As I have previously mentioned, this blog was for a limited time and a specific purpose. That purpose is to share the contents of my book "Science the Bible and Life on Other Planets". Approximatley 63 pages in length, chapter one begins with my first post and continues in order from that point to the present. If you are new to this blog and are interested in a unique take on the issues between science and religion so hotly debated elsewhere, this blog is for you.

To further your search for truth, I recently have posted a number of links to some video Bible studies I have been working on. They are available to view by clicking on "Video Bible Study" at airdriesda.org. All are welcome to learn more about God and His truth for our time there.
THANK YOU
LES MILLER

New Project

Look for "Video Bible Study" on airdriesda.org where you will find a number of different topics designed to meet your spiritual needs. May the Lord be with you!

Epilogue

This concludes the book “Science the Bible and Life on Other Planets” shared here on this blog. I am going to take a break from blogging for a few months while I work on other projects. Please take a look every once in a while at airdriesda.org for a series of video Bible studies that explore these topics further. For now though, I hope your worldview has been affected in a positive way. I also hope that the next time you look up the stars; you’ll have a greater appreciation for the Lord, all He’s done to save you and that you’ll want to live in such a way that the whole universe can praise Him.

Part 6 – World history and the plan of salvation unfold

The plan of redemption had a yet broader and deeper purpose than the salvation of man. It was not for this alone that Christ came to the earth; it was not merely that the inhabitants of this little world might regard the law of God as it should be regarded; but it was to vindicate the character of God before the universe. To this result of His great sacrifice--its influence upon the intelligences of other worlds, as well as upon man--the Saviour looked forward when just before His crucifixion He said: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto Me." John 12:31, 32. The act of Christ in dying for the salvation of man would not only make heaven accessible to men, but before all the universe it would justify God and His Son in their dealing with the rebellion of Satan. It would establish the perpetuity of the law of God and would reveal the nature and the results of sin.

If the race had ceased to fall when Adam was driven from Eden, we should now be in a far more elevated condition physically, mentally, and morally. But while men deplore the fall of Adam, which has resulted in such unutterable woe, they disobey the express injunctions of God, as did Adam, although they have his example to warn them from doing as he did in violating the law of Jehovah. Would that man had stopped falling with Adam. But there has been a succession of falls each greater than the last, in every species of crime. God did not create a race of beings so devoid of health, beauty, and moral power as now exists in the world. Disease of every kind has been fearfully increasing upon the race. This has not been by God's especial providence, but directly contrary to His will. It has come by man's disregard of the very means which God has ordained to shield him from the terrible evils existing

In Eden Satan used the serpent as his instrument. Today he makes use of the members of the human family, striving by means of every species of cunning and deception to hedge up the path of righteousness cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. God does not consult our opinions or preferences. He knows what human beings do not know,--the future results of every movement, and therefore our eyes should be directed to Him, and not to the worldly advantages presented by Satan. Satan tells us that if we give heed to him, we shall reach great heights of knowledge. Ye shall be as gods, he said to Eve, if you eat of the tree forbidden by God. The test given to Adam and Eve was very light, but they could not bear it. They disobeyed God, and this transgression opened the floodgates of woe on our world

We can do nothing of ourselves. It is only by relying on Christ for all our strength that we can overcome, and do His will on earth. We must have the same simple, childlike trust in Him that He had in His Father. Christ said, "Without Me ye can do nothing." John 15:5.

It is Satan's constant effort to misrepresent the character of God, the nature of sin, and the real issues at stake in the great controversy. His sophistry lessens the obligation of the divine law and gives men license to sin. At the same time he causes them to cherish false conceptions of God so that they regard Him with fear and hate rather than with love. The cruelty inherent in his own character is attributed to the Creator; it is embodied in systems of religion and expressed in modes of worship. Thus the minds of men are blinded, and Satan secures them as his agents to war against God. By perverted conceptions of the divine attributes, heathen nations were led to believe human sacrifices necessary to secure the favor of Deity; and horrible cruelties have been perpetrated under the various forms of idolatry.

