form in this blog, I chose the New King James Version. Wherever in the Old Testament of the NKJV Bible you see “Angel”, that’s Christ. There are 59 such references with another 2 that use the ‘angel’ asnd then in the margin have ‘Angel’.
This maybe a hard concept to grasp as it’s so easy to conjure up old pictures of angels being winged human–like creatures who may have great power and strength, but are clearly not God. The misunderstanding comes from the word itself. It simply means “messenger” According to Isaiah 59:1, 2, we are cut off from God the Father by sin. Therefore God the Son comes as His messenger, or Angel.
Similarly in Joshua 5:15 He is “Commander of the Lord’s Host”. We see the same message given to Joshua here to remove his footwear. Therefore it’s the same being giving the message as the One who appeared to Moses. He is Holy and therefore no ordinary angel. “Then the Commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.”
Here are a few extra texts to look up if you feel so inclined. In Judges 13:20-22 Samson’s parents offered a sacrifice and the Angel accepted this worship. Ordinary angels don’t do this, see Revelation 19:10. Genesis 19:24 is from the story Sodom and Gomorrah. Read the whole story and you will see three beings from heaven who appear to Abraham. Two of whom are angels, one of whom is God. Here we have two references to “the Lord”. One “Lord” is on earth calling the judgements down and the other “Lord” is in Heaven raining down those judgements. Jesus must be one while God the Father is the other.
Daniel 10:13 calls Michael “one of the chief princes”. A prince is a royal term. The Hebrew word in verse 13 for ‘chief princes’ actually refers to the Trinity. So Michael is one of the Trinity! Verse 21 calls Him “your prince”. Our Lord and Saviour has over three hundred names in the scriptures. Some are titles, others are descriptions. None of them take away from His divinity. This includes the title of ‘Michael’.
I’ll have a little more to say on this in the chapter “John 3:16 in-depth”. For now the important thing is the effect this truth can have one your understanding of who Jesus is. He is not a mortal man who was deified by later generations of believers. That would make the gospels useless. Indeed the whole Bible would be pointless. No, Jesus is God. And God became a man in the early first century, AD to die on the cross for our sins. That one wonderful weekend was the end all and be all of the plan of salvation in one sense; and yet in another it wasn’t. Jesus has working through every generation of human history from the very first day Adam and Eve sinned and the world needed a Saviour. He has also been working since His time on earth to bring world history to where it is today. Soon we will be ready for the next great change to come. That change will be His return in the clouds to rescue His people.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Of Course They Landed on the Moon POST ONE
OF COURSE THEY LANDED ON THE MOON
I’ll give him a fake name – ‘Neil’. He is a composite character taken from a few people near me in life. A modern minded person, into science, philosophy and science fiction/fantasy, he is a lot like I was when I was his age. There is one crucial difference though. My friend, like many young people today, does not believe the moon landings were real. There have been books, TV documentaries and websites speaking about the issue and calling into question what was once fully accepted. The lack of stars behind the astronauts in any of the lunar surface pictures, the way those pictures were lit, the way they seemed to walk in their spacesuits, the way the shadow lines cross the ground, the waving of the U.S. flag; all these and more are given as “proof” that the moon landings couldn’t possibly be real. These have also clearly been debunked in other books, TV documentaries and websites. Those things that couldn’t happen, like the uneven shadow lines, are shown there to be everyday occurrences.
What shows those in the “against” camp to be completely incorrect and what I find fascinating about the whole debate is the incredible amount of evidence they ignore. Thousands of people were involved in the launching of the spaceships. After all these years and not one has cracked and spilled the beans, what does that say? Where did the rockets go each time they launched? They went up; if it was a fake they would have had to come down somewhere. Could you hide a 300 foot tall rocket? As my wife suggested to me in our conversations on the issue, how far would the conspiracy have had to go? Was every single Mercury, Gemini and pre-landing Apollo mission also a fake or was it just the actual moon landings? Do these same people who watch TV every day believe the satellites those TV signals come from are unreal? If the helicopter had the capsule in tow and dropped it into the ocean before it picked it up, where did it come from? There would have been thousands of people on the navy ships to see this part of the hoax. They never said anything. What about the total and complete disdain any living astronaut has for the issue. It’s entirely beneath them to even discuss it at all. If it was faked, then why have an Apollo 13 near disaster? Surely anyone who would lie to that degree would gloss things over so well that they would be seen to succeed without any problems. Not one of these points is ever dealt with by those who discount the success of the Apollo missions.
I have never doubted for one second that the moon landings were real. One thing that confirmed my beliefs over the years and closed my heart to any doubts was when I saw the video of the astronauts proving Galileo right. As a young person I greatly valued seeing this in light of being taught the story of Galileo’s persecution. What the astronauts did was to take a hammer and a feather up to the moon and drop them both at the same time. People disagreed with Galileo’s statements that all things fall at the same rate and used the feather as their example. Without air on the moon, the feather and the hammer fell at exactly the same rate landing on the moon’s surface at exactly the same time. This was not something that could be faked.
When you take all of the supposed reasons for the moon landing to be faked into account, what those who believe and promote them are really saying is not that they don’t believe, but that they can’t bring themselves to believe. It’s just too far beyond their worldview to surrender their preconceived notions.
In a way it’s not surprising that today’s youth do feel this way. The situation is the same one that we were in during the 1970’s with the book “Chariots of the Gods”. Its premise was essentially “how could those ancient peoples have built such great monuments when as far as we know they were nowhere near as advanced?” Today’s youth are well aware of the factoid that the average car has had a more powerful computer chip in it than was on the Apollo spaceship for at least the last twenty years. Therefore, how could they have done it? Your car couldn’t make it to the moon right?
The answer is simple, they were smart. I was quite adept at doing math in my head until I started using a calculator. Then I lost that skill. The entire world is the same way today. A slide rule may not be as fast as a computer, but the engineers at NASA could get the same results with it if they needed to. The kind of computers we have now were not what they had then. What they couldn’t get their computers to do, they did themselves. I’m not the first to say this but it’s something everyone should know. That is even though today’s computers are much more powerful and much smaller, they run complicated applications for processing video and picture files that the computers back then did not do. All they used those giant, room-sized computers for was number crunching. There were no operating systems to load up on the Apollo Command Module. Neither was there a mouse, printer/scanner nor a wireless router for high speed internet with their associated driver programs. There wasn’t even a monitor in the capsule the way we think of one. The display screen simply showed the numbers they needed to see. The majority of the computing was done on the ground anyway.
Computers are only as popular as they are today because they have been made so user friendly. They’re nothing more than glorified video game consoles, typewriters and stereo systems. Have you the average layman reading these words ever wrote any programs on your home computer yourself? People today take these things for granted, which leads them into error. Having been raised with them their whole lives and knowing nothing else, its no wonder young people today can’t picture the world any other way. The thing is; it was.
I know it’s true that they landed on the moon because I was there. I was four years old watching the rocket lift off live on television. I will never forget the wonder that filled my heart as I saw the great blasts of smoke and steam shoot out from the side of the Saturn V booster to a distance beyond it that was greater than its height. I remember the scene a few days later with the helicopter coming to the capsule, already in the water, and the frogmen leaping out into the ocean to gather and collect the astronauts and bring them home safely. No one will ever be able to convince me of anything other than the truth of the matter. They did land on the moon every one of those six times.
