How did Cain Find a Wife?

by Bruce Malone

The following is the paraphrased essence of one of the most critical junctures in the most famous trial of the twentieth century. The scene is the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, and defense attorney Clarence Darrow had goaded prosecuting attorney Williams Jennings Bryan to take the stand in defense of the Bible.

Mr. Bryan,“Where did Cain find a wife?”

“I don’t know.”

“Could you repeat your answer Mr. Bryan? The entire nation is listening via radio broadcast and this is a pretty basic and simple question. Let me rephrase it. If, as the Bible claims, Adam and Eve were the first man and women, and no other people existed, who did their son Cain find to marry?”

“I don’t know.”

Darrow made Bryan appear foolish because he did not know scripture well enough to defend the most basic of questions. This trial marked a turning point in American education because, for the first time, the Bible was openly ridiculed. Bryan’s inability to answer simple and logical questions was one factor that allowed the American educational establishment to accept evolution hook, line, and sinker, while rejecting the historical creation account of the Bible.

Even today, most Christians do not know the answer to questions as basic as “Where did Cain find a wife?” The problem with not having reasonable answers to logical questions is that it brings all Christianity into question. Why should people believe in a God that they cannot see; if believers in God cannot answer life’s questions about our origin?

The reason that the answer to this question is not immediately apparent is that we have been trained to think like evolutionists. Evolution was founded on a principle of modern geology called ‘uniformitarianism.’ This is the belief that small changes over vast periods of time caused the massive geological changes (Darwin added biological changes.) In essence, we are trained to believe that every thing has always operated as we see it today. This is not what the Bible teaches. It teaches that mankind was created perfect, without flaws. It was only after man’s disobedience that imperfection entered God’s creation. Thus mankind, as originally created, would not have had the myriad of genetic mistakes now present in our DNA. Mutations do not lead to better and improved humans. These mistakes cause hundreds of debilitating illnesses and birth defects. The reason all of us are not born with enormous numbers of medical problems is because our genes are a combination of the characteristics of both our parents. Only when both parents have the same DNA mistake, do their children manifest the resulting genetic problem.

Furthermore, these genetic mistakes accumulate and increase with time. In other words, the information in our DNA gets more garbled, it never increases in clarity. Since mistakes are accumulating in our DNA, it is logical to assume that as we go back in time, there would be fewer mistakes. The reason brothers and sisters cannot marry today is because they are likely to have similar DNA errors which only lead to children with birth defects. However, there were no moral laws against children intermarrying until after the time of Moses. This was approximately 4000 years ago and at least 2000 years after the creation of mankind. Before that time, sibling marriage was quite common. The Bible states that Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters. Cain merely married his sister.

The reason we don’t realize this obvious answer is because we have been trained to believe things have always been the way they are today. The past and the present become far more understandable when we view it from a Biblical perspective. This viewpoint acknowledges that the past was very different from the present.

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Overcoming Life’s Prisons

By M. Fountaine

When it comes to suffering of any kind, the questions that are usually uppermost in our minds are, “Will it end? How do I stop it? How can I get out of this time of suffering and back to doing something useful or good?”

But there are other options if we look at what we are facing from a different perspective. We can say, “How can I find the ‘good’ in this? What can I gain from this suffering or loss? How can this be turned into a tool to help me move forward in some way?”

Circumstances like loss, pain, sickness, grief, loneliness, persecution, etc., aren’t what determine the outcome of a situation; how you choose to face what you’re up against is what determines the outcome.

Succeeding isn’t just escaping life’s troubles. It is learning to use those difficulties to benefit yourself and others. Faith and the Lord’s love for us are an integral part of our lives as Christians, but we have to choose to use what He’s provided us with. As creatures of free choice, we each have to determine how we will respond to such difficulties, whether we will fight to rise above the challenges and make a difference in spite of (and even because of) our difficulties, or if we will succumb to them and become a victim of our circumstances.

As the saying goes, the tragedy is not when men try and fail. The tragedy is when they never try at all.

I came across a story by the daughter of a woman whose faith in spite of irreversible loss and suffering had changed lives and made a difference for many others. Her mother had been vibrant and active and accomplished in many areas, when in her early thirties she was incapacitated by a spinal tumor that left much of her body paralyzed.

The daughter told the story of how the tumor had crushed her mother’s body, but not her spirit. The mother made a conscious hard decision to turn every setback into a new opportunity. She chose to make this painful loss of so much that had been precious to her into a tool for good.

She began a foundation to help people with disabilities accomplish more. She used her disability as a chance to learn how to teach special education, and she did so even more effectively because she intimately understood their needs. She learned skills in order to teach them to others who would need them. She even teamed up with her daughter when she was grown, to help teach inmates in the correctional facilities that her daughter worked in. The inmates would crowd around her, eager to learn whatever she would teach them. Her determination stirred hope in them.

Whatever came into her life, she embraced it and found a way to use it constructively. Her undaunted enthusiasm for life and her faith, lived out daily, created a powerful drive in her daughter’s life as well.

As the mother grew older and was unable to go to the prisons, she continued to teach and counsel the inmates through correspondence. One letter that the mother wrote to a prisoner seemed to summarize to me how Jesus wants us to look at life and the privilege we have to be here, facing both the joys and wonders as well as our personal “prisons” of suffering and struggles at times.

The letter read:

Dear Waymon,

I want you to know that I have been thinking about you often since receiving your letter. You mentioned how difficult it is to be locked behind bars, and my heart goes out to you. But when you said that I couldn't imagine what it is like to be in prison, I felt impelled to tell you that you are mistaken.

There are different kinds of freedom, Waymon, different kinds of prisons.

Sometimes, our prisons are self-imposed.

When, at the age of thirty-one, I awoke one day to find that I was completely paralyzed, I felt trapped—overwhelmed by a sense of being imprisoned in a body that would no longer allow me to run through a meadow or dance or carry my child in my arms.

For many days I lay there, struggling to come to terms with my infirmity, trying not to succumb to self-pity. I asked myself whether, in fact, life was worth living under such conditions, whether it might not be better to die.

I thought about this concept of imprisonment, because it seemed to me that I had lost everything in life that mattered. I was near despair.

But then, one day it occurred to me that, in fact, there were still some options open to me and that I had the freedom to choose among them. Would I smile when I saw my children again or would I weep? Would I rail against God—or would I ask Him to strengthen my faith?

In other words, what would I do with the free will He had given me—and which was still mine?

I made a decision to strive, as long as I was alive, to live as fully as I could, to seek to turn my seemingly negative experiences into positive experiences, to look for ways to transcend my physical limitations by expanding my mental and spiritual boundaries. I could choose to be a positive role model for my children, or I could wither and die, emotionally as well as physically.

There are many kinds of freedom, Waymon. When we lose one kind of freedom, we simply must look for another.

You and I are blessed with the freedom to choose among good books, which ones we’ll read, which ones we’ll set aside.

You can look at your bars, or you can look through them. You can be a role model for younger inmates, or you can mix with the troublemakers. You can love God and seek to know Him, or you can turn your back on Him.

To some extent, Waymon, we are in this thing together.[1]



[1] Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Heather McNamara, Chicken Soup for the Unsinkable Soul: 101 Inspirational Stories of Overcoming Life's Challenges (Deerfield Beach, Florida: Heath Communications, 1999), 13–15.



Copyright © 2012 The Family International.