Age after age, the curiosity of men has led them to seek for the tree of knowledge; and often they think they are plucking fruit most essential, when, like Solomon's research, they find it altogether vanity and nothingness in comparison with that science of true holiness which will open to them the gates of the city of God. The human ambition has been seeking for that kind of knowledge that will bring to them glory and self-exaltation and supremacy.

The same spirit that prompted rebellion in heaven still inspires rebellion on earth. Satan has continued with men the same policy which he pursued with the angels. His spirit now reigns in the children of disobedience. Like him they seek to break down the restraints of the law of God and promise men liberty through transgression of its precepts. Reproof of sin still arouses the spirit of hatred and resistance. When God's messages of warning are brought home to the conscience, Satan leads men to justify themselves and to seek the sympathy of others in their course of sin. Instead of correcting their errors, they excite indignation against the reprover, as if he were the sole cause of difficulty. From the days of righteous Abel to our own time such is the spirit which has been displayed toward those who dare to condemn sin.

The Saviour's coming was foretold in Eden. When Adam and Eve first heard the promise, they looked for its speedy fulfillment. They joyfully welcomed their first-born son, hoping that he might be the Deliverer. But the fulfillment of the promise tarried. Those who first received it died without the sight. From the days of Enoch the promise was repeated through patriarchs and prophets, keeping alive the hope of His appearing, and yet He came not. The prophecy of Daniel revealed the time of His advent, but not all rightly interpreted the message. Century after century passed away; the voices of the prophets ceased. The hand of the oppressor was heavy upon Israel, and many were ready to exclaim, "The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth." Ezek. 12:22.

But like the stars in the vast circuit of their appointed path, God's purposes know no haste and no delay. Through the symbols of the great darkness and the smoking furnace, God had revealed to Abraham the bondage of Israel in Egypt, and had declared that the time of their sojourning should be four hundred years. "Afterward," He said, "shall they come out with great substance." Gen. 15:14. Against that word, all the power of Pharaoh's proud empire battled in vain. On "the self-same day" appointed in the divine promise, "it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt." Ex. 12:41. So in heaven's council the hour for the coming of Christ had been determined. When the great clock of time pointed to that hour, Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

It was not the will of God that this sinless pair should have any knowledge of evil. He had freely given them the good, but withheld the evil. Eve thought the words of the serpent wise, and she received the broad assertion, "Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil" --making God a liar. Satan boldly insinuates that God had deceived them to keep them from being exalted in knowledge equal with himself. God said, If ye eat "ye shall surely die." The serpent said, If ye eat "ye shall not surely die."

The tempter assured Eve that as soon as she ate of the fruit she would receive a new and superior knowledge that would make her equal with God. He called her attention to himself. He ate freely of the tree and found it not only perfectly harmless, but delicious and exhilarating; and told her that it was because of its wonderful properties to impart wisdom and power that God had prohibited them from tasting or even touching it; for he knew its wonderful qualities. He stated that by eating of the fruit of the tree forbidden them was the reason he had attained the power of speech. He intimated that God would not carry out his word. It was merely a threat to intimidate them and keep them from great good. He further told them that they could not die. Had they not eaten of the tree of life which perpetuates immortality? He said that God was deceiving them to keep them from a higher state of felicity and more exalted happiness. The tempter plucked the fruit and passed it to Eve. She took it in her hand. Now, said the tempter, you were prohibited from even touching it lest you die. He told her that she would realize no more sense of evil and death in eating than in touching or handling the fruit. Eve was emboldened because she felt not the immediate signs of God's displeasure. She thought the words of the tempter all wise and correct. She ate, and was delighted with the fruit. It seemed delicious to her taste, and she imagined that she realized in herself the wonderful effects of the fruit.