It was not my purpose to get into a major discussion on the topic of the actual moon landings. Instead rather, to springboard into why there is so much doubt among the young of today and what lessons we can draw from this controversy as it applies to the spiritual things we’re discussing here on this blog.
What about the stories of those who can say “I WAS THERE“ to seeing Jesus rise from the dead, were they fakes, yes or no? What does that mean for us today in the age where so many think they no longer need God?
Acts 1:3 says “to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Take the example of the Lord’s appearing to 500 at once mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:6. How could that possibly be attributed to mass hysteria? Note that the text here says “He presented Himself”. The crowd didn’t control the appearance.
John was one of those who saw Him many times after His resurrection. 1 John 1:1-4 says “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”
John was the youngest disciple. He wrote these words at least 60 years later. Growing up a Jew he knew of the hopes Israel had in the coming Messiah. He knew the true God, the God of the Bible, was not the same as the statues worshipped by every other culture in the entire world.
The Lord is beyond our reality and yet here he tells us that same God came into our reality to give us life. He was an eyewitness and he shares what he knows to be indisputably true. Even more so, he not only saw Jesus he touched Him! John’s main concern is not all that Jesus did to prove Himself after He rose form the dead, but the way He lived His life during the time of His ministry when He taught so much truth, gave so many practical demonstrations of His love and reached out to save those who would reject Him.
Peter actually uses the word “eyewitness” in 2 Peter 1:16-19, specifically talking about transfiguration of Luke 9:28-36, when he, John and James were with Jesus. They saw Jesus in a glorious white light and saw Moses and Elijah. They also audibly heard the voice of God the Father. Peter wrote these words many years later. “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;"
Elsewhere Peter speaks of the “more sure word of prophecy”. In other words, even though he did have eyewitness experiences, the real proof of Jesus Messiahship is found in the prophecies of the Old Testament that the Lord fulfilled while on earth. Some of those prophecies, like how Judas would betray Him, were not ones Jesus could personally control. Here in the above passage Peter notes how those prophecies were confirmed by this supernatural encounter.
I’ll give him a fake name – ‘Neil’. He is a composite character taken from a few people near me in life. A modern minded person, into science, philosophy and science fiction/fantasy, he is a lot like I was when I was his age. There is one crucial difference though. My friend, like many young people today, does not believe the moon landings were real. There have been books, TV documentaries and websites speaking about the issue and calling into question what was once fully accepted. The lack of stars behind the astronauts in any of the lunar surface pictures, the way those pictures were lit, the way they seemed to walk in their spacesuits, the way the shadow lines cross the ground, the waving of the U.S. flag; all these and more are given as “proof” that the moon landings couldn’t possibly be real. These have also clearly been debunked in other books, TV documentaries and websites. Those things that couldn’t happen, like the uneven shadow lines, are shown there to be everyday occurrences.
What shows those in the “against” camp to be completely incorrect and what I find fascinating about the whole debate is the incredible amount of evidence they ignore. Thousands of people were involved in the launching of the spaceships. After all these years and not one has cracked and spilled the beans, what does that say? Where did the rockets go each time they launched? They went up; if it was a fake they would have had to come down somewhere. Could you hide a 300 foot tall rocket? As my wife suggested to me in our conversations on the issue, how far would the conspiracy have had to go? Was every single Mercury, Gemini and pre-landing Apollo mission also a fake or was it just the actual moon landings? Do these same people who watch TV every day believe the satellites those TV signals come from are unreal? If the helicopter had the capsule in tow and dropped it into the ocean before it picked it up, where did it come from? There would have been thousands of people on the navy ships to see this part of the hoax. They never said anything. What about the total and complete disdain any living astronaut has for the issue. It’s entirely beneath them to even discuss it at all. If it was faked, then why have an Apollo 13 near disaster? Surely anyone who would lie to that degree would gloss things over so well that they would be seen to succeed without any problems. Not one of these points is ever dealt with by those who discount the success of the Apollo missions.
I have never doubted for one second that the moon landings were real. One thing that confirmed my beliefs over the years and closed my heart to any doubts was when I saw the video of the astronauts proving Galileo right. As a young person I greatly valued seeing this in light of being taught the story of Galileo’s persecution. What the astronauts did was to take a hammer and a feather up to the moon and drop them both at the same time. People disagreed with Galileo’s statements that all things fall at the same rate and used the feather as their example. Without air on the moon, the feather and the hammer fell at exactly the same rate landing on the moon’s surface at exactly the same time. This was not something that could be faked.
When you take all of the supposed reasons for the moon landing to be faked into account, what those who believe and promote them are really saying is not that they don’t believe, but that they can’t bring themselves to believe. It’s just too far beyond their worldview to surrender their preconceived notions.
In a way it’s not surprising that today’s youth do feel this way. The situation is the same one that we were in during the 1970’s with the book “Chariots of the Gods”. Its premise was essentially “how could those ancient peoples have built such great monuments when as far as we know they were nowhere near as advanced?” Today’s youth are well aware of the factoid that the average car has had a more powerful computer chip in it than was on the Apollo spaceship for at least the last twenty years. Therefore, how could they have done it? Your car couldn’t make it to the moon right?
The answer is simple, they were smart. I was quite adept at doing math in my head until I started using a calculator. Then I lost that skill. The entire world is the same way today. A slide rule may not be as fast as a computer, but the engineers at NASA could get the same results with it if they needed to. The kind of computers we have now were not what they had then. What they couldn’t get their computers to do, they did themselves. I’m not the first to say this but it’s something everyone should know. That is even though today’s computers are much more powerful and much smaller, they run complicated applications for processing video and picture files that the computers back then did not do. All they used those giant, room-sized computers for was number crunching. There were no operating systems to load up on the Apollo Command Module. Neither was there a mouse, printer/scanner nor a wireless router for high speed internet with their associated driver programs. There wasn’t even a monitor in the capsule the way we think of one. The display screen simply showed the numbers they needed to see. The majority of the computing was done on the ground anyway.
Computers are only as popular as they are today because they have been made so user friendly. They’re nothing more than glorified video game consoles, typewriters and stereo systems. Have you the average layman reading these words ever wrote any programs on your home computer yourself? People today take these things for granted, which leads them into error. Having been raised with them their whole lives and knowing nothing else, its no wonder young people today can’t picture the world any other way. The thing is; it was.
I know it’s true that they landed on the moon because I was there. I was four years old watching the rocket lift off live on television. I will never forget the wonder that filled my heart as I saw the great blasts of smoke and steam shoot out from the side of the Saturn V booster to a distance beyond it that was greater than its height. I remember the scene a few days later with the helicopter coming to the capsule, already in the water, and the frogmen leaping out into the ocean to gather and collect the astronauts and bring them home safely. No one will ever be able to convince me of anything other than the truth of the matter. They did land on the moon every one of those six times.
It was not my purpose to get into a major discussion on the topic of the actual moon landings. Instead rather, to springboard into why there is so much doubt among the young of today and what lessons we can draw from this controversy as it applies to the spiritual things we’re discussing here on this blog.