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Our Design is no Accident

by Bruce Malone:

Vestigial features are those parts of an organism thought to be useless leftovers from its ancestor, as the creature has evolved to a new way of life. Our tailbone is commonly taught to be such a feature. The idea of vestigial features has been used as evidence for evolution since 1859 when Darwin first proposed that such features were evidence for the descent of one organism from a completely different one. The logical consequence of this alleged transformation is that the “new” creature would be left with some features which are no longer needed in its new environmental niche.

Belief in evolution demands that we believe that each type of animal on earth is a result of its descent from some previous life form. If this were the case; almost every creature should have many leftover features which are no longer needed. Yet, the more we learn about biology, the more we discover that every part of an organism serves some useful function. For example, the appendix is often said to be a useless leftover from our ape ancestry. We now know that the appendix serves as a type of lymphatic tissue in the first few months of life to fight disease. It is no more a useless feature than one of your lungs is useless just because you can survive with only one lung.

The acceptance of the idea that some parts of the human body are useless leftovers has led to many tragic consequences. Based on the misguided concept that the human colon was a vestige of the past, Sir William Land and dozens of other surgeons stripped the colons from thousands of patients in order to “cure” a variety of symptoms. [1] Many died. As late as the 1960’s many people routinely had their tonsils removed. This practice was again fueled by the mistaken belief that the tonsils were a useless leftover feature from our past. It is now known that they serve an important disease fighting function and should not normally be removed.

Some possible vestigial features exist such as the blind eyes of cave salamanders. Blind salamanders have non-functional eyes because they live their entire lives in total darkness. At some time in the past, salamanders may have found a niche in dark caves and apparently only those which mutated to blindness had a need to stay in the total darkness where they could compete for existence without blindness being a disadvantage. However, these salamanders are still salamanders, a mutation to blindness is hardly an upward improvement in complexity, and no new information has been added to the DNA of the salamander.

The human tailbone is frequently listed as a vestigial feature but anatomists tell us that the tailbone serves a very important function in human physiology. The coccyx (tailbone) is the point of insertion of several muscles and ligaments including the one which allows man to walk completely upright. Without a tailbone, people could not walk in a completely upright manner, dance a ballet, perform gymnastics, or stroll down the street with their arm around their spouse. Hardly a useless, leftover -- vestigial feature! The human body is designed for maximum versatility -- it is far more versatile than the body of any other creature. What other animal can perform the range of movement required for activities as diverse as ice skating, pearl diving, pole vaulting, snow boarding and gymnastics? This range of movement would be impossible without the tailbone!

In summary, evolution predicts that there should be leftover features as one organism slowly turned into another. Based on this theory, over 150 human features were at one time listed as useless. Creation predicts that although some life forms have degenerated and lost use of an original function; every part of an organism was designed to serve some useful purpose. As we learn more about the biology of living organisms, including ourselves, it is readily apparent which theory best fits the facts.

1. Robert Wiedersheim, The Structure of Man, p. 200, 1895.

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A Squashed Mosquito is Dead Forever

By Tim Wagner:

Have you ever squashed a mosquito? Interestingly, the squashing of a mosquito may help us understand what makes life possible and what makes the spontaneous generation of life impossible.

When a mosquito is slapped, what happens? Obviously it’s shape changes and it dies. But what makes it die? All of the thousands of sophisticated chemicals which make up its body are still there, relatively unaltered. At the moment of impact its cellular components are still intact including the all-important DNA. So why is it now dead?

Prior to being smashed, the mosquito was a highly organized system with much organized information. But when hit, it became disordered, causing critical information in the design of its body to become jumbled. There arose confusion in the finely tuned coordination of chemistry (including the chemicals involved in its overall structure) which culminated in an overall breakdown, resulting in death. And you thought you just slapped it!

For another example, let’s say you were to take 100 million bacteria and concentrate them in the bottom of a test tube. Now if you were to physically lyse (break open) the membrane of each of the cells, the insides would spill out, forming a concentrated mixture of incredibly complex “life-giving” chemicals. Yet, even though all of the right ‘stuff’ for life is there, not even one of the 100 million critters will come back to life, nor would any new creature arise.

For a third example lets consider the food industry. Each year over a billion containers of previously living chemical ingredients are placed into containers where light and/or heat can pass through (an open thermo-dynamic system.) Everything needed for life to form is present in each jar or can. Yet not once, in any can or jar, does new life form.

If the already complex chemistry of minuscule bacteria or canned food cannot reorganize itself back into a living cell, even when concentrated in the test tube environment under carefully controlled conditions, then how could life have evolved in the first place, from basically uncomplicated chemicals in conditions FAR less appropriate? It simply never could have happened!

As with the mosquito, in order for life to exist the chemistry must be specifically organized and controlled in time as well as space. For a cell to live, it must be surrounded by a sophisticated membrane that allows only certain chemicals in and out, according to when they are needed, not just at any time. Inside the cell, the amount of any chemical must be exactly correct, otherwise the whole system would be thrown off balance and the organism would die. Furthermore, the entire living organism must be controlled by the fantastically complex three dimensional genetic coded structure of DNA.

All this means that in order for the chemistry to have come together in the first place, the individual atoms must have been purposefully and simultaneously organized by a creator having the knowledge and power to do such a thing. It could not possibly have happened by the right chemicals just “coming together”.

It is Jesus, the Son of the Living God, who deserves our praise for the awesome things He has accomplished in this creation of His. There is no other plausible explanation for the complex life we find all around us. Yet, this plausible explanation is the only one not allowed to be discussed in our public schools!

Tom Wagner is a nature photographer and science teacher living in Iowa who writes on the evidence for creation. This article was first published in Creation magazine, www.AnswersInGenesis.org

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Um Fim Inesperado

De Koriane

Fico me perguntando, “O que vai acontecer? Quantos anos vou viver? Será que vou ver a Grande Tribulação como sempre acreditei? Ou será que vou envelhecer, e meus filhos vão viver mais do que eu? Quanto tempo eles vão viver, e com que problemas vão se deparar?”

Sou o tipo de pessoa que gosta de planejar, pensar de antemão, sonhar grande, e então trabalhar para concretizar esses sonhos. Gostaria de ter alguma certeza de um jeito ou de outro. Gostaria de ver escrito simplesmente quanto tempo vou viver e o que vai acontecer a cada membro de minha família. Assim poderia planejar a minha vida e me certificar de que dar às coisas certas o foco que precisam e não ter que lidar com incertezas e os desvios inesperados que ocorrem na vida.

As palavras de um versículo em Jeremias começaram a vir a mim certo dia quando pensava nessas coisas: “Para vos dar o fim que esperais.”[1] Parecia estar me dizendo que o fim da minha vida não seria algo o qual eu não teria a fé de encarar ou que eu já não soubesse que ia acontecer. Foi um pensamento reconfortante. Mas então minha mente se pôs a trabalhar.

“O que estou esperando? As coisas poderiam acontecer de várias maneiras! Vou contar com que qualquer coisa possa acontecer, e me preparar para o pior! Ainda não saí da neblina da incerteza.”

Foi então que Aquele que tem o tabuleiro de xadrez em Suas sábias e atenciosas mãos me lembrou de certas coisas com as quais posso contar, e realmente esperar desde agora até ver Seu rosto na eternidade.

—Posso contar que Ele sempre estará comigo, me ajudando em cada situação.

—Posso contar que tudo o que Ele faz o faze m amor e no final será algo bom.

—Posso contar que a estrada da vida será difícil, mas nunca mais do que consigo aguentar.

—Posso contar que as minhas orações serão ouvidas e respondidas da melhor maneira possível.