She then plucked for herself of the fruit and ate, and imagined she felt the quickening power of a new and elevated existence as the result of the exhilarating influence of the forbidden fruit. She was in a strange and unnatural excitement as she sought her husband, with her hands filled with the forbidden fruit. She related to him the wise discourse of the serpent, and wished to conduct him at once to the tree of knowledge. She told him she had eaten of the fruit, and instead of her feeling any sense of death, she realized a pleasing, exhilarating influence. As soon as Eve had disobeyed, she became a powerful medium through which to occasion the fall of her husband.

I saw a sadness come over the countenance of Adam. He appeared afraid and astonished. A struggle appeared to be going on in his mind. He told Eve he was quite certain that this was the foe that they had been warned against; and if so, that she must die. She assured him she felt no ill effects, but rather a very pleasant influence, and entreated him to eat.

Adam quite well understood that his companion had transgressed the only prohibition laid upon them as a test of their fidelity and love. Eve reasoned that the serpent said they should not surely die, and his words must be true, for she felt no signs of God's displeasure, but a pleasant influence, as she imagined the angels felt. Adam regretted that Eve had left his side; but now the deed was done. He must be separated from her whose society he had loved so well. How could he have it thus? His love for Eve was strong. And in utter discouragement he resolved to share her fate. He reasoned that Eve was a part of himself; and if she must die, he would die with her; for he could not bear the thought of separation from her. He lacked faith in his merciful and benevolent Creator. He did not think that God, who had formed him out of the dust of the ground into a living, beautiful form, and had created Eve to be his companion, could supply her place. After all, might not the words of this wise serpent be correct? Eve was before him, just as lovely and beautiful, and apparently as innocent, as before this act of disobedience. She expressed greater, higher love for him than before her disobedience, as the effects of the fruit she had eaten. He saw in her no signs of death. She had told him of the happy influence of the fruit, of her ardent love for him, and he decided to brave the consequences. He seized the fruit and quickly ate it, and, like Eve, felt not immediately its ill effects.

Our first parents chose to believe the words, as they thought, of a serpent; yet he had given them no tokens of his love. He had done nothing for their happiness and benefit; while God had given them everything that was good for food, and pleasant to the sight. Everywhere the eye might rest was abundance and beauty; yet Eve was deceived by the serpent, to think that there was something withheld which would make them wise, even as God. Instead of believing and confiding in God, she basely distrusted his goodness, and cherished the words of Satan.

After Adam's transgression he at first imagined that he felt the rising to a new and higher existence. But soon the thought of his transgression terrified him. The air that had been of a mild and even temperature, seemed to chill them. The guilty pair had a sense of sin. They felt a dread of the future, a sense of want, a nakedness of soul. The sweet love, and peace, and happy, contented bliss, seemed removed from them, and in its place a want of something came over them that they never experienced before. They then for the first turned their attention to the external. They had not been clothed, but were draped in light as were the heavenly angels. This light which had enshrouded them departed. To relieve the sense of lack and nakedness which they realized, their attention was directed to seek a covering for their forms; for how could they meet the eye of God and angels unclothed?

Their crime is now before them in its true light. Their transgression of God's express command assumes a clearer character. Adam censured Eve's folly in leaving his side, and being deceived by the serpent. They both flattered themselves that God, who had given them everything to make them happy, might yet excuse their disobedience, because of his great love to them, and that their punishment would not be so dreadful, after all.

Satan exulted in his success. He had now tempted the woman to distrust God, to question his wisdom, and to seek to penetrate his all-wise plans. And through her he had also caused the overthrow of Adam, who, in consequence of his love for Eve, disobeyed the command of God, and fell with her.

Part 3 – Precursor to the fall

Satan stood in amazement at his new condition. His happiness was gone. He looked upon the angels who, with him, were once so happy, but who had been expelled from Heaven with him. Before their fall, not a shade of discontent had marred their perfect bliss. Now all seemed changed. Countenances which had reflected the image of their Maker were gloomy and despairing. Strife, discord, and bitter recrimination, were among them. Previous to their rebellion these things had been unknown in Heaven. Satan now beholds the terrible results of his rebellion. He shuddered, and feared to face the future, and to contemplate the end of these things.