What about the stories of those who can say “I WAS THERE“ to seeing Jesus rise from the dead, were they fakes, yes or no? What does that mean for us today in the age where so many think they no longer need God?
Acts 1:3 says “to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Take the example of the Lord’s appearing to 500 at once mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:6. How could that possibly be attributed to mass hysteria? Note that the text here says “He presented Himself”. The crowd didn’t control the appearance.
John was one of those who saw Him many times after His resurrection. 1 John 1:1-4 says “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”
John was the youngest disciple. He wrote these words at least 60 years later. Growing up a Jew he knew of the hopes Israel had in the coming Messiah. He knew the true God, the God of the Bible, was not the same as the statues worshipped by every other culture in the entire world.
The Lord is beyond our reality and yet here he tells us that same God came into our reality to give us life. He was an eyewitness and he shares what he knows to be indisputably true. Even more so, he not only saw Jesus he touched Him! John’s main concern is not all that Jesus did to prove Himself after He rose form the dead, but the way He lived His life during the time of His ministry when He taught so much truth, gave so many practical demonstrations of His love and reached out to save those who would reject Him.
Peter actually uses the word “eyewitness” in 2 Peter 1:16-19, specifically talking about transfiguration of Luke 9:28-36, when he, John and James were with Jesus. They saw Jesus in a glorious white light and saw Moses and Elijah. They also audibly heard the voice of God the Father. Peter wrote these words many years later. “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts;"
Elsewhere Peter speaks of the “more sure word of prophecy”. In other words, even though he did have eyewitness experiences, the real proof of Jesus Messiahship is found in the prophecies of the Old Testament that the Lord fulfilled while on earth. Some of those prophecies, like how Judas would betray Him, were not ones Jesus could personally control. Here in the above passage Peter notes how those prophecies were confirmed by this supernatural encounter.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Job Learns What We All Must Final Post
THOUGH WE MAY THINK DIFFERENTLY, HE SHOWS THAT WE REALLY CAN DO NOTHING
Job 40:6-10 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: “Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me: “Would you indeed annul My judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and array yourself with glory and beauty.
We opened this chapter with 1 Timothy 6:16 which tells us God dwells in “unapproachable light”. Self-glorification is the principle behind the fashion industry where only those who have the latest are considered to be of any value. When people wear shiny pieces of metal or colored stones that reflect light (jewelry) they are trying to create a light of their own to dwell in. It’s also the reason people pierce themselves and get tattoos. They’re not satisfied with what God gave them and think they’re improving upon their appearance when really it’s a form of mutilation. The whole idea of “he who dies with the most toys wins” is another attempt at self-glorification. Any form of elitism, whether through business, education or culture is an attempt to say “I’m better than you” and therefore keeps with the principles of self-glorification the Lord balks at here. It’s possible to be a corporate Vice-President and still be humble, if you don’t think you’re worth more as a person because you’re not a garbage collector.
Job 40:11-13 deals with this idea a little further: “Disperse the rage of your wrath; Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him. Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low; Tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, Bind their faces in hidden darkness.”
There are many ways humans attempt to deal with pride. Every attempt to defeat another person, whether it’s in something small like cutting someone off in traffic or something grand like a great war, all have one thing in common. Each is an attempt to bring down others. The thing that humans can’t understand unless they have surrendered their hearts to Jesus is that you don’t bring down pride with more pride. That doesn’t help. In a war the side that wins may have had God’s blessing, but no one has ever won a war without casualties. That’s because war is also a punishment for a nation’s sins.
Job 40:14 contains the most important words in the Lord’s challenge to Job: “Then I will also confess to you That your own right hand can save you.”
Here’s the way the first great king of western civilization, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, put it in Daniel 4:34-37, “And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me. My counselors and nobles resorted to me, I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down.”
This king actually wrote most of Daniel chapter 4. He was full of pride and took the credit for his achievements himself, so the Lord gave him seven years of insanity to teach him his real place in life. These words are the summary of the lesson he learned.
DO ANY OF US REALLY KNOW THE TRUE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS? LIKE NEBUCHADNEZZAR, JOB LEARNS WHAT WE ALL MUST!
Job 42:1-6 “Then Job answered the LORD and said: ‘I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, ‘”Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?”’ ‘Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak;’ ‘You said, “I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”’ ‘I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.’”
There’s no other way to say it, we need God. We’re not as smart as we may think we are. Even though life has gotten much easier with technology, technology itself will not create a heaven on earth for us. Marvin Moore wrote in “The Coming Great Calamity”, page 11 “This secular, scientific mindset has dominated Western culture during my lifetime and the lifetime of my parents and grandparents. Most people would probably feel comfortable with the idea that it reached its peak during the middle of the twentieth century with the exploding of the atomic bomb over Japan in 1945 and the Apollo moon landing in 1969.”
After between 100 and 150 years of trying to create a heaven on earth through our own endeavours, the culmination of this was in those two great achievements. As discussed in chapter one, humanity thinks it can embrace the ultimate power of destruction and take its place in the universe back again. What’s fascinating is that many of the grandchildren of those who were adults at the time of the moon landing don’t even believe it really happened. There is also a great deal of significance to that fact. We’ll look at the issue next.
Job 40:6-10 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: “Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me: “Would you indeed annul My judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and array yourself with glory and beauty.
We opened this chapter with 1 Timothy 6:16 which tells us God dwells in “unapproachable light”. Self-glorification is the principle behind the fashion industry where only those who have the latest are considered to be of any value. When people wear shiny pieces of metal or colored stones that reflect light (jewelry) they are trying to create a light of their own to dwell in. It’s also the reason people pierce themselves and get tattoos. They’re not satisfied with what God gave them and think they’re improving upon their appearance when really it’s a form of mutilation. The whole idea of “he who dies with the most toys wins” is another attempt at self-glorification. Any form of elitism, whether through business, education or culture is an attempt to say “I’m better than you” and therefore keeps with the principles of self-glorification the Lord balks at here. It’s possible to be a corporate Vice-President and still be humble, if you don’t think you’re worth more as a person because you’re not a garbage collector.
Job 40:11-13 deals with this idea a little further: “Disperse the rage of your wrath; Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him. Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low; Tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, Bind their faces in hidden darkness.”
There are many ways humans attempt to deal with pride. Every attempt to defeat another person, whether it’s in something small like cutting someone off in traffic or something grand like a great war, all have one thing in common. Each is an attempt to bring down others. The thing that humans can’t understand unless they have surrendered their hearts to Jesus is that you don’t bring down pride with more pride. That doesn’t help. In a war the side that wins may have had God’s blessing, but no one has ever won a war without casualties. That’s because war is also a punishment for a nation’s sins.
Job 40:14 contains the most important words in the Lord’s challenge to Job: “Then I will also confess to you That your own right hand can save you.”
Here’s the way the first great king of western civilization, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, put it in Daniel 4:34-37, “And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever: For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me. My counselors and nobles resorted to me, I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down.”
This king actually wrote most of Daniel chapter 4. He was full of pride and took the credit for his achievements himself, so the Lord gave him seven years of insanity to teach him his real place in life. These words are the summary of the lesson he learned.