—Posso contar que serei cuidada e as minhas verdadeiras necessidades supridas, e que Suas promessas continuarão infalíveis.

—Posso contar com as boas-vindas no céu e viver para sempre com Ele.

—Posso contar que meus filhos viverão para sempre, continuarão vivendo quando o seu tempo na terra acabar.

—Posso contar que o Senhor vai mostrar o Seu amor e cuidado aos meus filhos e vai suprir as suas necessidades, conquanto O amemos e obedeçamos.

—Posso contar que sempre haverá um propósito e uma boa razão para seja o que for que Deus permitir em minha vida, apesar de esperar que eu nem sempre veja cada razão ou bom resultado no momento.

—Posso esperar receber oposição por escolher acreditar em Jesus e contar aos outros sobre o Seu amor, mas ser mais do que recompensada por isso, de maneiras além da minha imaginação e esperanças.

—Posso contar em não saber tudo, mas viver um dia de cada vez, confiando, e eventualmente ser recompensada pela minha caminhada de fé, dando obedientemente um passo de cada vez segundo Ele me guiar.

Muitas vezes lembro-me das palavras de um hino que aprendi quando adolescente:

Se pudéssemos ver ou saber, costumamos dizer,
Mas Deus joga, por amor, um véu sobre a nossa estrada;
Não conseguimos ver o que está adiante
E nos agarramos ao Senhor mais que nada,
E Ele nos guia até o fim da jornada;
É confiar e obedecer.[2]

Apesar de minha estrada estar nebulosa e misteriosa como sempre foi, e eu talvez precise “contar com o inesperado”, sinto dentro de mim uma certeza de que Ele sabe tudo e vai fazer o que for melhor para mim. E, diferente de tantas outras pessoas, tenho uma boa lista de coisas nas quais posso me apoiar e confiar que Ele vai fazer. A maioria pode estar totalmente fora do meu controle, mas vou confiar que o melhor virá—pelo menos quando chegar verdadeiramente “o fim”.

Minha vida está afinal de contas totalmente em Suas mãos, não importa quão ansiosa e fervorosamente eu tente segurar as rédeas. Então hoje, ou pelo menos neste momento, vou deixá-lO me guiar aos caminhos certos perguntando-Lhe, “Que faço agora?”

Então, com o que posso realmente contar? Aonde a minha estrada vai levar? Eventualmente aos Seus braços. Vou ouvir os Seus sussurros hoje me dizendo o que fazer e como fazer, com alegria em meu coração, sabendo que Ele estará lá para me dar as boas vindas, não importa o que aconteça.

Será que tudo o que estou tentando fazer e cada plano para o futuro encontrará realização e provará ter valido os meus esforços? Só o tempo dirá. Contudo, se for o que Ele me guiou a fazer, no final ficarei feliz por ter pelo menos tentado. E quando receber o meu tão esperado “Bem está!” no final da minha vida—por mais curta ou longa que ela seja—quaisquer planos frustrados ou sonhos não vividos não parecerão importar tanto. Estarei com Ele, e isso me dará mais do que alegria suficiente.

Segue-se uma prosa que me veio outro dia, quando pensava no novo capítulo da minha vida que está começando:

Estou na praia de lembranças passadas
E elas desvanecem como as estrelas com um beijo da luz do sol.
Encaro o novo, minha alma novamente iluminada
Ao dar o próximo passo;
Ele me guia, sem eu conhecer a jornada.

Não posso contar que o sol vai sempre brilhar.
A noite uma hora vai cair,
E Sua mão será a única realidade novamente.
Mas até mesmo as estrelas têm uma beleza em meio às sombras e escuridão,
São diamantes que de dia nunca chamaria minha atenção.
Então com Ele que sempre me guiou eu vou
Caminhamos juntos, mão em mão.

Leve-me a praias ainda inexploradas,
A perder de vista em alto mar
Onde céu e horizonte se encontram.
Nunca me deixe só
Seja noite seja dia
Nos meus sonhos ou labuta.
E sim, em todos esses momentos de alegria
--Estarmos juntos é tudo o que importa.

O tempo passará, mas Você é eterno.
Desvanecerão as lembranças da vida e a dor,
Mas eterno será o nosso amor.


[1] Jeremias 29:11.

[2] Autor desconhecido.

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The Perfect Love of Jesus

By David Brandt Berg

Download Audio (12.1MB)

One sat alone beside the highway begging,
His eyes were blind, the light he could not see.
He clutched his rags and shivered in the shadows,
Then Jesus came and bade his darkness flee!

When Jesus comes, the tempter’s power is broken;
When Jesus comes, tears are wiped away!
He takes that gloom and fills the heart with glory,
For all is changed when Jesus comes to stay!

“Unclean! Unclean!” the leper cried in torment,
The deaf, the dumb, in helplessness stood near;
The fever raged, disease had gripped its victim,
But Jesus came and cast out every fear!

When Jesus comes, the tempter’s power is broken!
When Jesus comes, those tears are wiped away.
He takes our gloom and fills our lives with glory,
For all is changed when Jesus comes to stay!

So we today have found our Savior able,
We could not conquer passion, pride, nor sin!
Our broken hearts had left us sad and lonely,
Till Jesus came and dwelt Himself within.

When Jesus comes, the tempter’s power is broken;
When Jesus comes, your tears are wiped away!
He takes your gloom and fills your life with glory,
When Jesus comes, He’ll fill your life to stay!1

*

Have you ever tried to bear your burdens,
All alone? All alone?
Don’t you know there’s one who waits to help you,
Who can make all those burdens His own?

When I have burdens to bear which no one can share,
I take them to Jesus, the Man of Calvary.
When I have crosses to bear, my Savior is there,
He always takes that heavy end,
And leaves the light to me!2

Do you like that little song about “All Alone”?

*

When your heart is aching, turn to Jesus,
He’s the dearest Friend that you can know;
You will find Him standing close beside you,
Waiting peace and blessing to bestow!

Heartaches, take them all to Jesus,
Go to Him today, do it now without delay.
Heartaches, take them all to Jesus,
He will take your heartaches all away.3

*

For He heals ev’ry heartache, He hears ev’ry sigh,
This wonderful Savior of mine!
He helps me in trouble, He heeds when I cry,
This wonderful Savior of mine!

There’s Someone who helps me when friends pass by,
And the sun has forgotten to shine;
There’s Someone whose strong arms are ever nigh,
’Tis that wonderful Savior of mine!

Oh, He heals ev’ry heartache, He hears ev’ry sigh,
This wonderful Savior of mine!
He helps me in trouble, He heeds when I cry,
This wonderful Savior of mine!4

*

Does Jesus care when my heart is pained
Too deeply for mirth or song,
As the burdens press, and the cares distress,
And the way grows weary and long?

Does Jesus care, oh yes, He cares,
His heart is filled with my grief.
When the days are dreary, the long nights weary,
I know my Savior cares!

Oh yes, He cares, I know He cares,
His heart is filled with my grief;
Though the days are dreary, the long nights weary,
I know my Savior cares!5

*

For no one ever cared for me like Jesus,
There’s no other Friend so kind and true,
No one else could take that sin and sadness from me,
Oh, how much He cares for you!

I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus,
How I found in Him a Friend so strong and true;
I would tell you how He changed my life completely,
He did something that no other friend could do.

No one ever cared for me like Jesus,
There’s no other Friend so kind as He;
No one else could take that sin and sadness from me,
Oh, how much He cares for me!

