The Birth of Evolution in a Nutshell

By Dennis Edwards:

Charles Darwin was born on February 12th, 1809, the same day as Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was destined to become President of the United States during its darkest and deadliest hour when more than 500,000 American lives would be lost in the Civil War. At the war's end in 1865, Lincoln himself was assassinated dying at the age of 56. Darwin would live until 1882 and die at the age of 73. However, Darwin’s theory of evolution would captured the minds of millions and lead them from faith in God to scientific fatalism. Here’s the story.

Until the 19th century, in the western world, the idea that God created the world about 6,000 years ago was quite universally accepted. Archbishop James Usher´s The Annals of the World first published in 1658 dated creation to about 4004 BC. The age of the earth and geology traditionally had followed this Biblical world view. Society was largely structured on the values laid out in the Bible.

It was in 1788 that James Hutton first published The Theory of the Earth, his book on geology. Here he explained uniformitarianism, or the idea that the present was the key to the past. In other words, by measuring the rates of natural processes in the present, scientists could extrapolate backwards to determine how long it took for geological features to form in the past. Traditionally, the geological column had been judged as the result of Noah´s flood. Hutton suggested that geology must be judged by natural causes present today and not by supposed events of the past. “The past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now… No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principles,”[1]  was Hutton's mantra. 

Rather than seeing the Grand Canyon as the result of massive amounts of water draining off the continent at the end of the catastrophic flood event that happened some 4,500 plus years ago, it was now seen as the result of slow natural processes over millions of years. Hutton wrote, “But surely, general deluges (such as Noah´s Flood) form no part of the theory of the earth; for the purpose of this earth is evidently to maintain vegetable and animal life, and not to destroy them.”[2] The final line in his book stated, “The result, therefore, of our present inquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,–no prospect of an end,"[3] confirming his idea that the creation and flood events should not be accepted as valid.

Charles Lyell, a contemporary of Darwin, following on Hutton´s ideas, wrote his own tome, The Principles of Geology, which was published in 1830. Lyell, like Hutton, was from Scotland. Lyell had trained as a lawyer and used his lawyer´s power of persuasion to draw a brilliant defence in favour of uniformitarianism and millions of years rather than the hitherto idea of catastrophism. Catastrophism was based on the Biblical events of the creation and the worldwide flood of Noah and therefore needed only thousands of years of earth time to explain the geological record.

Lyell himself confessed that his goal in life was to get “Moses out of science,” for until that time the creation-flood / catastrophism or Biblical viewpoint had dominated the geological interpretation of the geological column. Lyell saw himself as “the spiritual saviour of geology, freeing the science from the old dispensation of Moses.”[4] His Principles of Geology was the most influential geological work in the middle of the 19th century and helped consolidate the concept of millions of years. He said during a lecture that “….the physical past of geological inquiry ought to be conducted as if the scriptures were not in existence.”[5] Such a position is not unbiased, but is recommending that science take an anti-Biblical stance and not accept the Bible's historical record of the flood event and dismiss it with the over 240 similar Flood Legends found in cultures around the world.  In other words, scientists should not take their initial assumptions from what the Bible claims, but to the contrary, scientists should avoid Biblical assumptions flat out.

When Darwin took his five year trip around the world, passing through the now famous Galapagos Islands off the western coast of South America, he took his Bible with him. He had graduated university with a Divinity Degree, though it seems his object was to have a job which would offer him sufficient time to study nature. Erasmus Darwin, his grandfather, had already written a book called Zoonomia in which he speculated about a natural law that enable all the variety of animals to develop from a first animal. During Darwin's trip to the Galapagos, the captain of the ship, the Beagle, offered Darwin a copy of Lyell´s “The Principles of Geology.” Its reading slowly changed Charles' worldview. He abandoned the creation/flood model and accepted uniformitarianism and millions of years. 

Once Darwin had abandoned the Biblical model and accepted uniformitarianism with the millions of years, his mind was now open to finding a new reason for the variety of life, not based on Biblical assumptions. Hutton had already toyed with these ideas, but had “rejected the idea of evolution originating species" as a "romantic fantasy". Hutton thought that natural selection allowed species to form varieties better adapted to particular conditions and was therefore evidence of benevolent design in nature.[6] Creation scientists agree with his idea completely.

People normally picture the scientist as an unbiased scholar searching for the truth of the how and the why of things or of nature. But the truth is quite different. Every scientist starts off his work with assumptions, or a belief system of how he interprets the world around him. The data or evidence does not speak for itself, but needs to be interpreted. The scientist´s world view will affect how he interprets the data or evidence that he discovers.

Let´s take a look at how the scientists on a famous TV program such as CSI or Bones do their science. The investigators are trying to find out how something happened. They cannot go back in time, so they make a theory, a speculation, an hypothesis, and then check to see if the evidence fits their theory. If the evidence shows the theory false, they throw out the first theory and develop another one or revise or adapt the first. By doing science in the present, they try to determine how the murder might have occurred in the past. However, since they were not there in the past, they can never be sure if they are right. Often in the program they first think it is one person, and then another, until finally they come up with the right person. Ultimately, they try to get a confession, or have an eyewitness testimony, because all they have is circumstantial evidence which might not hold up in court. Sometimes in a program a bad cop fudges the evidence to make it look like someone was guilty, when they were not. Sadly many of today´s scientists are fudging the evidence in order to have the public believe that the evolution of “molecules to man” has really taken place.