DO ANY OF US REALLY KNOW THE TRUE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS? LIKE NEBUCHADNEZZAR, JOB LEARNS WHAT WE ALL MUST!
Job 42:1-6 “Then Job answered the LORD and said: ‘I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, ‘”Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?”’ ‘Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak;’ ‘You said, “I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”’ ‘I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.’”
There’s no other way to say it, we need God. We’re not as smart as we may think we are. Even though life has gotten much easier with technology, technology itself will not create a heaven on earth for us. Marvin Moore wrote in “The Coming Great Calamity”, page 11 “This secular, scientific mindset has dominated Western culture during my lifetime and the lifetime of my parents and grandparents. Most people would probably feel comfortable with the idea that it reached its peak during the middle of the twentieth century with the exploding of the atomic bomb over Japan in 1945 and the Apollo moon landing in 1969.”
After between 100 and 150 years of trying to create a heaven on earth through our own endeavours, the culmination of this was in those two great achievements. As discussed in chapter one, humanity thinks it can embrace the ultimate power of destruction and take its place in the universe back again. What’s fascinating is that many of the grandchildren of those who were adults at the time of the moon landing don’t even believe it really happened. There is also a great deal of significance to that fact. We’ll look at the issue next.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
THINGS MAY WE THINK WE KNOW BUT REALLY DON’T
Job 38:1-7: “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: “Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
We looked at some of this already and saw how the rest of the universe was here to watch God create this solar system. This issue of creation versus evolution is of course one of the greatest challenges modern man has ever made to the Lord Himself. Charles Darwin took a trip to the Galapagos Islands and saw how an isolated community of birds varied within its own species according to the needs each kind of bird had (microevolution, which does keep with Bible truth). From there the leap was made to all life forming out of other life (macroevolution, which is a fanciful guess). I ask you, although there was variation in these particular birds, why do we not see the same thing in every single lake in the world? Why are there so many of the exact same species of fish in lake after lake in a given area when these lakes are completely isolated form each other? God created one cat and it micro-evolved into the lion, ocelot, siamese housecat etc. He created one dog and it became the coyote, wolf, hound etc. However, cats have always been cats and dogs have always been dogs. Geologists went around saying “these are old rocks because they have old fossils in them”. At the same time biologists were saying “these fossils are old because they’re in old rocks”.
I once heard put it this way “Skepticism and that which is called science has to a large degree undermined the faith of the Christian world in their Bibles. Error and fables are gladly accepted, that they may pursue the path of self-indulgence and not be alarmed, for they are striving not to retain God in their knowledge. They say, ‘Tomorrow will be as this day and much more abundant.’ But in the midst of their unbelief and godless pleasure the shout of the archangel and the trump of God is heard.” And this way as well “The Bible Our Guide in Science.--We are dependent on the Bible for a knowledge of the early history of our world, of the creation of man, and of his fall. Remove the Word of God, and what can we expect but to be left to fables and conjectures and to that enfeebling of the intellect which is the sure result of entertaining error.”
In thinking of what the Lord asked Job … “who determined (the earth’s) measurements?” some other thoughts come to mind about this whole discourse. We may be able to identify the different types of cells in a blade of grass or the different organs in the human body. We may be able to determine what purpose they serve. But that does not mean we have the power to make them serve their purposes. It doesn’t mean we deserve credit for their existence. Neither does it mean that we’ll ever figure out how to make something so complicated out of nothing.
Once in a trivia book, I read that all the weeping willow trees in North America today are descended from a few seeds that fell out of Benjamin Franklin’s broom. Just three or four seeds that he planted spread out over the entire U.S. and Canada over the last two and a half centuries. What if we could genetically trace them back even farther? What if we could get back to the very first weeping willow tree that existed in the Garden of Eden? From that point on, with all our scientific knowledge, we still couldn’t prove whether this first tree was created by the Lord Himself or evolved from a previous tree. A geologist walking into the newly created garden would see things created in their mature state; therefore he would conclude that they are much older.
We cannot pierce the mysteries of what the Lord has chosen not to reveal to us. You can’t prove God was the creator by looking at his creation; you have to trust Him that He is.
Job 38:24 “By what way is light diffused, Or the east wind scattered over the earth?”
Wind doesn’t blow, it sucks. It is a result of temperature differences - that’s the most basic Grade Eight Science. Light is something different. We don’t really know what it is. Sir Isaac Newton was the 17th Century scientist who theorized that light is a particle. He named those particles Photons. In the 19th century scientists had enough evidence from their experimentation to dispute this. They thought light was a wave. Today, there is experimental evidence to support both theories and scientists have simply resigned themselves to admit that they don’t really know what light is. It seems to be both a particle and a wave. This, like the mystery of the shower curtain, is something we have to accept. It’s the same with creation.
Job 38:34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That an abundance of water may cover you?”
Today we have public address systems with microphones, amplifiers and speakers that are capable of multiplying the sound of our voices to a much greater degree than we can normally speak. The music industry has various studio tricks to make a recorded voice sound much more full than is normal as well. One such trick is overdubbing, where a recording is made of music or singing and then re-recorded over itself a second time but slightly out of synchronization. If you are familiar with the group ABBA from the 1970’s, they used this technique and were quite popular. The story goes that their concerts could not duplicate the sound of their albums and fans were disappointed because of this.
Job 38:36 “Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?”
When my wife Melissa spent a year and a half babysitting her friend’s child I watched that child learn to stand and speak it’s first words. I remember trying to describe concepts to him such as: one thing is under something else. I also remembered watching a documentary once in which people were trying to teach this concept of under to monkeys by sign language and the monkeys didn’t get it. To be able to make sense of what is at first gibberish to the point that you can think in a language is a miracle.
Job 38:1-7: “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: “Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
We looked at some of this already and saw how the rest of the universe was here to watch God create this solar system. This issue of creation versus evolution is of course one of the greatest challenges modern man has ever made to the Lord Himself. Charles Darwin took a trip to the Galapagos Islands and saw how an isolated community of birds varied within its own species according to the needs each kind of bird had (microevolution, which does keep with Bible truth). From there the leap was made to all life forming out of other life (macroevolution, which is a fanciful guess). I ask you, although there was variation in these particular birds, why do we not see the same thing in every single lake in the world? Why are there so many of the exact same species of fish in lake after lake in a given area when these lakes are completely isolated form each other? God created one cat and it micro-evolved into the lion, ocelot, siamese housecat etc. He created one dog and it became the coyote, wolf, hound etc. However, cats have always been cats and dogs have always been dogs. Geologists went around saying “these are old rocks because they have old fossils in them”. At the same time biologists were saying “these fossils are old because they’re in old rocks”.
I once heard put it this way “Skepticism and that which is called science has to a large degree undermined the faith of the Christian world in their Bibles. Error and fables are gladly accepted, that they may pursue the path of self-indulgence and not be alarmed, for they are striving not to retain God in their knowledge. They say, ‘Tomorrow will be as this day and much more abundant.’ But in the midst of their unbelief and godless pleasure the shout of the archangel and the trump of God is heard.” And this way as well “The Bible Our Guide in Science.--We are dependent on the Bible for a knowledge of the early history of our world, of the creation of man, and of his fall. Remove the Word of God, and what can we expect but to be left to fables and conjectures and to that enfeebling of the intellect which is the sure result of entertaining error.”