All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me,
All my heart was full of misery and woe;
Jesus placed His strong and loving arms around me,
And He led me back the way I ought to go.

No one ever cared for you like Jesus,
There’s no other Friend so kind and true;
No one else can take that sin and sadness from you,
Oh, how much He cares for you!6

Originally published 1982. Republished October 2012.
Sung by David Brandt Berg.7


1 “Then Jesus Came,” lyrics by Oswald J. Smith (1940).

2 “All Alone,” words and music by C. Austin Miles (1915).

3 Author unknown.

4 Author unknown.

5 “Does Jesus Care,” words by Frank E. Graeff (1901).

6 “No One Ever Cared for Me Like Jesus,” words and music by C. F. Weigle (date unknown).

7 David originally sang the songs impromptu, unaccompanied, while filming on video. Light musical accompaniment and vocals were added later, at a separate location.

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The Eyes Have it - Creation is Reality

By Bruce Malone:

Charles Darwin expressed confidence that natural selection could explain the development of the eye,[1] but how does this confidence stand up to the light of reason? Today, we are in the curious intellectual situation of allowing only naturalistic explanations in public schools. This is done in spite of the fact that the alternative (creation or intelligent design) more adequately explains the observations. It would take a miraculous number of design changes to transform a light sensitive patch into an eyeball. Furthermore, each change would have to be coded onto the DNA of the “new” creature in order for the change to pass to the next generation. It has never been explained how this could have happened. Each new feature would need to be independently useful or natural selection would not have allowed the new creature to live.

· An eyeball with no retina would be a tumor, not an improvement to be passed on to the next generation.

· An eyeball without a focusing lens would be worthless except as a light detector.

· An eyeball without a functioning optic nerve to carry the signal to the brain would be worthless.

· An eyeball without the perfect balance of fluid pressure would explode or implode.

· An eyeball without a brain designed to interpret the signals would be sightless.

· There are over 100,000 different proteins in our body. The only one with a molecular structure to make it perfectly transparent to light is used to construct the lens of our eye.

It is beyond credibility that chance mutations could have produced any of these changes, let alone all of them at once. Any one of these changes would result in a worthless tumor. All are needed simultaneously for sight to result.

Yet, the chance development of this “hardware” for the eye pales in comparison to the impossibility of the “software” development. The brain must be wired to both accept and understand the signal coming to it from the eyeball. An analogy would be the multi-pixel image from a digital camera. Each part of the image is wired to a specific spot in the receptor screen of the camera to reproduce an image of what the camera is viewing. As the “first eye” was developing, how could the brain have known what the randomly wired image received from the pixels of the optic nerve represented? Before there was sight, the image would be wired like the white snowy image of an out of tune television screen. It can be statistically proven that randomly changing the location of a few of the millions of available pixels would never produce a clear image and sight could never develop in this way.[2]

In Darwin’s time, the complex design of the eyeball was forceful evidence in favor of creation. Our more advanced knowledge of the intricate design of the eye provides even stronger evidence for its creation.

The complexity of the eye still argues for the reality of its instantaneous formation by an incredibly intelligent designer. There is neither a fossil record showing that the eye evolved nor any testable observations to explain how it could possibly have happened. The fanciful story that a light receptive patch turned into the complex eyeball is nothing but the dogmatic faith of a religious belief system. Why do we allow textbook selection which leaves out both the problems with evolution and the evidence for intelligent design? This is indoctrination, not education.

1. Charles Darwin, The Origin of the Species, republished by J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, 1971, p. 167.

 2. Stoltzmann, David, The Specified Complexity of Retinal Imagery, Creation Research Society Quarterly, 6/06. 

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The Heart of It All: Sin Humanity’s Sinful Nature

 By Peter   Amsterdam

We’ve discussed earlier that Scripture teaches that all humans sin and that sin is universal. The Bible speaks of humans being sinful from birth, which would indicate that humans are born with inherent sinful natures.



Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.[1]



What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?[2]

When King David was confessing his sins to the Lord, he stated that he had always been a sinner, that even when he was conceived in the womb of his mother he had a sinful nature.



Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.[3]

The sinful nature of human beings causes people to have a natural disposition toward sin.[4] Sin has polluted everyone.



As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[5]

People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.[6]

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.[7]

Because of the corruption and pollution of sin, human beings are said to be by nature “children of wrath.”



Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[8]

Our sinful nature alienates us from God, makes us hostile to Him, hard of heart, and in possession of defiled minds and consciences.



For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.[9]



You, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds …[10]

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.[11]



To the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.[12]

Our sinful nature translates into every aspect of a person being affected by sin. There is corruption at the very center of man’s being which affects both body and soul. It also makes us unable to deliver ourselves from sin’s power. In body and soul, we are sinners and are incapable of saving ourselves from our sinful nature.[13]

The apostle Paul expresses the difficulty of living with a sinful nature.



For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord![14]

The universal corruption of humanity’s nature makes it impossible for humans not to sin. The theological term for this is non posse non peccare—not able (unable) not to sin. We are by nature depraved sinners. This doesn’t mean that humans can’t do good, or that everyone is as evil as they can possibly be, or will engage in every form of sin, or that they have no discernment between good and evil. However, we have a natural disposition toward sin.
Original Sin (Inherited Sin)

The question of why all human beings have a sinful nature and how they acquire it is one that the Church Fathers and subsequent theologians have sought to understand through the centuries. As is the case with many doctrines in Christianity, the understanding of how the sinful nature of human beings due to the sin of Adam and Eve is passed on to their posterity is something that developed over time. As the centuries went by, different outlooks and theories were put forth and debated.

While not all theologians and denominations hold to the same understanding, the Roman Catholic view, as well as the dominant view in Protestant Christianity, is that because Adam sinned in disobeying God, sin and sinful nature is passed on to all humans through Adam. This sin or sinful nature is often referred to as “original sin” or inherited sin. Since there are different outlooks on how sinful nature is passed on to Adam’s descendants, I’m including some history as to how the doctrine developed.

Some of the early Church Fathers felt that all humanity was present in Adam seminally, in the sense of Adam having within him all of humanity, and that from his seed all humanity would be born. As such, all of humanity was potentially and numerically present in Adam when he sinned, and thus we all sinned. The main focus at that point in the development of the doctrine was that the pollution of Adam’s sin was passed on to humanity, but not necessarily his guilt.

Over time, the idea of Adam’s guilt being imputed to all humans took root. The concept of both the nature of sin and the guilt of Adam’s sin being passed on came to be generally accepted. The debate then focused on how it was transmitted.

A further development was the interpretation of the historical Adam being the representative of the human race. Adam was seen as representing humanity when he chose to sin, and thus God counted all of humanity legally guilty of his sin. This doctrine is called federalism. It sees Adam as the federal head or representative of humanity. It’s as if the president of a country, the federal head of the country, makes an agreement with another nation, and then all the citizens of that country are bound by that agreement. The president represents all members of his country when he signs the agreement. In similar fashion, Adam represented all humanity when he sinned, thus we share guilt with him since he was our representative before God.

Some of the primary verses used to support the doctrinal position that human beings are sinners who are guilty because of Adam’s sin are in Romans chapter 5, where the apostle Paul draws a parallel between Adam, whose disobedience brought sin and thus punishment for sin into humanity, and Jesus, whose death and resurrection have redeemed us from all sin and guilt. Paul is drawing the parallel between all people being legally guilty in Adam and all people having their sin and guilt redeemed through belief in Jesus. He’s stating that as humanity’s representative, the guilt of Adam is imputed to everyone and that Jesus, who represented humanity by suffering and dying for our sins, has brought forgiveness of sins, and His righteousness is imputed to us. In Adam we are all guilty; through Jesus we are made righteous.



Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.[15]

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.[16]



We all come into this world with sinful nature, due to the sin and disobedience of Adam. We all are somehow culpable for Adam’s sin and thus face condemnation. Through God’s grace we can be spared the condemnation through Jesus’ taking our sins upon Himself.
Actual Sin

While our sinfulness is connected to Adam’s sin, we are also all guilty in our own right, due to the sins we personally commit. Humans are sinners not only because of our sinful nature, but because we freely commit sins. We know that some things are wrong, and we do them anyway. While there may be varying opinions about how the guilt of Adam’s sin or the sinful nature is transmitted to people, there is no question regarding how individual guilt comes about. Every person knowingly sins, thus everyone is responsible for the results of their sins. While it may seem unfair that due to Adam’s sin, all humankind fell into sin, each person also does exactly what Adam and Eve did—they freely choose to do wrong, and thus sin.

No matter what the circumstances or the temptations, personal sin comes from the heart, from the freewill choices of each individual. As such, we are morally responsible for the sins we commit in our own lives.



What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.[17]

Realizing our tendency to sin, our sinful nature, our inherited corruption, and the ultimate result of sin in our lives, should make us forever grateful for the free and undeserved gift of forgiveness of our sins. As Christians, we have the blessing of knowing that though we are sinners, we are forgiven sinners through our wonderful Savior, Jesus. It should also help us to realize the dire need that so many people have, as they exist in this world without knowing that salvation from their sins is available. It should instill in us the desire to bring the message of salvation to all we can.



How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?[18]



[1] Job 14:1–4.


[2] Job 15:14.


[3] Psalm 51:5.


[4] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996), 246.


[5] Romans 3:10–18.


[6] 2 Timothy 3:2–4.


[7] Romans 3:23.


[8] Ephesians 2:3.


[9] Romans 8:7.


[10] Colossians 1:21.


[11] Ephesians 4:18.


[12] Titus 1:15.


[13] James Leo Garrett, Jr., Systematic Theology, Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical, Vol. 1 (N. Richland Hills: BIBAL Press, 2000), 558.


[14] Romans 7:18–25.


[15] Romans 5:18–19.


[16] 1 Corinthians 15:21–22.


[17] Matthew 15:18–20.


[18] Romans 10:14.

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It Works

By David Brandt Berg

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God is like a father to us, His children, and He wants us to be healthy and happy, so He has set down rules to keep us from getting hurt or damaging our bodies: proper diet, rest, exercise and right living, not abusing our bodies, and keeping God’s health laws, and keeping God’s laws in general for our own happiness and well-being.

One of the greatest healing factors is faith, to know that God loves you and cares for you and is going to take care of you no matter what happens. Faith eliminates one of the greatest causes of disease and ill health: fear and tension. Because then you have peace of mind and you can just rest in the Lord, knowing He’s going to take care of everything, which eliminates one of the major causes of psychosomatic diseases.

Fear, tension, hatred: all breed the various psychological and nervous diseases, as well as the natural physiological diseases like heart trouble and arthritis and stomach ulcers, which can be caused by worry and fear. Severe cases of arthritis, for just one example, can be psychosomatic, caused by stress, bitterness, hatred, and a negative attitude toward life. These cause the literal buildup of poisons in the body that in turn cause the congestion and pain in the joints.

So the elimination of fear by faith gives peace of mind and rest to your stomach and vital organs, including rest to your heart and the actual elimination of poisons from the blood that cause illness. In other words, your state of mind can actually poison your body. This science knows and has proven.

Peaceful meditation and mental concentration on positive attitudes and good thoughts definitely have a good effect on both mind and body through the right spiritual attitude. This is why the scriptures say, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”1 Paul says to forget the things that are behind, so you don’t worry about the past, and press on to the things that are before.2 And the Scripture says don’t worry about tomorrow.3

The two greatest sources of fear and worry are the past and the future—remorse over the past or fear over the future—and God’s Word forbids worry about either. Then for the present He says, “Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.”4

The one who trusts rests in the Lord. “For perfect love casts out all fear, for fear hath torment.”5 “But God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.”6

So your physical state of health is definitely affected by your mental state of health, and your mental health is affected by your spiritual condition, because faith in God, trust in God, gives you a feeling of rest of body, peace of mind, contentment of heart, and spiritual well-being, which all tend to greatly improve your whole state of well-being.

Man was put here to make a choice between good and evil, to do right or wrong, to serve God or himself, and to learn the benefits of serving God, reaping the joy and happiness and pleasures of keeping God’s loving rules for his own good, and worshipping and thanking God for it all in return, as grateful children of their heavenly Father, to believe in Him and have faith in Him and trust Him and His Word and obey it for their own good and His glory.

Or men can rebel against God and disobey Him and refuse to believe His Word and go their own way, and suffer the consequences of violating His health rules and His mental and spiritual laws, rebellion against which and disobedience to which bring ill health, misery, pain, suffering, man’s inhumanity to man, cruelty, atrocities, wars, economic ills, unhappiness, mental anguish, and finally death.

God is the “great I AM,”7 who lives in the eternal now, where there is no past nor future nor time. But we must accept these truths just as many people who don’t understand scientific theories still accept them because they work.

Most people do not understand these scientific realities, but still have to accept them just because the scientists say so, and because they work and they can feel the effects of these forces as demonstrated in our daily lives.

We use the power of electricity in our everyday lives, even though most of us don’t really understand it. We Weonly know its laws, its actions, its effects, and have learned how to channel and conduct it to serve many useful purposes upon which our daily living is dependent.

Even so, we must accept the existence of God, though we don’t know where He came from or who made Him, if anyone, or how He got here or where He came from. We simply know He does exist and He is here, ever-present, all-knowing, and all-powerful—omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent.

We must recognize His superiority and His authority and thank Him for His power and His creation and the rules which He has made by which it is governed.

We must accept and obey and use these rules and His power for our own benefit and usefulness and life, love, health, and happiness in everyday living just as you use electricity, even though you don’t understand it fully or know where it came from or how it got here, and you may not even understand how it works. All you know is that it works. You flip the switch and make the connection and it works. You make contact with the power of electricity and it does the work for you.

Just so, you must learn to make personal contact with the power of God and learn to let Him do the work of bringing you joy, health, and happiness in everyday living and of being useful in your life and giving you faith and rest and comfort and peace instead of fear and restlessness and worry and war.

You must learn how to contact His power through prayer, a spiritual seeking of contact with His Spirit through obedience to the laws of His Word, to listen to His voice. Just as you flip the switch of your radio and tune in to a certain frequency, so you must communicate with Him and let Him speak to you through His Word, both through the Bible and by the direct communication of prayer.

Learn His will and know what and how to obey in order to let His light and power into the room of your life to give you light and power and joy in living by doing many things for you that you cannot do for yourself, just as electricity does through the simple flip of a switch or the turn of a dial.

We must avail ourselves of God just as we do the electricity that gives us light and power and fuel and fire and heat and communication and transportation and all these modern marvels of modern man which we use in our daily living, even though most of us haven’t the least idea of where it comes from or how it got here or who made it, and most of us don’t even understand how it works or the laws which govern it, and certainly none of us has ever seen it, only its effects.

