KNOWING GOD IS IN CONTROL

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“I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose. Isaiah 46:10

Sometimes, we need the reminder that God knows the future and can do what is humanly impossible. He knows what is eternally best in ways we cannot. God can see ultimate purposes and plans that we can’t. We also need to understand that God is in control.

Countries where the people once honoured God, recognising that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” 2 Corinthians 5:19, experienced unprecedented security and prosperity. These same countries today are crumbling as people turn their backs on God. ” Righteousness lifts up a nation, but sin is a shame to any people.” Proverbs 14:34.

As nations turn their backs on God, living as if He does not exist, sin abounds; political corruption, lying, slander, public displays of debauchery, violent crime, abortion, theft, adultery, drug taking, drunkenness, gambling, and greed of all kinds. Economic woes follow as taxes increase and governments borrow money to pay for bigger police forces, gaols, and social security systems to fix the problems. Underpinning this abandonment of faith in God is the widespread acceptance of evolutionary thinking – that everything made itself by natural processes and that God is not necessary. The complex design we see in the world designed itself. God says they are without excuse if they ignore the obvious.

“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:19-20

Sadly, such thinking abounds in universities and governments today. As a result, some of the greatest evil ever seen perpetrated was by those who adopted an evolutionary approach to morality: Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot. Many millions have suffered terribly and lost their lives because of this atheistic way of thinking. Atheism kills because, without God, there are no rules – anything goes. Atheists are at the forefront of efforts to legitimise abortion, euthanasia, drug taking, prostitution, pornography, and promiscuity. All these things cause misery, suffering, and death. Atheism is the philosophy of death, and it comes from the great deceiver, Satan, who is intent on our destruction.

The Bible reveals that God knew this would happen and that before Jesus returns to restore righteousness, His followers will be persecuted for His namesake.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:9-14

You need to be living eternal now, ready for Jesus’ return. My book is available on Amazon.

WHY MOST PEOPLE WILL FACE THE SOON COMING WRATH OF GOD

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A new survey has found that more than half of Americans do not believe God exists or that He “affects lives,” prompting one prominent researcher to highlight the need for “sweeping national repentance and spiritual renewal.” 

The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released the second installment of its American Worldview Inventory 2025 on Wednesday. 

The research found that overall, 60% of Americans do not believe God exists or that He “affects lives.” Nearly half of self-identified Christians (47%) and a slightly smaller share of theologically identified born-again Christians (40%) said the same.

The Bible begins with the statement. ” In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth“. Genesis 1:1. God’s existence is assumed, self-evident. In Psalm 14:1 we are told, “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God! They acted corruptly; they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.” Here we see that the Bible connects corrupt thoughts about God – especially about denying His very existence – with corrupt morals. And it is true that if there is no God, no Creator who sets the rules, then we are set adrift morally.

So few believe God exists because of the promotion of evolution. A Creator is not necessary. This is why God has raised Creation Ministries International (http://www.creation.com) and Answers in Genesis (http://www.answersingenesis.org), two of the main ministries God has raised up to defend the Bible as inerrant and its history accurate. 

Among Americans who believe that God exists and “affects lives,” a plurality (38%) defined God as the “most important element” in their lives, while 23% described God as “extremely important” in their lives, and 18% characterized God as having a “very important” influence on their lives.

Fourteen percent of respondents who believe in God agreed that He was “somewhat important” in their lives, while 5% considered God either “not too” important or “not at all” important. The remaining 3% placed their views on God’s influence in their lives into the category of “it varies.” 

Just 20% of “those who believe the God of the Bible exists and affects lives” told pollsters they had “an intimate and interactive spiritual relationship with Him, with constant two-way communication.” Another 45% classified their relationship with God as “close,” defined by frequent prayer and trust in Him to “do what is best and right.”

Eleven percent of those surveyed identified their relationship with God as “arms-length,” while 18% said, “He exists and is capable of all things, but do not have a personal, interactive ‘relationship’ with Him.”

The remaining 7% of respondents remained uncertain whether or not He interacts with people and did not “know how to describe their relationship with Him.” One-third (33%) of “those who believe the God of the Bible exists and affects lives” defined God as having a “total” influence over their lives and choices, while another third (33%) reported that He had “a lot” of influence on their lives, which “often” reflected His guidance.

This is undoubtedly the reason Jesus tells us that just before He returns, many will fall away when tribulation comes.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:9-12  

AS THE BIBLE TELLS US WE ARE FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE

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Scientists at Harvard University, working with Google AI/machine learning experts, have published an amazing study of a one cubic millimetre piece of human brain. (The piece was excised during a medical procedure).

Sliver of brain tissue

The sliver of tissue, ~3 mm long, was sliced into over 5,000 thin sections and each one was scanned with an electron microscope. The images were then analyzed with Google’s machine learning programs (AI) to piece together a detailed 3-dimensional picture of the cells and their connections.