The famous British biologist David Watson, was Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at University College, London from 1921 to 1951. Back in  1929 he was dubious of whether natural selection was the mechanism for evolution and confessed the following: “Evolution is a theory universally accepted not because it can be proved to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, [the idea that the universe and all life in it originated by divine decree] is clearly incredible.”[7]

When talking about evolution, we are talking about “molecules to man” evolution or common descent from the first living organism. The evolutionary tree of life demonstrates all life springing from one source. Biologists often claim that since we can see that a change does take place in a species, "evolution" has occurred. A change within a species or kind of animal is an example of what Creationist scientists call “micro-evolution.” Creationist scientists agree that some form of “speciation” does take place, but never does a new type or “kind” of animal develop. Creationists would call the change that takes place "variation within a species," or “kind” of animal, not evolution.

Dr Jason Lisle talks about the shift of one meaning of a word in an argument to another meaning in his book Discerning Truth: Exposing Errors in Evolutionary Arguments. It's called the equivocation fallacy. He says, “Evolution can mean “change” in a general sense, but it also refers to the idea that organisms share a common ancestor or “particles to people” evolution. Many evolutionists seem to think that by demonstrating evolution in the sense of change it some how proves evolution in the sense of “common descent” or “particles to people” evolution. You might hear someone say, `Creationists are wrong because we can see evolution happening all the time. Organism are constantly changing and adapting to their environment.´ But the fact that animals change does not demonstrate that they share a common ancestor. This is a very common fallacy used in evolutionary arguments.”[8]

The finches´ beaks may be different, but they are still finches. The dogs may be Great Dames or Chihuahuas, but they are still dogs. The moths may be black or white peppered, but they are still moths. The bacteria may be resistant or non-resistant to pesticide, but it is still bacteria. Natural selection and mutation may have occurred, but no new genetic information has been added to the DNA of the organism. New genetic information would be necessary for a new body part or body function to appear. The error of the Neo-Darwinians is that they teach that fundamentally information is created by mutations.

Scientists have even discovered that some bacteria possess a genetic capacity to resist certain antibiotics. Mutations are not involved. In other cases, structural defects are caused in the organism where the antibiotic would attach itself, thus making the bacteria resistant. But rather than saying that the bacteria gained resistant, we could say that the antibiotic lost its ability to attach itself to the bacteria. The mutation in the bacteria caused a structural defect in the bacteria, thus, prohibiting the attachment of the antibiotic.

Normally what we see in nature is variation within a kind of animal or organism, not “molecules to man” evolution. The term “micro evolution” is used in these cases, but “micro-evolution” plus millions of years will not give us “macro-evolution” or “molecules to man” evolution. The problem remains; neither natural selection nor mutations can add new genetic information to the DNA.

Sir Fred Hoyle, the famous British mathematician and astronomer, questioned the very origins of the first cell through evolution. He said, “The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one to a number with 40,000 zeros after it. It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole General Theory of Evolution. There was no primordial soup, neither on this planet nor any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they must, therefore, have been the product of purposeful intelligence.”[9] As a mathematician he strongly argued against the mathematical probability of life starting from non-life naturally. Because the improbability was so high, he concluded that abiogenesis, or the theory that life started from non-life long ago, was impossible.

“Molecules to man evolution” has no mechanism. There is no way for one type of animal to change into another, no matter how much time is involved. When Charles Darwin was writing his Origins of the Species, the scientific community knew nothing of Mendel´s genetic studies, which were later published in French in 1866 seven years after the Origins. Scientists did not become aware of Mendel's studies until the beginning of the 1900´s. At that time, evolutionists hoped that Mendel´s genetics would offer them the mechanism for evolution. But they were sadly disappointed. Genetics proved a dead end. It clearly showed that a great variety within a species was possible to obtain, but only to a limit. The gene pool was limited; therefore the genetic variation possible from the gene pool was also a limited. Genetics did not help. It just confirmed the idea that there existed a barrier between the different “kinds” of organisms and that barrier could not be crossed. In fact studies have shown that a good course in genetics, even if taught by an evolutionist, reduces the student´s belief in biological evolution.

Today scientists know that neither natural selection nor mutations can create new genetic information. New genetic information would be necessary, for example, to change a reptilian lung into an avian lung. Biologist Michael Denton does a good study on this topic which can be seen on YouTube on “From a Prince to a Frog,”[10] In his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, Denton wrote, “Neither of the two fundamental axioms of Darwin´s macro-evolutionary theory- the idea that all of life forms are linked together and ultimately lead back to a primordial cell and the belief that all the adaptive design of life has resulted from a random process – have been validated by one single empirical discovery or scientific advance since 1859.”[11]

Reiterating the point once again, neither natural selection nor mutations, which evolutionists claim are the mechanisms for evolutionary change, can form new genetic information.

Dr. Lee Spetner, who holds a PHD in physics from MIT said in his book called Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution: “In all the reading I have done in life-science literature, I have never found a mutation that added information. All point mutations that have been studied on the molecular level turn out to reduce genetic information, not increase it.”[12]

British scientist Michael Pitman has commented that “neither observation nor controlled experimentation has shown natural selection manipulating mutations so as to produce a new gene, hormone, enzyme or organ.”[13]

A final quote on the subject by Dr. Wilder- Smith a famous British geneticist: “The chemistry of mutations in the genetic code has an effect similar to that of water on a text. Mutations modify or destroy already existing genetic information, but they never create new information, they never create an entirely new biological organ. Herein lays the error of New Darwinism which teaches that fundamentally new information is created by mutations.”[14] Some fascinating lectures and debates by Dr. Wilder – Smith can be found on YouTube.