In thinking of what the Lord asked Job … “who determined (the earth’s) measurements?” some other thoughts come to mind about this whole discourse. We may be able to identify the different types of cells in a blade of grass or the different organs in the human body. We may be able to determine what purpose they serve. But that does not mean we have the power to make them serve their purposes. It doesn’t mean we deserve credit for their existence. Neither does it mean that we’ll ever figure out how to make something so complicated out of nothing.
Once in a trivia book, I read that all the weeping willow trees in North America today are descended from a few seeds that fell out of Benjamin Franklin’s broom. Just three or four seeds that he planted spread out over the entire U.S. and Canada over the last two and a half centuries. What if we could genetically trace them back even farther? What if we could get back to the very first weeping willow tree that existed in the Garden of Eden? From that point on, with all our scientific knowledge, we still couldn’t prove whether this first tree was created by the Lord Himself or evolved from a previous tree. A geologist walking into the newly created garden would see things created in their mature state; therefore he would conclude that they are much older.
We cannot pierce the mysteries of what the Lord has chosen not to reveal to us. You can’t prove God was the creator by looking at his creation; you have to trust Him that He is.
Job 38:24 “By what way is light diffused, Or the east wind scattered over the earth?”
Wind doesn’t blow, it sucks. It is a result of temperature differences - that’s the most basic Grade Eight Science. Light is something different. We don’t really know what it is. Sir Isaac Newton was the 17th Century scientist who theorized that light is a particle. He named those particles Photons. In the 19th century scientists had enough evidence from their experimentation to dispute this. They thought light was a wave. Today, there is experimental evidence to support both theories and scientists have simply resigned themselves to admit that they don’t really know what light is. It seems to be both a particle and a wave. This, like the mystery of the shower curtain, is something we have to accept. It’s the same with creation.
Job 38:34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That an abundance of water may cover you?”
Today we have public address systems with microphones, amplifiers and speakers that are capable of multiplying the sound of our voices to a much greater degree than we can normally speak. The music industry has various studio tricks to make a recorded voice sound much more full than is normal as well. One such trick is overdubbing, where a recording is made of music or singing and then re-recorded over itself a second time but slightly out of synchronization. If you are familiar with the group ABBA from the 1970’s, they used this technique and were quite popular. The story goes that their concerts could not duplicate the sound of their albums and fans were disappointed because of this.
Job 38:36 “Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?”
When my wife Melissa spent a year and a half babysitting her friend’s child I watched that child learn to stand and speak it’s first words. I remember trying to describe concepts to him such as: one thing is under something else. I also remembered watching a documentary once in which people were trying to teach this concept of under to monkeys by sign language and the monkeys didn’t get it. To be able to make sense of what is at first gibberish to the point that you can think in a language is a miracle.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Job Learns What We All Must Post Two
No one knows for sure who Job was or when he lived. There is a “Jobab” listed in Genesis 10 and 1 Chronicles 1 that lived between Peleg and Abraham. Likely he’s the same person. If so, there is much significance to the timing of God’s challenge as this is the time when knowledge was decreasing on the earth. Let’s take a look at the various questions God asks to the one He calls “mortal man” and see if they still can inspire us today:
THINGS WE THINK WE’VE FIGURED OUT
Job 39:1, 2, 5, 10, 13, 14 “Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? Or can you mark when the deer gives birth? Can you number the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they bear young? “Who set the wild donkey free? Who loosed the bonds of the onager Can you bind the wild ox in the furrow with ropes? Or will he plow the valleys behind you? “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s? For she leaves her eggs on the ground, And warms them in the dust;”
If you like to watch nature documentaries, or read magazine or encyclopedia articles, you can learn all kinds of things about the animal kingdom. With a little bit of searching here on the internet one could find information on the gestation period of the mountain goat, how to train a wild ox or learn about ostriches. Job 39:17 is fascinating when you consider how many birds much smaller than an ostrich can navigate by the stars, and yet why is the ostrich so foolish? “Because God deprived her of wisdom, And did not endow her with understanding.”
Chapter 39:19, 25 “Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? At the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, The thunder of captains and shouting.”
In reading this I never thought before how all those centuries we fought wars with horses, they also had to be fearless as they went into battle just like their riders.
Job 38:39, 41 asks “Can you hunt the prey for the lion, Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, Who provides food for the raven, When its young ones cry to God, And wander about for lack of food?”
The food chain and the circle of life is something taught early on in junior high school biology classes. Predators contribute to the health of a herd by preying on the sick and the old animals. Psalm 104:21gives us the real answer to this question. “The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their food from God.”
Job 40:15-18, 21-23 “Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; He eats grass like an ox. See now, his strength is in his hips, And his power is in his stomach muscles. He moves his tail like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are like beams of bronze, His ribs like bars of iron. He lies under the lotus trees, In a covert of reeds and marsh. The lotus trees cover him with their shade; The willows by the brook surround him. Indeed the river may rage, Yet he is not disturbed; He is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth,”
Modern commentators believe this refers to the hippopotamus, but some believe this is a reference to a dinosaur like the brontosaurus because of the “tail like a cedar” text. Leviathan is also in controversy as some think it is a large crocodile, while others think it is the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Personally I do believe these are references to the dinosaurs. It seems so obvious as to almost be self-explanatory that the old legends of fire breathing dragons in so many world cultures referred to the dinosaurs. Now here is Old Testament proof such creatures existed. A great discussion of leviathan and behemoth can be found in Jim Pinkoski’s comic book “A Creationist’s View of Dinosaurs and the Theory of Evolution” available from the Amazing Facts ministry. Go to amazingfacts.org for more.
Job 41:1-4, 8-10: “Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, Or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? Can you put a reed through his nose, Or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you? Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever? Lay your hand on him; Remember the battle—Never do it again! Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false; Shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him? No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand against Me?”
Job 41:11, 13, 14, 18-20: “Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine. Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face, With his terrible teeth all around? His sneezings flash forth light, And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lights; Sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke goes out of his nostrils, As from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, And a flame goes out of his mouth.”
And what happened to the dinosaurs? Psalm 74:12-14 tells us “For God is my King from of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces, And gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
Job 38:22, 23: “Have you entered the treasury of snow, Or have you seen the treasury of hail, Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, For the day of battle and war?”
Some who read this with doubt may just write most of this discourse of as flowery poems and not literal descriptions of anything. Is there really a storeroom in Heaven filled with hail and snow? We can describe what we see in the process of water vapor changing form from liquid to solid or gas. Indeed we have seen already in chapter two that Job 36: 27-29 does describe this cycle. However, look up Ezekiel 38:22 “And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.”
Job 38:8-11, 16 “Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb; When I made the clouds its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band; When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors; When I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!’ “Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths?”
We have mapped the sea floor and we do have the ability to go under water to the very bottom, but still it has been said that we know more about outer space than we do about the oceans.