Just be sure that you have the right power source and are connected to it properly, receiving the right amounts, the proper voltage at the proper amperage on the correct circuits, insulated by God’s truth, in order that you might safely use such spiritual power for good in your daily life. Otherwise, a connection to the wrong source on the wrong circuits without proper insulation and with faulty contacts or short circuits and explosive groundings can ruin your life, wreck your health, and destroy your soul.

God exists, you may be sure, just like electricity exists, though you don’t really know who made either or where either came from or how either got here or really understand what either of these great forces is composed of. All we know is they exist, and, if properly contacted, channeled, and used properly and safely in the right amounts and the right places at the right times, both of these great powers can do us a great deal of good, even if we don’t fully understand or comprehend them.

All we have to have is faith in the power so that we’re willing to make the connection that lets it into our daily lives by receiving it, by taking that definite step of faith in reaching out our hand of faith and turning the switch of decision which makes the contact and starts the flow of that power into our lives to light, guide, warm, feed, provide, protect, and work for us.

It’s just that simple. You don’t have to personally know all the answers, the whys and wherefores, or be able to explain everything or answer all the questions. All you have to know is that you can flip the switch and it works. You certainly don’t have to know where it came from or who made it or how it got here or how long it’s existed or what its nature is or try to explain it just in order to use it.

All you have to know is that it’s here, and it’s obvious it’s here because it works, and you can prove that it works by the simple little decision of switching it on and trying it. You don’t have to take my word for it or anybody else’s. Try it! You’ll like it. Just flip the switch of decision by your own human will and let the light in and see how quickly the darkness flees. See how fast it can warm your heart and nourish your soul and make life easier, more pleasant, more entertaining, and even lift you to heavenly heights of joy, bliss, and the ecstasy of His electrifying Spirit!

This is happening daily in the life of the Spirit: God’s power is blessing your daily life and helping make easier the task of daily living, enlightening the rooms of your heart and mind, cooking the nourishment of your spiritual body, the food for your soul, and warming the hearthstones of your heart.

He’s more than sex, drugs, meditation, demonism or witchcraft. God’s power is the mightiest of all, beyond anything you have ever experienced before. Try it. You’ll love it!

Begin to enjoy yourself and a life filled with the power of God at every turn of the dials and connections of the switches of prayer and communication and contact with the source.

It’s just that simple: you don’t have to understand Him. Just know Him! You don’t have to know where He came from. Just meet Him. He’s like a lover. You don’t have to know his entire past history and his mental, psychological, physical, medical, historical, political, and religious records. You don’t even have to know his exact height, weight, measurements, metabolism, or chemical constituency. All you know is: it works and you like it. In fact, you love it!

He brings you love, He makes your life, and gives you happiness. You don’t even need to know His name. But it’s Jesus! And that’s only so you can let the world know who you belong to, who your lover is.

You don’t know why, but just to look at Him turns you on. You can’t explain why His touch electrifies you. You don’t understand all the scientific workings of His lovemaking and why it makes you so happy. You just enjoy it—and Him—and you’re happy. What else matters? How much more could you want than this?

Stop trying to diagnose it and take it all apart and analyze it. You’re just making hard work out of all the fun. Just turn it on and enjoy it. He’s your electricity! He’s what turns you on. He’s what gives you such a charge. You don’t care who He is or what He is or where He came from as long as He keeps loving you like this and makes you so happy and takes such good care of you.

As long as it works, that’s all that matters. He makes you feel good and stay happy, and that’s what counts. Don’t try to figure Him out. Just let Him in. Try Him. You’ll love Him. He works. And that’s all you need to know!

Originally published June 1974. Updated and republished October 2012.
Read by Peter Amsterdam.


1 Philippians 4:8.

2 Philippians 3:13, 14.

3 Matthew 6:34.

4 Isaiah 26:3.

5 1 John 4:18.

6 2 Timothy 1:7.

7 Exodus 3:14.

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Home Schooling Court Case 1990-1994

Court Case in Barcelona, 1990-1994

In July, 1990, regional authorities in Barcelona, Spain, raided a Family Community and forcibly apprehended 21 children, one only 8 months old. The authorities alleged that the children were abused and in need of state care. In a related case, the parents of the children were charged with illegal association, operating an illegal school, inflicting mental damage on their children and fraud. Although no evidence of abuse was found, the children were forced to remain against their will in state custody for nearly 12 months.

In May, 1992, the First Section of the Provincial Appeal's Court ruled that there was no evidence that abuse had occurred and the children were returned definitively to the custody of their parents. The Catalonian Social Services Agency (Direccion General de Atencion a la Infancia de la Generalidad de Cataluña) appealed this ruling to the Constitutional Court. Their grounds for appeal was that the constitutional rights of the children to a state-sponsored education were being infringed upon, due to the fact that the children were being home-schooled and religiously indoctrinated according to the beliefs of their parents. In October 1994, the Constitutional Court found that the article of the Constitution guaranteeing education for minors did not carry an inherent meaning that such education could not be supplied privately by the parents outside of state institutions, and all appeals were dismissed.

June 29th, 1993, the parents were acquitted of all charges in the related criminal case. The District Attorney appealed this verdict of the Barcelona Provincial Court. On October 30, 1994, the Supreme Court of Spain rejected the appeal and upheld the findings of the Provincial Court.

Following are excerpts of the resolutions emitted:

BARCELONA, SPAIN MINORS COURT RESOLUTION

May 1992 Roll no.: 0160/92E Dennis Edward Molinsky vs. Children's Welfare Dept.

First Section of The Provincial Appeal's Court

Ruling: Adolfo Oubina, Jesus Perez Burred, Jose Ma. Bachs Estany

LEGAL REASONING:

"If the Law is supposed to be in touch with the necessities of real life.., it must be employed with a great deal of common sense and care in so far as it implies a high risk of arbitrariness since it places extremely delicate appraisals such as that concerning a people's moral conscience in the hands of the Judge and his subjective criteria.

...the Constitution states that everyone has the right to education and that the public powers guarantee this right that parents have for their children to receive religious and moral education in accordance with their own convictions.

...the residential complex occupied by a religious community known as the "Familia del Amor" (Family of Love) consisting of persons of both sexes, parents and children, that the Judge a quo had no hesitation in defining as a "sect .... in so far as it is made up of a group of people professing a doctrine that is different from that which is generally accepted" (an identical charge as that which led the Inquisitor Lucero to have the Archbishop of Carranza imprisoned as an Erasmian) and which is governed by a catechism which, according to the Attorney General's office - although no evidence at all has been presented in the case on this point - is full of religious teachings and beliefs of a marked monotheistic and hierarchical tendency.

These rules state that they reserve the right to educate the minors and young people that are born into, or join, the group, to the exclusion of state education. To this end they have established their own education plan including a number of subjects having to do mainly with this field and adopting an authoritarian approach, that is by imposing a series of moral, philosophical and religious convictions in accordance with their particular ideology over and above the mere passing on of scientific knowledge (...in fact no different from that which is the practice in schools run by religious orders in our own country) shying away from further education in favor of practical experience (which is similar to the recommendation made by the Ministry of Education in favor of Vocational Training).

Following the police operation, the police separated the children, most of whom are foreign and have little knowledge of Castilian, from the company of their parents and took them to a children's home run by the Generalitat. There they were put in the hands of a group of psychologists who, in a language which the children did not know, psychoanalyzed them twice for a prolonged period and issued reports cast in esoteric language designed rather to justify the operation than to describe any intellectual anomalies, which are completely non-existent.