Today, many children are born with one of the thousands of genetic defects or diseases. These defects/diseases are a result of mutations in the parental genes. Evidence from science clearly shows that mutations are usually deadly or dangerous and not beneficial. The few that may be beneficial, like sickle cell anaemia, are still caused by the loss of or damage to the genetic information.

Why are students still being taught in their textbooks that natural selection together with mutations are mechanisms for evolutionary change? Evolutionists do not want to let the cat out of the bag. They do not have a better answer and do not want to admit that they have not found a mechanism for evolution. They hide the facts because they believe their paradigm so strongly and because the only viable alternative is divine creation. Like one evolutionist Harvard Professor of Genetics Richard Lewontin said, 

“We take the side of evolutionary science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just so stories, because we have a prior commitment to materialism, that materialism is absolute for we cannot allow a divine foot in the door,”[15] or repeating the Professor David Watson quote, “Evolution is a theory universally accepted not because it can be proved to be true, but because the only alternative, special creation, is clearly incredible.”[16] Scott Todd from Kansas State University has said something similarly, “Even if all the data should point to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic.”[17]

The argument is not science verses religion as evolutionists like to present it. The argument is between two differing world views. Duane Gish said, “The battle is with the evolutionary philosophy and faith, not science. Evolution is a powerful religious concept, which if correctly understood, negates all of Christianity.”[18]

Evidence does not speak for itself. The fossils are not found with dates already attached. They do not talk. Science does not say anything. It is the scientists who make value judgments about their observations. But, if they are good scientists, they should make their judgments based on whether the evidence is in accordance with known laws of nature or physics, not according to their particular bias about origins. The evolutionist Bateson has confessed, “We cannot see how differences into species came about, variation of many kinds, often considerable, we daily witness, but no origins of species. Meanwhile, though our faith in evolution stands unshaken, we have no acceptable account of the origin of species.”[19]

Science can never prove what happened in the past. Scientists can speculate, and can formulate theories. But historical science can never be proved in a laboratory. Historical science deals with speculating about how events or processes took place in the past. Historical science is at best philosophical, because it deals with assumptions about past events. Neither creation nor evolution can be proven in the laboratory. They are historical scientific models or ways to view the evidence and interpret how events might have happened in the past. They are not scientific facts. However, the scientific facts or evidence should align with a scientific model that is accurate.

Science which we perform in the laboratory is called operational science and is done by following the scientific method: observation, hypothesis, experimentation, observation, conclusion, testing and verification. Operational science has given us the man on the moon, mobile phones, laptops, modern medicines and so on.

But “origins” or historical science is speculation about past events and as such does not come under the same category as operational science. We are not able to go back in time and observe what happened at the beginning of time. Scientists speculate about the past and make ideological judgments before doing the science or the mathematical equations. Like Stephen Hawking admits in his book The Brief History of Time. When talking about the big bang, he mentions that he must add “a mixture of ideology.”[20]

Internationally renowned astrophysicist George FR Ellis who worked closely with Hawking said when talking about the Big Bang that, "People need to be aware that there is a range of models that can explain the observations .... For instance, I can construct a spherically symmetric universe for you, with Earth at its center, and you cannot prove otherwise based on observations, (that it is wrong) ....you can only exclude it on philosophical grounds. In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I want to bring into the open is the fact that we are using philosophical criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide it. "[21]

The point he is trying to make, as an honest scientist, is that the idea of the Big Bang without a center and without an edge is an ideological decision. Scientists choose a model without a center and without an edge to keep away from the Biblical idea that the earth is special and has a special place in the universe. However, if you start with the earth´s galaxy near the center of the universe, which the observable evidence cannot disprove and seems to agree with, you come to totally different conclusions. Dr. Russell Humphreys, starting with Biblical assumptions, has done some interesting work in area of Starlight and Time, which are worth viewing here.[22]. Today´s leaders of scientific inquiry purposely choose a center-less and edge-less universe for philosophical reasons, because they “cannot allow a divine foot in the door.”[23]

Basically, there are two worldviews in the scientific community: the Biblical creationist worldview and the naturalistic evolutionary worldview. The naturalists believe that the world and everything in it can be explained only by what we find in the natural material world. They do not believe in the supernatural. Naturalism was popular world view in the 19th century and on into the early 20th century. You have many naturalist writers at that time such as Stephen Crane, Jack London, and Ernest Hemingway, to name a few, which ultimately led to the existentialism of Kafka, Sartre and Camus.

We need to understand that naturalism is the underlining philosophy of evolution. The evolutionary scientists have tried or are trying to change the original reason for science and meaning of science. Science originally was the search for the truth of the how and the why of the world around us. Today's scientists like to define science as the search for naturalistic reasons to the how and the why of life and the world around us. Even if the evidence should point to the supernatural, evolutionists will not accept it. They claim that the supernatural is outside the realm of science. Evolutionary scientist Ernest Mayr said in 1988, “In scientific controversies, there is rarely any argument about facts. It is rather their interpretation that is controversial.”[24]

By buildings their theory on the false premise “there is no supernatural,” the evolutionists were bound to come to the wrong conclusion. A false premise will not lead to a correct, logical conclusion. The supernatural does exist. Thousands of people experience it every day. People experience healings. They hear voices that keep them from danger. They have dreams or visions that warn them about some evil or tell them of the death of a loved one. Scientist and doctors have written numerable books about people who have had life after death experiences. Just recently a book about a young child who had a Near Death Experience has been quite popular. People have supernatural experiences that change their lives. The supernatural is real.