The hour for joyful, happy songs of praise to God and his dear Son had come. Satan had led the heavenly choir. He had raised the first note, then all the angelic host united with him, and glorious strains of music had resounded through Heaven in honor of God and his dear Son. But now, instead of strains of sweetest music, discord and angry words fall upon the ear of the great rebel leader. Where was he? Was it not all a horrible dream? Was he shut out of Heaven? Were the gates of Heaven never more to open and admit him? The hour of worship draws nigh, when bright and holy angels bow before the Father. No more will he unite in heavenly song. No more will he bow in reverence and holy awe before the presence of the eternal God. Could he be again as he was when he was pure, true and loyal, gladly would he yield up the claims of his authority. But he was lost! beyond redemption, for his presumptuous rebellion! And this was not all; he had led others to rebellion and to the same lost condition with himself--angels, who had never thought to question the will of Heaven, or refuse obedience to the law of God till he had put it into their minds, presenting before them that they might enjoy a greater good, a higher and more glorious liberty. This had been the sophistry whereby he had deceived them. A responsibility now rests upon him from which he would fain be released.

Satan trembled as he viewed his work. He was alone in meditation upon the past, the present, and his future plans. His mighty frame shook as with a tempest. An angel from Heaven was passing. He called him, and entreated an interview with Christ. This was granted him. He then related to the Son of God that he repented of his rebellion, and wished again the favor of God. He was willing to take the place God had previously assigned him, and be under his wise command. Christ wept at Satan's woe, but told him, as the mind of God, that he could never be received into Heaven. Heaven must not be placed in jeopardy. All Heaven would be marred should he be received back; for sin and rebellion originated with him. The seeds of rebellion were still within him. He had, in his rebellion, no occasion for his course, and he had not only hopelessly ruined himself, but the host of angels also, who would then have been happy in Heaven had he remained steadfast.

He repented not of his rebellion because he saw the goodness of God which he had abused. It was not possible that his love for God had so increased since his fall that it would lead to cheerful submission and happy obedience to his law which had been despised. The wretchedness he realized in losing the sweet light of Heaven, and the sense of guilt which forced itself upon him, and the disappointment he experienced himself in not finding his expectations realized, were the cause of his grief. To be commander out of Heaven, was vastly different from being thus honored in Heaven. The loss he had sustained of all the privileges of Heaven seemed too much to be borne. He wished to regain these.

This great change of position had not increased his love for God, nor for his wise and just law. When Satan became fully convinced that there was no possibility of his being re-instated in the favor of God, he manifested his malice with increased hatred and fiery vehemence.

God knew that such determined rebellion would not remain inactive. Satan would invent means to annoy the heavenly angels, and show contempt for his authority. As he could not gain admission within the gates of Heaven, he would wait just at the entrance, to taunt the angels and seek contention with them as they went in and out. He would seek to destroy the happiness of Adam and Eve. He would endeavor to incite them to rebellion, knowing that this would cause grief in Heaven.

His followers were seeking him; and he aroused himself and, assuming a look of defiance, informed them of his plans to wrest from God the noble Adam and his companion Eve. If he could, in any way, beguile them to disobedience, God would make some provision whereby they might be pardoned, and then himself and all the fallen angels would be in a fair way to share with them of God's mercy. If this should fail, they could unite with Adam and Eve; for when once they should transgress the law of God, they would be subjects of God's wrath, like themselves. Their transgression would place them also, in a state of rebellion; and they could unite with Adam and Eve, take possession of Eden, and hold it as their home. And if they could gain access to the tree of life in the midst of the garden, their strength would, they thought, be equal to that of the holy angels, and even God himself could not expel them.

Satan held a consultation with his evil angels. They did not all readily unite to engage in this hazardous and terrible work. He told them that he would not entrust any one of them to accomplish this work; for he thought that he alone had wisdom sufficient to carry forward so important an enterprise. He wished them to consider the matter while he should leave them and seek retirement, to mature his plans. He sought to impress upon them that this was their last and only hope. If they failed here, all prospect of regaining and controlling Heaven, or any part of God's creation, was hopeless.