THINGS WE THINK WE’VE FIGURED OUT
Job 39:1, 2, 5, 10, 13, 14 “Do you know the time when the wild mountain goats bear young? Or can you mark when the deer gives birth? Can you number the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they bear young? “Who set the wild donkey free? Who loosed the bonds of the onager Can you bind the wild ox in the furrow with ropes? Or will he plow the valleys behind you? “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, But are her wings and pinions like the kindly stork’s? For she leaves her eggs on the ground, And warms them in the dust;”
If you like to watch nature documentaries, or read magazine or encyclopedia articles, you can learn all kinds of things about the animal kingdom. With a little bit of searching here on the internet one could find information on the gestation period of the mountain goat, how to train a wild ox or learn about ostriches. Job 39:17 is fascinating when you consider how many birds much smaller than an ostrich can navigate by the stars, and yet why is the ostrich so foolish? “Because God deprived her of wisdom, And did not endow her with understanding.”
Chapter 39:19, 25 “Have you given the horse strength? Have you clothed his neck with thunder? At the blast of the trumpet he says, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle from afar, The thunder of captains and shouting.”
In reading this I never thought before how all those centuries we fought wars with horses, they also had to be fearless as they went into battle just like their riders.
Job 38:39, 41 asks “Can you hunt the prey for the lion, Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, Who provides food for the raven, When its young ones cry to God, And wander about for lack of food?”
The food chain and the circle of life is something taught early on in junior high school biology classes. Predators contribute to the health of a herd by preying on the sick and the old animals. Psalm 104:21gives us the real answer to this question. “The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their food from God.”
Job 40:15-18, 21-23 “Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; He eats grass like an ox. See now, his strength is in his hips, And his power is in his stomach muscles. He moves his tail like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are like beams of bronze, His ribs like bars of iron. He lies under the lotus trees, In a covert of reeds and marsh. The lotus trees cover him with their shade; The willows by the brook surround him. Indeed the river may rage, Yet he is not disturbed; He is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth,”
Modern commentators believe this refers to the hippopotamus, but some believe this is a reference to a dinosaur like the brontosaurus because of the “tail like a cedar” text. Leviathan is also in controversy as some think it is a large crocodile, while others think it is the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Personally I do believe these are references to the dinosaurs. It seems so obvious as to almost be self-explanatory that the old legends of fire breathing dragons in so many world cultures referred to the dinosaurs. Now here is Old Testament proof such creatures existed. A great discussion of leviathan and behemoth can be found in Jim Pinkoski’s comic book “A Creationist’s View of Dinosaurs and the Theory of Evolution” available from the Amazing Facts ministry. Go to amazingfacts.org for more.
Job 41:1-4, 8-10: “Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, Or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? Can you put a reed through his nose, Or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you? Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever? Lay your hand on him; Remember the battle—Never do it again! Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false; Shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him? No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand against Me?”
Job 41:11, 13, 14, 18-20: “Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine. Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face, With his terrible teeth all around? His sneezings flash forth light, And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lights; Sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke goes out of his nostrils, As from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, And a flame goes out of his mouth.”
And what happened to the dinosaurs? Psalm 74:12-14 tells us “For God is my King from of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces, And gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
Job 38:22, 23: “Have you entered the treasury of snow, Or have you seen the treasury of hail, Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, For the day of battle and war?”
Some who read this with doubt may just write most of this discourse of as flowery poems and not literal descriptions of anything. Is there really a storeroom in Heaven filled with hail and snow? We can describe what we see in the process of water vapor changing form from liquid to solid or gas. Indeed we have seen already in chapter two that Job 36: 27-29 does describe this cycle. However, look up Ezekiel 38:22 “And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.”
Job 38:8-11, 16 “Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb; When I made the clouds its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band; When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors; When I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!’ “Have you entered the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths?”
We have mapped the sea floor and we do have the ability to go under water to the very bottom, but still it has been said that we know more about outer space than we do about the oceans.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Chapter four post one
JOB LEARNED WHAT WE ALL MUST
1 Timothy 6:16 “who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.” This reference is to God the Father. What do you think of as you read it? I’m sure most people would imagine the Lord on His throne surrounded by some sort of mist or cloud that can’t be seen past. We can see He’s in there but can’t see Him, we can only hear His voice. Maybe there are flashes of colour in the background as we hear Him speak. I imagine that too. However! Would this verse not also apply to the concept of God dwelling in an intellectual light no man can approach unto?
A friend of mine once gave me an interesting factoid - apparently in ancient times, the knowledge base of a society like the Roman Empire would double every 150 years; while today our knowledge base doubles every eight years. With all the advances in technology in the last few generations we now think we dwell in a far greater intellectual light than we have before. Should we be surprised then that so many feel no need of Him today?
In the previous chapter we looked at some references to creation from Job chapter 38. We saw how the angels and the Adams from the rest of the universe watched as God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit made this world. In this chapter we’ll take a greater look at the last few chapters of the book of Job and examine the scientific statements they make. The book of Job is the very first book of the Bible ever written and tells the story of one man who suffers and how it affected his faith. Though the Lord never reprimands Job for complaining about his trials, God does not apologize for them either. (We have already briefly discussed the first 2 chapters of Job as well. If you haven’t already, I’d like to ask you to stop here, go to your Bible, and read them fully. Job’s problems ultimately are not God’s fault.) He goes on at the conclusion of the book to question this one “mortal man” about a great many things until Job sees his total and utter helplessness as a human being. What’s interesting to note is that some of those challenges God gave we have found answers to through all the progress we’ve made in the last 150 years.
Before we get to that, if our view of today’s modern age is not 100% accurate, who’s to say that what we believe about the past is? Jesus had this to say in Matthew 24:37 “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” For today’s time to be like that of the flood, they must have had technology! Could it be that the history of their increasingly bold rebellion against God was tied to a growth in technology then just as much as it is today?
This may be a hard thought for some to consider. Evolutionists and Bible critics believe the modern view that we all started as cavemen with no knowledge at all, have steadily grown over time until we have what we have now, and that this is the only time humanity has ever possessed this much knowledge. Any great achievement of a previous civilization that we can’t fathom is called a ‘mystery’. Many of these include things like the statues of Easter Island; the Nazca lines in Peru and of course the Pyramids. One of the most ridiculous and outlandish theories touted in the 1970’s to explain these mysteries was the book “Chariots of the Gods”, where space aliens are credited with the engineering achievements of ancient mankind. However the more rational theory is that the people who lived back then were smart, for a while smarter than we are.
Bible scholars don’t normally have much to say one way or the other because their focus is not on this aspect of history. But think about it, God made Adam and Eve perfect. That should mean as we previously discussed that they had perfect memories (they didn’t need to write things down) and much higher mental abilities than we have today. Since the first ten generations lived into the 900’s, they were healthier and stronger than we are, their brains must have matched their bodies then. Think also about how much time they had then to study the world around them. It took ten more generations for the lifespan to get down to Abraham’s 175. Moses was seven generations after that and he lived to be 120. We don’t have confirmation of 70 year lifespans until the time of David as shown by Psalm 90:10 “The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” As we saw a decline in physical power and strength, there must have been a corresponding decline in mental ability as well. (On a side note, do you know the main reason for the decline in lifespan? God’s original diet is listed as fruits, nuts and grains in Genesis 1:29. In Genesis 3:18 vegetables were added after sin. With this their perfect bodies did not decay for nine centuries. It was after the flood that they were allowed to eat meat, see Genesis 9:3. Meat eating is what caused this great decline in lifespan.)