Naturalism starts with the metaphysical conclusion that there is no supernatural. Therefore, naturalism is false. Therefore, evolution which is founded on naturalism is also false. Honest scientists should be more open to the problems within the theory of evolution and consider the creation model as a viable alternative. Dave Schoch in his book The Assumptions Behind the Theory of Evolution says, “The truth can only be made up of facts, not assumptions. We should not be teaching assumptions as facts to our children, especially a theory that only stands upon one assumption after another.”[25]

In the book In Six Days: Why 50 Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation,[26] scientists with doctorates in various scientific fields give clear testimony and reasoning to their personal decisions to accept the Biblical creation model over the current more popular evolutionary model. These scientists not only reject the Darwinian evolutionary model as unscientific, but chose a literal six day creation event to be the most scientific of the choices.

For more information on the creation/evolution debate from the Biblical creationist viewpoint the following websites are available, although there are many others:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/

http://creation.com/

http://www.creationtoday.org/

http://www.icr.org/

Also, on YouTube many creation documentaries can be found as well as interesting debates between creationists and evolutionists. Jesus said, “Seek and you shall find.”[Matthew 7:7]  He also said, “You shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.”[Jeremiah 29:13] If you really hunger and thirst after “truth” you will find it. That´s a promise!

Originally published September 25, 2013.

Footnotes:

1. Hutton, James; http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/scottishenlightenment/jameshutton/learnmore.asp.
2. Hutton, James; The Abyss of Time: Changing Conceptions of the Earth's Antiquity After the ...
By Claude C. Albritton; page 100 chapter 8.
3. Hutton, James;. http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/vestiges-of-james-hutton.
4. Lyell, Charles; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lyell.
5. Lyell, Charles; God and nature: historical essays on the encounter between Christianity and ...
edited by David C. Lindberg, Ronald Leslie Numbers, “Geologists and Interpreters of Genesis,” page 337.
6. James Hutton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Paul N. Pearson (16 October 2003). "In Retrospect". Nature V. 425 #6959, p. 665. Comments on Hutton's 3-volume 1794 work, An Investigation of the Principles of Knowledge and of the Progress of Reason, from Sense to Science and Philosophy.
7. Watson, D; http://theevolutioncrisis.org.uk/to-the-reader.php.
8. Lisle, Dr. Jason; Discerning Truth; 20010, page 20.
9. Hoyle, Sir Fred; (1981)"Hoyle on Evolution,"
Nature, Vol. 294, No. 5837, November 12, p. 148
10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtDX17KjjG0
11. Denton, Dr. Michael; http://www.trueorigin.org/isakrbtl.asp.
12. Spetner, Dr. Lee; Tornado in a Junkyard (James Perloff), 1999, page 26.
13. Pitman, Michael; Tornado in a Junkyard (James Perloff), 1999, page26.
14. Wilder- Smith, Dr.; Tornado in a Junkyard (James Perloff), 1999, pg. 27.
15. Lewontin, Professor Richard; “Billions and billions of demons,” The New York Review; http://dailyevidence.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/the-divine-foot/.
16. Watson, D; http://theevolutioncrisis.org.uk/to-the-reader.php.
17. Todd, Scott; correspondence to Nature 401(6752):423, 30 Sept. 1999; http://creation.com/a-designer-is-unscientific-even-if-all-the-evidence-supports-one.
18. Gish, Dr. Duane; Creation Scientists Answer Their Critics, 1993 p. 42,.
19. Bateson; http://www.scribd.com/doc/132636931/Predicament-of-Evolution quoted by George McCready Price, 1925.
20. Hawking, Dr. Stephen; http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/1998/01/21/review-relative-cosmology.
21. Ellis, FR. George; http://www.allaboutscience.org/big-bang-theory.htm.
22. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mooHSXTR2RE
23. Lewontin, Richard; http://creation.com/amazing-admission-lewontin-quote.
24. Mayr, Ernest; http://bevets.com/evobiaspics.htm.
25. Schoch, Dave; 2008.
26. John F. Aston (Editor), 2001.

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Is Your Faith like a Bowing Wall or a Tottering Fence?

By Dennis Edwards

In Psalm 62, David prays against the enemies of God and says they are like “a bowing wall, and a tottering fence.”[Psalms 62:3] What exactly does he mean? A bowing wall is receiving pressure from somewhere that is causing it to buckle and is in danger of collapsing. It is often a foundation wall that is not strong enough to withhold the exterior forces or the weight or height of the building that rests upon it. A tottering fence is ready by the slightest force to give way and fall. But that should not be the state of our faith. For we have a sure or solid foundation in Christ and His resurrection from the dead.[1 Corinthians 15:1-8, John 20:30-31] But, alas, the foundations have been destroyed, and now what shall the righteous do?[Psalms 11:3]

Since the late 1700s the foundations of faith have been attacked and Christianity and its truth denied. Such were the men like James Hutton, and Charles Lyle whose work in geology attacked Moses and got men to doubt the Biblical account and age of the earth. “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, so God gave them over to a reprobate mind.”[Romans 1:28] “Millions of years” soon became the acceptable interpretation, the scientific interpretation. These men were “willingly ignorant”[2 Peter 3:5-6] of the Biblical creation record and historical Genesis flood. Thus they helped pave the way for Charles Darwin to later present a 19th century rendition of the classical Greek idea that life evolved from the sea spontaneously. Like Solomon had written some 2800 years before, “There is nothing new under the sun.”[Ecclesiastes 1:9]

It was in the same year 1859 in which Darwin published his book that Louis Pasteur scientifically proved that spontaneous generation was impossible. Life comes only from life, not from a primordial soup. However, "true science" would take a back seat to "assumed science." Darwin would fantasize on the possibility of life developing in a warm pond during earth’s early history. 19th century man wanted freedom from the moral constraints of religion. The war against God would continue and false faith and nominal religion would be its springboard. 