Satan went alone to mature plans that would most surely secure the fall of Adam and Eve. He had fears that his purposes might be defeated. And again, even if he should be successful in leading Adam and Eve to disobey the commandment of God, and thus become transgressors of his law, and no good come to himself, his own case would not be improved; his guilt would only be increased.

He shuddered at the thought of plunging the holy, happy pair into the misery and remorse he was himself enduring. He seemed in a state of indecision; at one time firm and determined, then hesitating and wavering. His angels were seeking him, their leader, to acquaint him with their decision. They will unite with Satan in his plans, and with him bear the responsibility, and share the consequences.

It was because the Jews, especially their priests, had misinterpreted the prophecies in light of an understanding that was for this world only that they rejected Him. He wasn’t the kind of Messiah they wanted. The same thing could easily happen again today as we near the Second Coming. There are so many false interpretations regarding end-time events that focus on political Israel instead of spiritual Israel. That’s a topic far beyond the scope of this blog however. The Lord did know this would happen. I recommend you take a look at Ezekiel chapter 34 in your spare time. It’s a prophecy about corrupt priests who lead His people astray and what God intends to do about the situation. Verses 11 and 12 say “For thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.’”

In order to rightly understand the storyline of the Bible and prophecy in particular, you have to line up the really significant events and think beyond your own time period. Try to see the entire history of the world from God’s point of view essentially. You have Adam and Eve and the birth of sin, that’s the day in which Jesus was given to the world. Then the flood, as previously mentioned represents God showing the universe just how bad things would get under sin. We transition to Moses and the Ten Commandments then on to David. There were prophecies given through Abraham that Israel would have an earthly kingdom but the earthly success of the nation was only to provide a means for the spiritual success of the plan of salvation. Solomon of course frittered away the empire with the compromises he made for his many wives and false religion plagued the divided kingdoms. Then comes the captivity when Israel’s sovereignty was taken away. Ezekiel 21:25-27 speaks of the crown of Israel being overturned three times until the Messiah comes, who then keeps it forever. This happened; as the political sovereignty over God’s people was in Babylon’s hand when the prophecy was given and then overturned to Persia in the time of Nehemiah, and later to Greece, and finally Rome. This explains why Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world and why He said the kingdom of God is within you (John 18:36, Luke 17:21) The spiritual promise of being a new person with God’s love in your heart is always what the storyline of the Bible was really about.

Now we get beyond the time of Christ into the early church, how it went throughout the whole Roman empire sharing the truth. The falling away predicted by Paul came about as the pure church Jesus started became the Catholic Church in the Dark Ages. But God kept working bringing the truth back to light slowly through people like Martin Luther, the early Baptists and John Wesley. Now we transition into our time where the last of the truths of the Reformation, some of which are the secret keys we recently looked at, are being restored. When the full truth has gone to the whole world and everyone has had a chance to make a decision the end will come, but not without another counterfeit from Satan. This time the counterfeit will so closely resemble the truth that only those who really take God at His word and study it diligently will be able to tell the difference. (I’ll give you a hint, the true gospel has the true understanding of righteousness by faith, Martin Luther’s original point, while the false gospel doesn’t. With that true understanding comes a true understanding of how the Ten Commandments relate to practical Christian faith. With that eventually people will naturally ask themselves “why was the Sabbath changed?” The answer is that it wasn’t.)

Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 15:23,24 and add in 2 Timothy 4:1 and then have an in-depth study into the next great events that will soon come to pass. “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.” “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.”

Daniel and the Revelation, page 635 also says “We call (Miller’s) investigations a consistent study of the prophecies, because he adopted a sound rule of interpretation. This lies at the base of every religious reformation, and of every advance movement in prophetic language. This rule is to take all the language of the Scriptures, just as we would that of any other book, to be literal, unless the context or the laws of language require it to be understood figuratively; and to let scripture interpret scripture. True, on a vital point he made a mistake, as will be explained hereafter; but in principle, and in a great number of particulars, he was correct. He was on the right road, and made an immense advance over every theological system of his day.”