This is the view Rene Noorbergen takes in “Secrets of the Lost Races”, written in part to respond to Chariots of the Gods. On pages 10-14 he compares the Bible’s list of the pre-flood leaders, known as the Patriarchs, with that of ancient Egyptian and Babylonian history, identifying them to be the same. Page 11 says “Upon comparing the list of the prehistoric Chaldean kings with the pre-Flood patriarchs, we find a fascinating parallel that again supports our basic premise.” He then goes on to elaborate on the similar meanings of the various names given in both accounts. Page 19 also takes China’s history into account, “The Chinese have set 2250 B.C. as the beginning for their history, while traditional Bible chronology estimates 2248 B.C. as the year for the Flood occurrence.”
Noorbergen gives his book’s basic premise on pages 3-4: “According to the Genesis account, the antediluvian people were highly knowledgeable, being the first to develop agriculture, animal husbandry, construction, architecture, political organization, metal-working, the abstract arts, mathematics, chronology and astronomy. What’s more, while the Genesis record tells us that there were altogether only ten generations of antediluvians, they developed the majority, if not all, of the basic elements of civilization by the sixth generation. Now if the antediluvians, beginning with the raw earth, were able to master the arts of civilization in the first six generations their existence, we may well wonder to what degree they further developed and refined those arts in the remaining four prior to the Deluge.”
He then continues on page 21 with: “Is it possible that the few human survivors of the Flood, whether the leader was called Noah, Nu-u, or Nuwah, depending on the tradition, were not so primitive after all? Can we assume that they carried with them sufficient knowledge of the antediluvian era to enable them to give a rapid start to the new civilization that sprang up … in the years immediately following the Flood?”
Page 124 gives a description of a model airplane found in an ancient Egyptian tomb. This finding is also discussed and pictured in “Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation, Premiere Edition, by Dennis R. Petersen, page 225. On pages 94-95 Noorbergen tells of an ancient map, the “Piri Reis chart of 1513”, which was drawn “from a composite of twenty older maps”, eight of which “were from the time of … Alexander the Great”. It “showed South America and Africa in correct relative longitude” when our modern map makers took “another two hundred years” to establish this as true. The map also “accurately showed the coastline of Queen Maud Land in Antarctica – even though the map was drawn in 1513, and the southern continent’s existence was not verified until 1819!” A picture of this map is in Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation, page 211. (This book like the other creation textbook I mentioned in the last chapter. It contains a great many things that are obviously true and gives a great many challenges to evolution. Unfortunately, the author clearly has the same earth centred, 14th century understanding of the events of day four of creation week as is shown by his statements on page 22.)
This information comes from chapter three of “Secrets of the Lost Races”, called “Following in the Tracks of Ancient Explorers”. There Noorbergen describes ancient records and evidence of post-Flood world exploration from several cultures. On page 99 we read: “In Genesis 10:25 we meet a descendant of Noah called Peleg who was given his name because ‘in his day was the earth divided’. The usual interpretation of this passage is that it refers to the division of nations; however, it could also mean division as in ‘allotment, marking off an area, a measurement.’ A more accurate translation of this historical passage could read, ‘Peleg, in his day was the earth measured, or surveyed.’”
I had previously heard two other interpretations of this verse. That the story following in chapter 11 of the Tower of Babel, when God confused the languages of the people to scatter them all over the earth, took place in Peleg’s time. And that the continents were originally one even after the flood and that this was the time in which they broke up into the geography we have today. Likely all these interpretations are correct.
In the same chapter Noorbergen discusses the story of Chinese world exploration with a focus on the “Shan Hai King”, a Chinese story from 2208 B.C. This “treatise on geography … for several hundred years … was regarded as a scientific work … but during the third century B.C., when many Chinese records were reevaluated and condensed, it was discovered that {it} did not correspond to any lands known at the time … {and} was reclassified as myth (page 103).” Rene shows on pages 103 and 104 that this work describes North America.
He also discusses “petroglyphs” ancient rock carvings found all over the world, one of which he mentions at Writing-on-Stone provincial park near Milk River, Alberta. That happens to be only a three and a half hour drive from my home, so after reading about them my wife and I went there and took the tour. I remember the very first set of carvings the tour guide took us to. When she asked us what we thought it was, two pictures came to both our minds. One was shaped very much like the animals in the famous cave paintings in France, which Rene discusses elsewhere in his book. The other was shaped like a brontosaurus. And all the information at the displays in the Visitor’s Centre clearly told how the Siksika First Nations, (formerly known as the Blackfoot Indian tribe) were not the ones who carved these stone pictures. They regarded them as sacred but had no idea who did carve them or how old they were.
“Secrets of the Lost Races” has greatly elaborated on my understanding of early world history. Though they likely did explore the earth, and built many of the great mystery monuments in those first five generations after the flood, by the time of Abraham five generations further on, we have an example of technology in his day. In Genesis 22:6 “he took the fire in his hand”. The way they traveled with fire back then was to coil up a very long rope, light one end and put it in a container. It would slowly burn over the course of days and could be taken out anytime it was needed to ignite a new fire. They didn’t even have flints, what we gave up when matches and lighters were invented! It’s clear that no matter what else may have been known or discovered in those first few generations after the Flood, as the people settled down in their respective regions of the earth and created the cultures we have today; it was all lost by Abraham’s time.
1 Timothy 6:16 “who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.” This reference is to God the Father. What do you think of as you read it? I’m sure most people would imagine the Lord on His throne surrounded by some sort of mist or cloud that can’t be seen past. We can see He’s in there but can’t see Him, we can only hear His voice. Maybe there are flashes of colour in the background as we hear Him speak. I imagine that too. However! Would this verse not also apply to the concept of God dwelling in an intellectual light no man can approach unto?
A friend of mine once gave me an interesting factoid - apparently in ancient times, the knowledge base of a society like the Roman Empire would double every 150 years; while today our knowledge base doubles every eight years. With all the advances in technology in the last few generations we now think we dwell in a far greater intellectual light than we have before. Should we be surprised then that so many feel no need of Him today?
In the previous chapter we looked at some references to creation from Job chapter 38. We saw how the angels and the Adams from the rest of the universe watched as God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit made this world. In this chapter we’ll take a greater look at the last few chapters of the book of Job and examine the scientific statements they make. The book of Job is the very first book of the Bible ever written and tells the story of one man who suffers and how it affected his faith. Though the Lord never reprimands Job for complaining about his trials, God does not apologize for them either. (We have already briefly discussed the first 2 chapters of Job as well. If you haven’t already, I’d like to ask you to stop here, go to your Bible, and read them fully. Job’s problems ultimately are not God’s fault.) He goes on at the conclusion of the book to question this one “mortal man” about a great many things until Job sees his total and utter helplessness as a human being. What’s interesting to note is that some of those challenges God gave we have found answers to through all the progress we’ve made in the last 150 years.