In politics Karl Marx was writing and wanted to dedicate his book “Das Kapital” to Darwin. But Darwin, coming from the financial elite of that age, felt it not wise to have his name together with that of Marx. Nietzsche with his “God is dead” in theology, along with Germany’s “higher critics,” did their best to destroy confidence in God’s word. Freud began the “science of psychology” based on Darwin’s evolutionary ideology. Together these attacks led to the weakening of the Christian foundation in the minds of the masses. “Had God really said?[Genesis 3:1]

Whereas from the time of Christ, Christianity had influenced and changed the surrounding culture, now atheism was gaining the upper hand and convincing the general public that God was indeed dead and in no need of fearing. In 1962-3 the Supreme Court removed prayer in school which children had traditionally prayed each morning before beginning class. In 1973 the American Supreme Court passed “Roe vs Wade” and opened the door to legalized abortion. Soon other laws originally formed off of Christian and Biblical doctrines were over turned. Man was being freed from the superstitions of the past. Reason was ruling over faith. Indeed the truth that God was dead was at last setting men free! 

Thus the foundations of faith in God were destroyed. Faith became obsolete and a thing of the past. Reason and science became the hallmarks of the enlightened man. And yet the call of Nietzsche's “Madman” rings in our ears.

 “Whither is God? he cried, I will tell you. We have killed him – you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying through an infinite nothingness? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning?...God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?...Who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?”[Nietzsche and the Madman, allaboutphilosophy.org, from Gay Science, 1887]

Yes, indeed it is colder and we have lost our moral compass -- God’s word. We and our own ideas and opinions have become our gods. We are left directionless, like a ship on the open sea with no rudder to use to guide us to safety. God’s word asks, “And what shall the righteous do?” Now that we have destroyed the foundations of our faith, now that we don’t believe God’s word is trustworthy, now that we doubt the Christian story and resurrection of Christ. What shall the Christian do? Where do we find moral fibre? Where do we find truth? Is there any right or wrong? 

But God’s word encourages us, “If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”[2 Chronicles 7:14] Shall we not turn from the false doctrines of men and back to faith in the Living God? Shall we not turn from the false ideologies of man which have caused us to lose our way and our relationship with the Lord? Shall we not cry unto the Lord for His mercy and truth and light in midst of gross darkness? Or will we continue to grope in darkness and yet believe we are walking in the light? As Christ has said, “If the light that is in us is darkness, how great is that darkness.”[Matthew 6:23]

Our time is short. Our times are in His hands.[Psalm 31:15] Please let us call upon the Lord while he may be found. For darkness shall cover the earth and great darkness the people.[Isaiah 60:2] But God’s light shall shine out upon them that call upon His name and walk in His truth and follow His law of love. Apostle Paul calls us to be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord;[1 Corinthians 15:54] not like a bowing wall or tottering fence. For we have a sure foundation, a precious corner stone, Jesus Christ, the stone of offence. The stone which the builder’s neglected has become the chief corner stone.[1 Peter 2:7-8, Acts 4:11, Ephesians 2:20, Psalms 118:22, Isaiah 28:16, Mark 12:10, Matthew 21:44. Luke 20:17]

Call upon Him and He will answer you. He will be with you in trouble. He will honour you and show you His salvation.[Psalms 91:15-16] He is the strong tower which the righteous run to and are safe.[Proverbs 18:10] Trust in Him. Believe His word and not the vain and proud ramblings and traditions of men. Remember, if you continue in His word, believing it, receiving it, and following its light, you will be His disciple indeed. And ye shall know the truth, not my truth nor your truth, but the truth; and the truth shall make you free![John 8:32] Don't be a bowing wall!

---

Originally published December 3, 2019

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The Bible a True History Book!

Dennis Edwards

God has given man His revelation of Himself. He gave it first to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam passed God’s plan or revelation on to his descendents. Some tried to follow God, others didn’t. But the revelation of God and His plan was successfully passed on to godly men from the time of the Creation until the time of the Flood some 1,650 - 2260  years later.

Before the Flood men lived longer because the conditions on earth were better than they are today. Somehow man was protected from the ultra-violet light of the sun that slowly kills us. Men lived longer. Many of the first men lived 900 years or more. Adam lived 930 years. Methusalah lived 969 years. His name actually means “death sent.” It was in the year of the Flood that Methusalah died and the Flood “sent death” to all mankind. Noah, a godly man who found grace in the sight of the Lord, with his family were the only ones who survived the Flood. 

All the people who had descended from the orginal couple, Adam and Eve, and all the animals and birds died. Only those animals and birds that Noah and his family brought with them in the Arc survived. As a result of the Flood man has found fóssil graveyards of millions of animals buried in sedimentary rock all around the world. Sedimantary means rock laid down by water. The Flood, also remembered in the “myths” of some 240 different cultures around the world, is the best explanation for the geological record we find today.

Mankind has forgotten his beginnings. He has forgotten the Flood that came as a judgment from the hand of God for mankind’s rejection of God’s loving principles. In 1859 Charles Darwin introduced his theory to offer a contrary beginnings story, a story that rejected the ideas of the Bible, the idea of a God of judgment, a God we should fear and obey. Charles proposed that the Creation created itself through a non-directed natural process. He didn’t openly attack Christianity, but offered a non-Biblical explanation for the beginnings of life and the diversity found in nature.