The fact that Miller was right about so much combined with the practicalities of his message had the effect of testing the entire Christian world as to whether they really were sincere or not. Think about it. If you were told Jesus was coming back this Thursday, how would that make you feel? Would you be afraid, or would you say “I can’t wait to see Him”? It’s a principle that for every thing God does, Satan finds ways to counterfeit the Lord’s workings.

Have you ever pondered the meaning of 2 Thessalonians 2:11&12? “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Why would God send someone a lie? Well, think about it this way; Miller preached the truth and they rejected it. The message went everywhere Christianity had. When they heard the message, they were all convicted that what they currently believed in was not right. However, since they did reject the message, they were now left with nothing. What they did believe in wasn’t true and didn’t work and they knew it. So they had to turn to new ideas that were also untrue. It’s an act of mercy for the Lord to have allowed it to happen to allow for people’s free choice.

Daniel and the Revelation, page 661 “The acceptance by Protestantism of the first angel's message would have enabled the church to become a light to ‘all nations.’ But betraying her trust by her rejection of the message, she left the nations without the witness of present truth that they might have had, to grope in the darkness of error and superstition resulting from the intoxicating and stupefying influences of the system of false doctrines she had built up and refused to relinquish.”

There are of course, as many counterfeits to the truth in this world as there are people it seems. There are a few though we could almost call “great counterfeits” such as secularism (trying to build a world without God or at least one where religious faith is nothing more than a fairy tale), rationalism (the belief that there is no such thing as absolute truth) evolution and communism. They came to approximately the same generation of people that heard and rejected Millers teaching and are now world-wide in their influence. The Christian world has embraced these errors to one degree or another and as the Christian world has expanded to include the entire world today, these errors have come along with it. The French Revolution had brought in militant atheism, the basis for these counterfeits. However, the Revolution fell apart and because of the horrors of the reign of terror that generation stayed with the Bible. Once the Great Disappointment happened those who were opposed to the Bible grew bolder when they saw such a movement fall apart after their one critical mistake.

This boldness is the basis for the great moral decline of the last 50 years especially. However, the trend was already in motion well before that. Many today should be able to identify with this description of Albert Einstein’s childhood from “Giants of Science” page 146, a direct result of growing up within the changed religious culture that resulted from the rejection of the Advent message. “Although Einstein’s parents were Jewish, they were not interested in any religion and sent Albert to the nearest school, which was a Catholic elementary school. At the age of ten he was sent to a ‘secondary’ school, called a Gymnasium, which prepared students to enter the universities. ... While in the Gymnasium, Einstein received instruction in the Jewish religion. He had learned about Catholicism in elementary school. As a result he gained a lasting respect for the ethical values of religion but felt that all religious rituals were superstitions designed to prevent man from thinking independently.”

"Today it seems that the great Hebrew-Christian moral tradition, the most ancient part of our heritage, is crumbling to pieces before our very eyes. . . . The faith in science has grown so strong, so self-sufficient, so deeply rooted in the processes of our society, that many of those who feel it have lost all desire to combine it with any other. . . . The man who trusts a physical science to describe the world finds no conceivable place into which to fit a deity. . . . The philosophies that express their [men's] basic interests today are no longer concerned, as they were in the nineteenth century, with vindicating a belief in God and immortality. Those ideas have simply dropped out of any serious attempt to reach an understanding of the world. . . . The present conflict of religious faith with science is no longer with a scientific explanation of the world, but with a scientific explanation of religion. The really revolutionary effect of the scientific faith on religion today is not its new view of the universe, but its new view of religion." John Herman Randall, "The Forces That Are Destroying Traditional Beliefs," Current History, June, 1929, pp. 359-361, quoted in Daniel and the Revelation, page 659.