Before we get to that, if our view of today’s modern age is not 100% accurate, who’s to say that what we believe about the past is? Jesus had this to say in Matthew 24:37 “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” For today’s time to be like that of the flood, they must have had technology! Could it be that the history of their increasingly bold rebellion against God was tied to a growth in technology then just as much as it is today?
This may be a hard thought for some to consider. Evolutionists and Bible critics believe the modern view that we all started as cavemen with no knowledge at all, have steadily grown over time until we have what we have now, and that this is the only time humanity has ever possessed this much knowledge. Any great achievement of a previous civilization that we can’t fathom is called a ‘mystery’. Many of these include things like the statues of Easter Island; the Nazca lines in Peru and of course the Pyramids. One of the most ridiculous and outlandish theories touted in the 1970’s to explain these mysteries was the book “Chariots of the Gods”, where space aliens are credited with the engineering achievements of ancient mankind. However the more rational theory is that the people who lived back then were smart, for a while smarter than we are.
Bible scholars don’t normally have much to say one way or the other because their focus is not on this aspect of history. But think about it, God made Adam and Eve perfect. That should mean as we previously discussed that they had perfect memories (they didn’t need to write things down) and much higher mental abilities than we have today. Since the first ten generations lived into the 900’s, they were healthier and stronger than we are, their brains must have matched their bodies then. Think also about how much time they had then to study the world around them. It took ten more generations for the lifespan to get down to Abraham’s 175. Moses was seven generations after that and he lived to be 120. We don’t have confirmation of 70 year lifespans until the time of David as shown by Psalm 90:10 “The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” As we saw a decline in physical power and strength, there must have been a corresponding decline in mental ability as well. (On a side note, do you know the main reason for the decline in lifespan? God’s original diet is listed as fruits, nuts and grains in Genesis 1:29. In Genesis 3:18 vegetables were added after sin. With this their perfect bodies did not decay for nine centuries. It was after the flood that they were allowed to eat meat, see Genesis 9:3. Meat eating is what caused this great decline in lifespan.)
This is the view Rene Noorbergen takes in “Secrets of the Lost Races”, written in part to respond to Chariots of the Gods. On pages 10-14 he compares the Bible’s list of the pre-flood leaders, known as the Patriarchs, with that of ancient Egyptian and Babylonian history, identifying them to be the same. Page 11 says “Upon comparing the list of the prehistoric Chaldean kings with the pre-Flood patriarchs, we find a fascinating parallel that again supports our basic premise.” He then goes on to elaborate on the similar meanings of the various names given in both accounts. Page 19 also takes China’s history into account, “The Chinese have set 2250 B.C. as the beginning for their history, while traditional Bible chronology estimates 2248 B.C. as the year for the Flood occurrence.”
Noorbergen gives his book’s basic premise on pages 3-4: “According to the Genesis account, the antediluvian people were highly knowledgeable, being the first to develop agriculture, animal husbandry, construction, architecture, political organization, metal-working, the abstract arts, mathematics, chronology and astronomy. What’s more, while the Genesis record tells us that there were altogether only ten generations of antediluvians, they developed the majority, if not all, of the basic elements of civilization by the sixth generation. Now if the antediluvians, beginning with the raw earth, were able to master the arts of civilization in the first six generations their existence, we may well wonder to what degree they further developed and refined those arts in the remaining four prior to the Deluge.”
He then continues on page 21 with: “Is it possible that the few human survivors of the Flood, whether the leader was called Noah, Nu-u, or Nuwah, depending on the tradition, were not so primitive after all? Can we assume that they carried with them sufficient knowledge of the antediluvian era to enable them to give a rapid start to the new civilization that sprang up … in the years immediately following the Flood?”
Page 124 gives a description of a model airplane found in an ancient Egyptian tomb. This finding is also discussed and pictured in “Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation, Premiere Edition, by Dennis R. Petersen, page 225. On pages 94-95 Noorbergen tells of an ancient map, the “Piri Reis chart of 1513”, which was drawn “from a composite of twenty older maps”, eight of which “were from the time of … Alexander the Great”. It “showed South America and Africa in correct relative longitude” when our modern map makers took “another two hundred years” to establish this as true. The map also “accurately showed the coastline of Queen Maud Land in Antarctica – even though the map was drawn in 1513, and the southern continent’s existence was not verified until 1819!” A picture of this map is in Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation, page 211. (This book like the other creation textbook I mentioned in the last chapter. It contains a great many things that are obviously true and gives a great many challenges to evolution. Unfortunately, the author clearly has the same earth centred, 14th century understanding of the events of day four of creation week as is shown by his statements on page 22.)
This information comes from chapter three of “Secrets of the Lost Races”, called “Following in the Tracks of Ancient Explorers”. There Noorbergen describes ancient records and evidence of post-Flood world exploration from several cultures. On page 99 we read: “In Genesis 10:25 we meet a descendant of Noah called Peleg who was given his name because ‘in his day was the earth divided’. The usual interpretation of this passage is that it refers to the division of nations; however, it could also mean division as in ‘allotment, marking off an area, a measurement.’ A more accurate translation of this historical passage could read, ‘Peleg, in his day was the earth measured, or surveyed.’”
I had previously heard two other interpretations of this verse. That the story following in chapter 11 of the Tower of Babel, when God confused the languages of the people to scatter them all over the earth, took place in Peleg’s time. And that the continents were originally one even after the flood and that this was the time in which they broke up into the geography we have today. Likely all these interpretations are correct.
In the same chapter Noorbergen discusses the story of Chinese world exploration with a focus on the “Shan Hai King”, a Chinese story from 2208 B.C. This “treatise on geography … for several hundred years … was regarded as a scientific work … but during the third century B.C., when many Chinese records were reevaluated and condensed, it was discovered that {it} did not correspond to any lands known at the time … {and} was reclassified as myth (page 103).” Rene shows on pages 103 and 104 that this work describes North America.
He also discusses “petroglyphs” ancient rock carvings found all over the world, one of which he mentions at Writing-on-Stone provincial park near Milk River, Alberta. That happens to be only a three and a half hour drive from my home, so after reading about them my wife and I went there and took the tour. I remember the very first set of carvings the tour guide took us to. When she asked us what we thought it was, two pictures came to both our minds. One was shaped very much like the animals in the famous cave paintings in France, which Rene discusses elsewhere in his book. The other was shaped like a brontosaurus. And all the information at the displays in the Visitor’s Centre clearly told how the Siksika First Nations, (formerly known as the Blackfoot Indian tribe) were not the ones who carved these stone pictures. They regarded them as sacred but had no idea who did carve them or how old they were.
“Secrets of the Lost Races” has greatly elaborated on my understanding of early world history. Though they likely did explore the earth, and built many of the great mystery monuments in those first five generations after the flood, by the time of Abraham five generations further on, we have an example of technology in his day. In Genesis 22:6 “he took the fire in his hand”. The way they traveled with fire back then was to coil up a very long rope, light one end and put it in a container. It would slowly burn over the course of days and could be taken out anytime it was needed to ignite a new fire. They didn’t even have flints, what we gave up when matches and lighters were invented! It’s clear that no matter what else may have been known or discovered in those first few generations after the Flood, as the people settled down in their respective regions of the earth and created the cultures we have today; it was all lost by Abraham’s time.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