The war against God had started right back in the Garden of Eden when Satan or the Devil deceived Eve into taking of the forbidden fruit. Had God really said that they shouldn’t eat from that tree? Had God really told them the truth? “And when she saw that the fruit was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, and desireable to make one wise, she took of the fruit and did eat.” And then she gave it unto her husband, a husband that knew better, a husband who had walked with God alone in the garden, had talked with God and had remembered His words. But Adam, even though he knew better, also disobeyed and ate. And their eyes were opened.

The Devil, who had been an achangel named Lucifer, the bearer of the light, had already led a rebellion against God and taken 1/3 of the angels with him. C.S. Lewis tells us that “It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind.” God let the Devil test Adam, the fiirst man, but Adam failed the test. God knew he would. But right there at the beginning, just a short time from the creation of the earth, God promised He would send a Redeemer, a seed of the woman who would crush the head of the Serpent.

The prophecy of the promised seed of the woman overcoming evil was used by evil men who declared themselves to be the promised seed. Nimrod the grandson of Ham, Noah’s disobedient son, used it to declare himself the first city dwelling ruler in Mesapotamia. Many after him have also assumed the title and claimed descendency from the gods: Viking kings, Greek and Roman emperors and others before and after them.

The 1,650 - 2260 years of history from before the Flood are all but lost except for the record of the Bible. A secular writing from the early civilization in Babylon has a passage where a king asked to hear some of the stories from the time before the Flood. But the first 8 chapters in the Bible, the pre-Flood period, give us very little information about what that period was like. We do learn that by 1,650 - 2260 years man had been thoroughly corrupted. The Devil and his evil angels had sowed their evil seeds so that the heart of man was fully set on evil continually and violence filled the face of the earth. However, most of the first chapters of Genesis are a mere chronological record of some of the men who were forefathers of Noah. If we add up the dates of the deaths and births of the pre-Flood forefathers we come up with a total of around 1,650 - 2260 years from the creation of Adam until the Flood depending on which Old Testament manuscripts we use, the oldest Hebrew manuscript, or the oldest Greek manuscript. Both manuscripts were used at the time Jesus lived. Most of the quotes from the Old Testament found in Matthew 's Gospel and the book of Acts come from the Greek Old Testament which had been translated from Hebrew around 250 BC. The Greek Old Testament chronolgical record is some 610 years longer than the Hebrew Old Testament chronology. We have some Greek manuscripts from before the time of Christ.. However, the oldest Hebrew manuscript is from about 900 AD. Some scholars believe the Greek dates are more accurate than the Hebrew dates.

If we take the 1st chapter of the Bible as recorded history and not as an allegorical or mythical story, we are left with the impression that the earth was not created 4.5 billion years ago. Rather it seems to be only thousands of years in age. The Christian scholar Gleason Archer in his “A Survey of The Old Testament” published in 1985 said,

“From a superficial reading of Genesis 1, the impression would seem to be that the entire creative process took place in six twenty-four hour days. If this was the true intent of the Hebrew author… This seems to run counter to modern scientific research, which indicates that the planet Earth was created several billion years ago.”

In other words, Archer, a famous Christian educator in the twentieth century, believed that the plain reading of Genesis 1 seemed to be saying that the Creation event took 6 days. However, he was convinced by modern science that it couldn’t really mean what it says. He ended up accepting an alternative interpretation to include the millions of years which Science seemed to have “proven.”

Another famous British scholar of the same period, Professor James Barr, a former professor of Hebrew and the Old Testament at Oxford University wrote in a letter in 1984, “So far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1-11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that:

a.       Creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience.

b.       The figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provide by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story.

c.       Noah’s flood was understood to be world-wide and extinguis hall human and animal life except for those in the ark.”

Barr did not say he believed in that plain reading of the Scriptures, but rather was saying that it was obvious that the plain reading was meant to be conveyed by the writer(s). Barr did not believe in Genesis as a recent creation, but he understood that was what the Hebrew text was clearly saying.

Many natural phenonomen point to a recent creation rather than one billions of years ago. Charles Darwin is given credit for formulating a “scientific” framework for how the creation created itself. If you actually read his book, he never gets to the origin of the species, but rather deals with how species may have separated or changed over long periods of time.  He uses very little scientific proofs, but rather speculates on hidden “natural” processes. However, in one of his other books, “The Descent of Man,” Darwin theorizes how life could have originated in a small pond. I’ll include here a quote by the articulate atronomer and matematician Fred Hoyle who wrote in his book, “The Intelligent Universe” the following:

“There is not a shred of objective evidence to support the hypothesis that life began in an organic soup here on earth. Indeed, Francis Crick, who shared a Nobel Prize for the discovery of the structure of DNA, is one biophysicist who finds this theory unconvincing. So why do biologists indulge in unsubstantiated fantasies in order to deny what is so patently obvious, that 200,000 amino acid chains, and hence life, did not appear by chance. The answer lies in a theory developed over a century ago, which sought to explain the development of life as an inevitable product of the purely local natural process. It’s author, Charles Darwin, hesitated to challenge the church’s doctrine on the creation, and publicly at least did not trace the implications of his ideas back to their bearing on the origin of life. However, he privately suggested that life itself may have been produced in “some warm little pond,” and to this day his followers have sought to explain the origin of terrestrial life in terms of a process of chemical evolution from the primordial soup. But as we have seen, this theory simply does not fit the facts.”