That is the real reason the world is the way it is today. That’s what’s really going on. Our world is building to the time of trouble Daniel 12:1 speaks of. As smart as we are we are not God and we cannot solve all our problems on our own. Revelation 11:18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth. No matter how hard anyone tries, human selfishness is still there. It was to solve that problem of selfishness that God sent His Son into the world to save it.And of course the two great counterfeits we have been discussing the most here in this blog are the twin ideas that science has defeated the Bible and the fact that science fiction can meet the spiritual needs of those who adopt this purely rationalistic world view.

Thomas Bertonneau and Kim Paffenroth are the authors of “The Truth Is Out There – Christian Faith and the Classics of TV Science Fiction”. Their title is obviously borrowed from the end line of each episode of the TV show “The X Files”. On page 10 they say: “It is not scientific investigation and knowledge that is an enemy of Christian belief …. Rightly understood, increasing our knowledge of creation results in greater understanding and appreciation of the Creator.”

On page 163 they say: “Whether it is H. G. Wells The War of the Worlds (1897) or Stanely Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the well-wrought science-fiction story nearly always carries at least a tinge of what philosopher of politics and history Eric Voegelin (1901-1985) calls the theophanic event: the in-breaking on everyday life of a sublime vision of things that says to its witness that this rather than the narrow everyday assumption about life and the world is the truth, and says so in such a way as to demand from the witness a total transformation of his or her existence.” (Emphasis the author’s)

At same time all these counterfeits have been developing the Lord has also been working to restore the real truth as well. Truths like the ones we looked at in this chapter that have been ignored or misunderstood by most believers are now being showcased again. More than that though, the truth about our origins and what life itself is about are now being proclaimed worldwide. You didn’t just stumble across this blog; God guided you to it for a theophanic event of your own. That event is contained within our final two chapters. There you will see that what you thought was a boring old story, that of Adam and Eve, is just as exciting as Star Wars, Star Trek and every single other science fiction franchise combined

Read on, and be amazed at what you see.

Why Haven't They Gone Back final post

Do you see the answer to the question now of why Jesus has not come back? 2 Peter 3:8, 9 is a comment on the greatness of God’s patience and merciful love. The answer is because He wants everyone to have a chance to accept His death on the cross for their sakes. When every single person in the entire world has had one chance at the same time to accept or reject the full truth and made their decision accordingly, Jesus will come back. He will destroy this flawed, imperfect world that is attempting to create its own heaven on earth and take His people to the real Heaven where their eternal lives of joy peace and unimaginable knowledge will begin. Before that though, He’ll need to be justified in destroying this world. So at the same time He’s working through His people to make them better and better, He’s allowing those who reject Him to become worse and worse until this great moral decline we have seen in the last 50 years crescendos into the time of trouble prophesied in Daniel 12:1.

I’d like to highlight a few very important verses from Matthew 24. Verse 8 comes immediately after the “wars, earthquakes and famines” Jesus then said “All these are the beginning of sorrows.” In other words, it’s not the events in the world, be they political crises or natural disasters that we really need to worry about. Yet that’s what so many focus on when they seek to understand prophecy (especially so many who are fascinated with the teachings of false prophets such as Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce).

What we really need to look for are events in the religious and spiritual realm as is shown by verse “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” This is preceded in verses 12 and 13 by “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” Does not the incredible downturn in the morals of western society since the 1960’s completely fulfill this part of the prophecy? At the same time this has been happening the gospel has been going out on a much further and wider basis than ever before. The first generation fulfilled this prophecy by taking the gospel to the known world of their day, the Roman Empire, and then the end came in the form of the destruction of the temple. But we definitely will see the work of reaching the world finished in our day. Therefore Jesus is coming soon!

Luke 17:28-30 gives us a comparison to illustrate the point. “Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; “but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” The modern equivalent of leaving Sodom will not be to travel to any particular place. However, we can leave Sodom today by taking a firm, full and complete stand for God.

This is where many people are looking at prophecy the wrong way. Whatever the crisis will be, it will be so large it will make “men's hearts will fail them for fear” as the Bible says. The most important part will not be to be physically ready by knowing what’s about to come but to be spiritually ready by knowing Who is about to come right afterward.