With the situation of neglect raised in this way, despite the complete absence of any medical or juridical grounds.., on the basis of accusations that are really surprising because of their innocuousness such as asking Nestle, Gallina Blanca and "Don Pollo" for food, measures of intervention were requested which the Judge "a quo" appropriated, imposing without trial the punishment of being confined to Spain on a group of foreign children.., thus breaking up the natural harmony between parents and children and giving preponderant weight to intervention by the State in a tragical parody of the Areopagus of Sparta or the concentration camps of those empires that ceased to be when human dignity brought down the Berlin wall.

...and in the light of the fact that nothing unusual was found in any of the children beyond the natural bewilderment of someone who is living in a foreign country and is forcibly separated from their parents despite their tender years and is schooled in an unknown language, the supposed judgement of neglect should have been annulled, as it is hereby agreed to do, and the resolution completed with a statement to the effect that the parents are perfectly free to live with their children in whichever country they consider best and to orient them towards whatever moral, religious or philosophical convictions they believe to be appropriate to their intellectual and physical development without any other restrictions.

FINAL CONCLUSIONS:

The Court hereby decides: ...to annul the finding of neglect and the granting of legal custody to the Children's Welfare Department of July 10th, 1990."

BARCELONA, SPAIN PENAL COURT RESOLUTION

CHARGES LAID BY THE D.A.: The D.A. asked for 203 years of prison for the 10 defendants, presumed members of the Children of God for the following crimes:

-Illegal association

-Foundation of an illegal school

-Psychic Damage

-Fraud

THE VERDICT:

The third section of the Provincial Court absolved all of the accused on June 29th, 1993. The verdict, of which the chairman has been the president of the panel, magistrate Jose Antonio Oscariz, (other members of the panel were G. C. Guilabert and A.I. Fernandez) makes a fiery acclaim of human freedom, "that makes it possible for individuals to choose, select and forsake".

ELEMENTS OF PROOF:

"During the first days of the month of July of 1990, the ten accused lived in a community in the town of Casteliar del Vailes, all of them adults, without any police record. The accused constituted a group or community that they called "Missionary Family" and was imbued with its translation of a religious and missionary spirit to be carried out in different countries... Its doctrine in the sense of establishing behavioral norms and lifestyle aids in the carrying out of a disciplined communal life, with the distribution of responsibilities.., but without any evidence of coercive behavior." ...and where they educated the 22 minors that lived with them in a manner such as the one "ruling the religious boarding schools and the classical pre-military schools of Prussian style".

The 43 page verdict does an extensive reasoning about the concept of the word "cult" from the etymological and the sociological point of view.

The Court admits that the CHILDREN OF GOD was founded by the American citizen David Berg, from his work, the Mo Letters, and that later on it was spread over several countries the world over. However, the court specifies that it is not relevant "nor even important, that such cult is still around with that same name, or under another denomination since having been dissolved or that from it's trunk members would split off forming other inter-connected branches", such as "the ones called the Families of Love, or Missionary Families"...

The Court considers that the group comprises a "community that adopts a lifestyle that bears the absence of any type of hitting or mistreatment", but admits that there is a tendency to "close up in itself" in whose members "show a love and tenderness that the prosecution's experts feel is excessive because it foments inter-dependence".

1. Illegal Association:

This has been the first trial in which the prosecution has asked that a group that's considered religious be declared illegal and that an order be issued for its dissolution. In the verdict the accusation is rejected, because this is usually reserved for clandestine groups "that endanger the security of the State". The magistrates add that it is not possible to place under the criminal charge of illegal association "groups in their peculiar mores and lifestyles, in their beliefs qualified as pseudo-religious".

"The term "sect" has a clear religious content, except when used with a political meaning, and it has little to do with the internal security of a secular state... In any case it can not be considered as a threat to the internal security of the Spanish state".

2. Foundation of an Illegal School:

The Judges denied that the defendants founded an illegal School. According to the Court, the defendants decided to educate their children "themselves according to their ideology and following techniques that are known in English speaking countries by the name of Home Schooling".

3. Psychic Damage:

The verdict affirms that there was no psychic damage inflicted on the 22 children... "The Court has not found in the defendants the will to cause damage to the minors" and assures that in none of them has been detected any abuse, although it has been found some "emotional instability". The tribunal affirms that this "can be attributed to the violent and drastic intervention and subsequent separation from their parents, and incommunication that was prolonged to about a month."

It points out that if parents should be punished because their children are not normal, "with the meaning that the experts give to this term, action should be taken as well against the gypsies or immigrants of other races, cultures and religions that differ from the predominant ones of their surroundings".

The Court understands that the children received classes which consisted of Biblical readings. "Such educational and formative methods, as well as way of life would not provoke psychological harm, even if there are difficulties in integrating with children of their own age in the Catalan cultural area and to successfully integrate with a postindustrial and competitive society."

4. Fraud:

The charge of fraud was rejected as well. The magistrates stated that the defendants had not cheated the people whom they asked for money, food or clothing. The accused did not hide their identity and the donors declared that they did not feel cheated.

"The ones presumed to be deceived, with rare unanimity, did not consider themselves cheated".

The developments of the trial were characterized by the sharp reminders of the president of the Court, Judge Oscariz, that they were not judging a "lifestyle or an organization". The verdict concludes by saying: The debate over the persecution of sects has not been resolved. The court believes there are two opposite positions: "That of extreme freedom and tolerance towards other ways of life and another interventionist tendency to make prevalent rational civilizational criteria".

Therefore:

"The final decision made by the Third Section of the Barcelona Provincial Court is: 'That we must acquit and we acquit the accused of the offenses'."

BARCELONA CONSTITUTIONAL COURT RULING

The First Courtroom of the Constitutional Court, composed of Mr. Justice Miguel Rodrguez-Piero Bravo-Ferrer, Chairman; Mr. Justice Fernando Garca-Mon Gonzlez-Regueral, Mr. Justice Carlos de la Vega Benayas, Mr. Justice Vicente Gimeno Sendra, Mr. Justice Rafael de Mendizbal Allende and Mr. Justice Pedro Cruz Villaln, has decided

IN THE NAME OF THE KING the following V E R D I C T

In the cumulative appeals numbers 1561, 1562, 1563, 1564, 1565, 1566 and 1567/1992, filed by the Generalidad de Cataluña [Catalonian regional government], as the guardian institution of the minors… against the rulings issued by the First Section of the Barcelona Provincial Court, dated 21st of May 1992, in the appeals numbers 163/1992, 157/1992, 159/1992, 161/1992, 162/1992 and 160/1992, filed against the ones dictated by the Examining Court number 19 of Barcelona, dated 6th of November 1991, in the proceedings numbers 517/1990, 510/1990, 512/1990, 511/1990, 515/1990, 514/1990 and 516/1990, ensued by the request of the entitled complainant in opposition to the declaration of neglect and assumption of the legal custody carried out by order of the Direcci0n General de Atencion a la Infancia de la Generalidad de Cataluña [Children's Welfare Department of the Catalonian regional goverment].

I. ANTECEDENTS

1. On June 17, 1992, it was registered in this Court the arrival of seven writs sent by the Generalidad de Cataluña, as the guardian institution of the minors… formalized the appeals against the rulings issued by the First Section of the Provincial Court of Barcelona, dated 21st of May 1992, in the appeals numbers 163/1992, 157/1992, 159/1992, 158/1992, 161/1992, 162/1992 and 160/1992, filed against the ones dictated by the Examining Court number 19 of Barcelona, dated 6th of November 1991, in the case numbers 517/1990, 510/1990, 511/1990, 515/1990, 514/1990 and 516/1990, ensued by the request of the entitled complainant in opposition to the declaration of neglect and assumption of the legal custody carried out by order of the Direccion General de Atencion a la Infancia de la Generalidad de Cataluña.