But the war against God has been going on since the dawn of time. The Devil has been able to deceive mankind into accepting the false theory of evolution as one of sciences “foundation” truths. Modern man has been convinced that the creation created itself and God is merely a left over idea from our ignorant forefathers. However, the fact that we find all over the world fóssils of all sorts of animals, including dinosaurs, buried in sedimentary rock is glowing proof that a world-wide flood once covered the planet and destoyed all living air-breathing animals.

Generally, historians and early scientists followed the Biblical framework as truth until the church system became so corrupt and hypocritical that men sought to throw off its influence. But in doing so they threw away the baby with the bath water. They threw away Christ and the truth of the Bible and accepted the so-called “liberating” theory of evolution as the bases for true science and learning. Evolution has permanated our culture in books, television, movies, etc. As a culture, we have lost the fear of God because of it. We just want to do our own thing.

Our whole modern science is running under a false paradigm that evolution is true and that the creation created itself. Man has exalted himself and there is no fear of God in the land. Evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceived, as Apostle Paul has clearly taught. According to Apostle John, the great business men of the earth are deceiving all nations through their "sorceries," which in the Greek is spelled "farmakeia." It's the root word for where we get our word "pharmacy." In the Greek it signifies spells which can involve the use of drugs. Interesting, isn't it?

Please, pick up your Bible and read it. Read through the book of Genesis. God created everything in 6 days and then rested on the 7th. We get our 7 day week from that truth. The month comes from the time it takes for the moon to orbit around the earth, around 29 ¼ days. The day comes from the time it takes the earth to rotate around axis, around 24 hours. The year comes from the time it takes for the earth to orbit around the sun, some 365 ¼ days. But the week has no such correlation to any orbit or rotation, and yet we have a 7 day week, just as the Bible states.

During the time of the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution, the revolutionaries tried to change the length of the week from 7 days in an attempt to get away from the Biblical truth. The French tried 10 days and the Russians tried 5 or 6 days. But each attempt failed and men have conformed throughout the world to a day of rest over a 7 day period. Our 7 day week is a testimony to the truth of Genesis 1, as are many other scientific proofs.

One of the greatest scientific proofs is the fóssil record because fóssils are formed in sedimentary rock, that is, rock formed by the deposition of sediment by water. The worldwide Flood 4,500 years ago, as the Bible records, is the best explanation for the millions of dead animals buried in sedimentary rock and remaining there as fóssils. Scientists have even recently found the remains of blood cells when they cut open a fossilized dinosaur bone. They put it under a microscope and lo and behold there were blood cells. How those blood cells had remained within the bone for supposedly 63 million years, the scientist couldn’t understand. In fact, the particular scientist who had discovered the blood cells was afriad to announce her discovery because she understood the complication fresh blood cells would make to the evolutionary theory. Blood cells should decompose completely in a lot less than 63 million years, probably only in a few thousand in the best preserving conditions. But here they were red blood cells within the dinosaur bone. 

She no doubt got some help from some of her other atheistic scientists and they decided they needed to release the finding anyway. However, never once did they doubt the evolutionary paradigm. The paradigm is fact. Like the famous Jesuit Priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardim had said,

“Evolution is a general postulate to which all theories, all hypothesis, all systems must henceforth bow and which they must satisfy in order to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light which illuminates facts, a trajectory which all lines of thought must follow.”

The paradigm is true and cannot be questioned. Yes, they had found red blood cells in the dinosaur bone. Yes, it should have decomposed by now. Conclusion, we don’t know why the blood didn’t decompose over such a long period of time, but now we know it is possible. We just don’t know why or how. Never once were the “millions of years” doubted. Never once did they think that the Creationist scientist could be right and their young earth paradigm might give a more accurate history of the past. Never once did they doubt the 63 million years since the last dinosaurs supposedly died off. Since the discovery of the blood cells, another scientist has discovered soft tissue in a Dinosaur fossil. He published his findings and was rightly dismissed from his position. You can read the case at the following link:https://godreports.com/2017/08/university-settles-lawsuit-with-scientist-fired-after-he-found-soft-tissue-in-dinosaur-bones/

Fossils do not need millions of years to form. Fossils wouldn’t exist if they took millions of years. Fossils are formed because the animal is buried quickly in a sedimentary desposit which prevents natural decay from taking place and scavengers from eating the dead animal or bird or fish or insect. With the help of the right type of chemicals the fossiling process can take place relatively quick. Fossilized hats and tools have been found in old mineshafts after just a period of under 100 years.

The fossils are a testimony of a worldwide flood, a judgment God made on wicked man. But modern man doesn’t believe in a God of judgment, only a God of love. But another judgment has been foretold. Mankind is racing towards it because of his rejection of the truth of God’s revelation found in the Bible. Mankind prefers to believe the false evoltionary principles that only nature exists and that the creation created itself. As a results we are headed for some pretty difficult days ahead.

The Bible predicts that a Devil man will arise in the last days of man’s rule during the present despensation. The Beast or Antichrist will come in peacefully and deceive the world with his words so that all the world will be amazed at his abilities and powers. If we are understanding the scriptures properly, it seems he makes a 7 year “Holy Agreement” that allows the Jewish people to begin their sacrificial worship on the Temple mount in Jerusalem. The agreement seems to allow them to build a long desired 3rd Temple and start sacrificial worship on the Temple Mount once again.

The Antichrist has also by this time made an agreement with 10 of the nations. Many eschatology scholars believe the nations may come out of the former Roman empire. It may be 5 nations from the western empire and 5 nations from the eastern empire. After removing or subduing 3 of the nations by making them submit to him in some way, the 10 nations make an accord to have a military alliance with the Antichrist. The agreement makes him the most important leader in the world. Here's a picture of the countries which were part of the Roman Empire.