As I mentioned previously, Marvin Moore speculates that maybe a comet will hit the earth and that will be the great crisis that finally sparks the end time. Personally, I believe what we will see is nuclear terrorism and the use of other weapons of mass destruction such as biological warfare in an all out world wide war between “Christian” and “Muslim” for control of the Holy land. This is simply based on the current trend in motion that was established by the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I say it with the same fervor Marvin Moore did “I MAY BE WRONG”. Since this is pure speculation, I will not attempt to prove this point in depth here. It simply seems logical that after the Lord allowing western civilization more than 150 years to create a heaven on earth, whatever crisis there is that does come would need to be one that demonstrates how futile this attempt ultimately has been when done without Him. If we are going to think we can hold the ultimate power of life and death in our hands through genetic engineering and atomic weapons as previously discussed here, does it not make sense that somehow this has to come back to haunt us? It’s the only way to show not only to us, but to the whole universe that only the Lord Himself can be trusted with this power.

That the enemy of the day right now is radical Muslims may change. Various Christian commentators wrote books for years during the Cold War expecting the Soviet Union to attack Israel. Of course they were incorrect as it never happened. Now those same commentators expect the Muslims to do it. The Lord has always worked to teach His people their lessons by giving them into the hands of their enemies when they refuse to listen to Him. That’s what the entire book of Judges is about. So if this war on terror is finally won and the end of time is delayed further, another enemy will rise up from another place just in time for God to use them if He needs to.

Referring to the various prophetic events we’ve discussed, Jesus in Luke 21:28 said “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” In other words, as you see world events play out in whatever way they do toward the end, the main focus of your life needs to be on getting ready for Jesus. He obviously said this to give comfort, hope and understanding to every generation that has waited for Him and wondered why He hasn’t come back yet.

Although we’ve discussed the need to be spiritually ready, that phrase needs to be more clearly defined. In the next chapter we’ll look at some Bible truths that were lost during the Dark Ages and see how their restoration today can greatly affect your worldview and give compatibility and harmony to the seemingly opposite positions people hold today.

One very important thing must be mentioned here. Jesus warned of “false Christs” and “false prophets” in the last days. Another description Jesus gave was of “wolves in sheep’s clothing”. Satan has the ability to pull of miracles as well and will use that ability to the best advantage he can in order to lead as many of God’s people astray as possible. Though Jesus offered many miracles and healings as proof of His divinity, in our time miracles themselves cannot be enough. We have to be ready to test a miracle by the Bible. If that miracle is the kind of miracle God would do and not just some cheap, dime store psychic’s trick; if that miracle has a purpose and a message behind it that agrees with the principles of the Bible; and if that miracle glorifies God; then it is a true miracle. If the purpose of the miracle is just to put on a big show and wow those who see it without really helping them in life or if the one performing the miracle ends up getting all the credit for it, even if that person claims to get his or her power from God, then it is a false miracle. No matter how powerful and compelling it may seem to be, “I was there” can’t enough today.

“I was there.” “I saw Jesus” is what the disciples have said. His miracles and infallible proofs did come from God and do agree with God’s word. “I was there, I saw Him too” is what Paul said. “I was there”, is my own personal testimony both to the moon landings and to Jesus. I saw Him because I was full of guilt and He made me clean and pure again is what anyone today can say if they will turn to Jesus. Just like the moon landings, Jesus is real. I know because I was there.

From an engineering point of view, the moon landings were the highest and greatest technological achievement our modern world has created. Here’s something interesting to think about. How many men have walked on the moon? Twelve! How many disciples did Jesus have? Twelve! What does that tell you? I agree wholeheartedly with Marvin Moore, whom I quoted in the last chapter. This event definitely was the crowning achievement of man’s quest to reclaim heaven.

After all my attempts to set my friend Neil straight he always counters quite firmly with one statement “if it’s really true that they landed on the moon, why haven’t they gone back?” We’ll examine this next.