2. The facts in which the appeals are founded are, in concise form, as follows:

a) On July 23, 1990 the Direccion General de Atencion a la Infancia notified the Examining Court number 19 of Barcelona of the opposition of the parents of the minors, whose names were transcribed above, to the measures of protection adopted by the Generalidad regarding them, specified with the declaration of neglect and the assumption of the legal custody carried out by order of the Direccion General de Atencion a la Infancia.

b) The 6th of November 1991 the Court issued the rulings 510 to 516/1991, identical in its contents, rejecting the opposition against the declaration of neglect and the assumption of the legal custody carried out by the Generalidad.

The above-mentioned rulings, after focusing the legal problem on the extent and limits of the legal custody and, particularly, on the right of the parents to educate and train their children in accordance with their own convictions (2nd legal ground), they consider that the article 27.3 of the Constitution has to be confronted with the duties that the legal custody entails, and that when the given education substantially hinders or limits the minor's integral development, then we encounter an inadequate exercising of the parental rights and a possible situation of neglect, motive for the assumption of the legal custody by the official public institution (3rd legal ground); after considering as proved that the parents of the minors belong to a sect ("Children of God") facing penal proceedings, it reasons that the conduct of mental control and annulment of the capacity to analyze carried out by the parents has caused deficiencies in the minors in the areas of socialization and personal autonomy, reason why it considers that it results in a situation of neglect, exhibited, among other aspects, in the lack of schooling of the minors, and consequently declaring the measure of confinement of the minors legally right, though, to the request of the Generalidad, "due to the favorable evolution of the minors as a result of attending public school", it returns to the parents the mere guardianship of the minors.

c) The parents of the minors filed appeals against the above-mentioned rulings; appeals which were resolved in a favorable way by the verdicts (identical in its contents) numbers 157 to 163/1992, of the 21st of May, by the First Section of the Barcelona Provincial Court. The Court concluded that, even though the legal custody has to be used in the benefit of the children and in accordance to their personality, determining what is the interpretation of such an ambiguous sentence is something which has to be considered on a case by case basis and respecting as well the right of the parents that their children receive a religious and moral education in accordance with their own convictions (art. 27.3 Spanish Constitution); in its opinion, there wasn't enough evidence to prove that the "Children of God" community was a sect, and it esteemed that the teachings were imparted to the minors without neglecting the ones considered as basic and mandatory, "free schooling according to the legal ordinances of some of the home countries of the children, and, after all, alike to the one imparted in the religious schools within our country". Lastly, it points out that the confinement in Spain was imposed on a group of foreign children, "breaking the natural harmony between parents and children and giving superior authority over it to the state", and that, conclusively, "the religious freedom of the parents and the right to choose the education of their children should prevail".

The Prosecuting Attorney, through writings dated November 14, 1992, solicited the refusal of the appeals. The Prosecuting Attorney reasons that we find ourselves before a question of ordinary legality without any Constitutional dimension whatsoever --to determine whether or not a situation of neglect of the minors exists-- well solved by the Court of Appeals. In his opinion, the article 27 of the Spanish Constitution has not been broken as it has not been proven that the minors did not receive an education that tends to the full development of the human personality in accordance with the religious and moral convictions of the parents.

The Prosecuting Attorney, in writings registered on May 3, 1993, considers that the impugned judicial rulings do not break the article 27 of the Constitution. The fundamental right to education assigns to the public powers the obligation to collaborate and to help in the application of this fundamental right; that precept declares, firstly, the right of the parents to have their children receive the religious and moral education that is in accordance with their convictions, establishing right after that the gratuity of a basic education as well as a series of obligations that entails a mandatory service on the part of the State, so that the lack of a unique way or avenue established to acquire this finality implies that any means whereby this can be obtained is in accordance with the fundamental right, without the paths established by the State being exclusive or excluding, so that, in the event of not following the State's avenue, it can't be asserted that the right has been infringed upon. The article 27.4 --continues the Prosecuting Attorney-- does not mean that the education has to be performed in the manner established by the State, as it can be done in another way as long as the results obtained are the same, and this is, indeed, what the Provincial Court affirms that has happened, without the difference in the procedure of receiving the schooling in itself signify the infringement of the fundamental right. The Provincial Court considers that, in spite of the fact of the nonexistence of school attendance, the integral education and formation had not been neglected; the impugned rulings interpret a legal term such as the article 154.1 of the Civil Code, and they do it in a reasonable and founded manner, and, therefore, within the realm of its competence and function.

II. LEGAL GROUNDS

1. For the correct delimitation of the object of the present appeals we must remember, briefly, which have been the incidents of the proceedings that have concluded in the judicial rulings that are now being impugned and which have been the reasons and the allegations around which the terms of the appeals filed by the Generalidad de Cataluña have been articulated.

The parents of the minors opposed the measures carried out by the Generalidad de Cataluña. Such opposition was dismissed by the rulings of the Examining Court number 19 of Barcelona; in the opinion of the Court, the minors were in a situation of neglect and it was appropriate, consequently, that the regional Administration would assume their custody. After filing an appeal before the Provincial Court of Barcelona, the First Section ruled revoking the ones from the lower court, leaving without effect the administrative measures that had been adopted. In the opinion of the Provincial Court, the minors were not neglected nor did they suffer from any disturbances in their processes of physical, intellectual, spiritual or moral formation. In regards to their schooling, the Court points out that their educational formation, which was performed outside of the official educational system, was insured by their own educational system, perfectly accepted in the realm of freedom designed by the Constitution.

J U D G E M E N T

Considering all that's been exposed, the Constitutional Court, BY THE AUTHORITY THAT THE SPANISH CONSTITUTION CONFERS TO IT,

Has decided to reject the cumulative appeals numbers 1561, 1562, 1563, 1564, 1565, 1566 and 1567/92. Let this ruling be published in the "Official Bulletin of the State".

Issued in Madrid on the third of October nineteen ninety four.

Supreme Court Ruling Excerpts

Appeal Number: 3032/93. Verdict number 1669 October 30, 1994

Judged presiding: Enrique Ruiz Vadillo, Jose Antonio Martin Pallin and Justo Carrero Ramos

We find ourselves in the presence of a community of people, made up of adults and children, who have adopted a lifestyle that differs from the generally accepted norms… Not a single element is found that could allow us to declare the existence of any intention to hurt their children or the other children of the community.

They avoid sending their school-aged children to official institutions of learning, public or private, choosing to teach them themselves using the method that in the Anglo-Saxon countries is known as "home school"… To proclaim the superiority of one educational system over another would inevitably lead us to apply value judgments based on psychological, sociological, cultural and moral presuppositions that open up a never-ending debate which, in any case, should remain in the scientific realm, bearing in mind also its clearly political connotations.

Judges cannot enter into the sanctuary of personal beliefs, except when external behaviors originating from a particular ideology negatively affect legally protected rights.

JUDGEMENT: THAT WE MUST DECLARE AND DO DECLARE THAT THERE IS NO ROOM FOR THE APPEAL for infraction of law filed by the Prosecuting Attorney against the ruling dictated on June 29, 1993, in the case followed… for the crimes of illegal association, foundation of an illegal teaching center, psychic damage and fraud.

http://www.cesnur.org/testi/TheFamily/spain.htm

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