Under his guidance, the capable and powerful one-world government will at first be much better than the constant bickering and fighting that we see today in the world. Nationalism will be defeated and internationalism will come to the fore. We are all citizens of one world. Let us work together to save the planet, to fight efficiently against assassin viruses and other health problems. Let us work to bring health and security to all the poor of the world and redistribute the wealth. The final world government will be the best we’ve ever seen so far: the most idealistic, the most fair, the most compassionate, the most equal, and the most sharing. For a time it may even seem we’ve finally got a good world government under a good world leader.  You might want to read the article on the following link and watch the two videos available on the Corona Virus epidemic and where it may be leading us. https://thelibertariancatholic.com/celebrities-use-coronapocalypse-to-promote-atheistic-one-world-government/

For the first part of the 7 year agreement all seems to go relatively well. However, somewhere during his reign an attempt is made on the Antichrist’s life. He miraculously recovers. Then, because of the problems he is having in the Middle East even after the “Holy Agreement,” he invades Israel half way through the 7 year period and sets up his own headquarters in Jerusalem. He also implements the biometric technology which causes all men rich or poor, bond or free, to receive some sort of identication mark on their right hand or forehead so that no man might buy our sell without the identification mark. The mark may be some type of modern technology like a chip implant, or tatoo under the skin, or some other development, even a vaccine, that can be used to identify each person and keep them under monitoring and enable them to do financial transactions.

Jesus talking about these coming days referred to a prophecy in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. He said, “When you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the Holy place (whosoever reads let him understand) for then shall be great tribulation which was not since the beginning of world to this time, nor ever shall be. And except those days be shortened, no flesh shall be saved. But for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

Some 7 times in the prophecies of Daniel and Apostle John we find that the tribulation period will last 3 ½ years, or 1260 days, of 42 months, or for a time (1), times (2), and ½ of times, or in other words 3 ½ years. God has repeated the length of the tribulation period so that we will not forget it or miss it when we read it. 7 times God repeats the number. He has cut the time short to be only 3 ½ years so that we will be able to bear it and know how soon it will be over and keep on holding on knowing that it won’t be long. Don’t be fooled by modern day false prophets who will prophesize that God will cut the days shorter. God has already shortened the days and He has told us 7 times in His Word how tong the period of tribulation will last – 3 ½ years.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days, or the tribulation trumpets found in Revelation 8-9, Jesus will return in the sky to rescue His elect, the true believers. Revelation shows us that the trumpets of tribulation are actually being poured upon the wicked and causing a 1/3 destruction on many aspects of life. Some of the imagery used in the description Apostle John uses to describe these events and destruction may very well indicate some sort of nuclear exchange during the tribulation period. Whatever it is, the events are pretty horrendous and 1/3 of mankind dies during it.

It is at the last trumpet, the seventh trumpet, that Jesus rescues His followers in the famous rapture event. His children are brisked away to enjoy the marriage feast with Jesus while the wicked on earth are receiving the vials of the wrath of God. The 45-75 day period of the wrath terminates in the Battle of Armageddon and with Jesus actually physically coming down and landing in Jerusalem with the armies of heaven in an apparent invasion from outer space or from another dimension. We, the true believers, will participate in the battle.

The Antichrist and his false prophet and the Devil will be thrown into the bottomless pit, the lake of fire, for a thousand years. While Jesus and his resurrected saints try to help those humans who managed to live through the wrath of God to restore the earth. The Bible calls this new dispensation the Millenium, a thousand years of peace on earth under seemingly new atmospheric conditions bringing longer life and changing the pre-millenium nature of animals to an idylic harmony.

Again, God is showing His patience with mankind trying to lovingly convince them to serve and follow Him. But after 1,000 years the Devil is loosed for a little season and goes out to deceive the nations once again. He is successful and organizes an attack against Jesus’s earthly headquarters in Jerusalem. It’s a this point that God has to destroy the surface of the earth by fire which Apostle Peter writes about in his espistle.

“But the (final) day of the Lord will come as a theif in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervente heat, the earth also and all the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hastenting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.” [2 Peter 3: 10-13]

God then forms a new heaven and a new earth. All mankind who have not accepted and lived for Christ will be raised to life and face the Great White Thrown Judgment Seat where each will be judged by his works whether they we evil or whether they were good. But you don’t have to face that fate. You can receive Jesus today and dedicate your life to Him today. If you do, you will come before the jugment seat of Christ on your death and you will not have to face that White Thrown at the end of time. You can be saved by faith in Christ today and start living and working for His kingdom, today, here and now. Or you can live for yourself and do your own thing and face the White Thrown Judgment Seat at the end of time where you will be judged by your works. Some will get to continue to live and will continue their training, while others will face a more harrowing future, maybe even eternal death.

It’s up to each one of us  what we want to do for eternity. God’s calling each of us today, right now. He loves every one of us and has wonderful plans for each of us if we’ll just accept Him into our lives. Jesus says He’s knocking on our hearts door, just waiting for us to answer. If you are lonely and needing a friend, a Saviour from your own failings, just call out to Jesus today and ask Him into your heart. Then begin your training by reading His book the Bible, especially the New Testament. Try to follow His commandments to love God and to love your neighbour as yourself. It’s not really that difficult and you don’t need to be religious to do it. If you need help in your walk with Jesus you can visit my blog at fightforyourfaith. blogspot.com or call me at 0351- 915016534 or write to me at dennismedwards@gmail.com . God loves you and has great expectations for you, if you’ll only give Him a try.

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