The tiny fragment contained 57,000 cells and 230 mm (9 in) of fine blood vessels. It had thousands of neurons and nearly 150 million synapses (the major connections between neurons).

The electron microscope images alone occupied 1,400 terabytes of computer memory. To put this in perspective, a typical large external hard drive today stores 20 terabytes. It would take 70 of these hard drives to store the data. But the whole brain is one million times this volume. Scaling up, we would need 70 million hard drives. At just $US300 each, this would cost 21 billion dollars, quite aside from the power to run them. And that’s just for one copy.

The researchers found things that have not been seen before. As one of the co-authors who helped lead the research, Jeff Lichtman, remarked to the Guardian,

“We found many things in this dataset that are not in the textbooks. We don’t understand those things, but I can tell you they suggest there’s a chasm between what we already know and what we need to know.“

We have a long way to go before we understand how the brain works. Indeed, we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).

It is getting harder and harder for biological scientists to cling to evolution and random chance and deny intelligent design for what they can now observe. Since the discovery of DNA and the electron microscope that revealed complex machinery even in the simplest cell, the demise of evolution as the cause of life on this planet was sealed.

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Romans 1:20-23

Sample, I., Scientists find 57,000 cells and 150m neural connections in tiny sample of human brain, theguardian.com, 10 May 2024.

Shapson-Coe, A. et al., A petavoxel fragment of human cerebral cortex reconstructed at nanoscale resolution, Science 384(6696):2024.

This article appeared in the latest issue of Creation Magazine

DOES GOD EXIST

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To whet your appetite I have given a summary of four good arguments for the existence of God and hope they will prompt you to go to http://www.creation.com and or http://www.answersingenesis.org for more information.

THE DESIGN ARGUMENT

The universe has clear organizational structures and intricate laws that control it indicating an intentional complex plan. How can such high-level design exist without a designer? To claim that chance accounts for the world’s order and extreme complexity is irrational.

http://www.encodeproject.org The discovery of DNA and the electron microscope rang the death knell of evolution. DNA stores information in the form of a four-character digital code, with strings of precisely sequenced chemicals that transmit detailed assembly instructions. DNA builds protein molecules, the intricate machinery that allows cells to survive. Consider the most complex software program you’ve ever used. Could it have developed on its own, without an intelligent designer? Of course not. How much more ridiculous is it to suppose that time, chance, and natural forces—on their own—produced the far more complex DNA?

Scientists once likened the components of living cells to simple LEGO blocks. Now they know that “cells have complex circuits, sliding clamps, energy-generating turbines, rotors, stators, O-rings, U-joints, and drive shafts.” None of those tiny engines work unless all parts are present. Hence, they must have coexisted from the beginning. That’s what biochemist Michael Behe calls, in his book Darwin’s Black Box, “irreducible complexity.”

Non-Christian physicist Paul Davies writes, “We now know that the secret of life lies not with the chemical ingredients as such, but with the logical structure and organizational arrangement of the molecules…. Like a supercomputer, life is an information-processing system…. It is the software of the living cell that is the real mystery, not the hardware…. How did stupid atoms spontaneously write their own software?… Nobody knows.”

I think there’s a better answer than “Nobody knows”; namely, the atoms didn’t write their own software. God did.

THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

The Cosmological argument cites the world’s existence as evidence of an uncaused, eternal being who created and sustains it. Either, something comes from nothing (an unscientific notion), or a first cause or “prime mover” existed before everything else. Francis Schaeffer argued in He Is There and He Is Not Silent that a personal first cause, God, could account for both the material and personal elements of life, while a material first cause only accounts for the material.

THE TRANSCENDENTAL ARGUMENT

The transcendental argument says that no part of human experience and knowledge has meaning apart from God’s existence. Without God, we have no basis for or explanation of order, logic, reason, intelligence, or rationality. Since Christians and atheists agree there is order and basis for reasoning, this is evidence for God.

THE MORAL ARGUMENT

The moral argument claims the existence of universal moral values—what humans generally recognize as right and wrong—has no explanation or objectivity without God.

1. Objective Moral Values Exist

  • Premise: Objective moral values (i.e., moral values that are true regardless of human opinions or beliefs) exist. For example, things like “murder is wrong” or “kindness is good” are often considered to be universally true.
  • Argument: If objective moral values exist, they need a grounding or source that transcends human subjectivity.

2. Moral Values Require a Foundation

  • Premise: If there are objective moral values, they must be grounded in something beyond mere human preference or societal conventions.
  • Argument: Naturalistic or atheistic explanations often struggle to account for objective moral values because they typically reduce moral values to evolutionary or sociological constructs, which are seen as subjective or relative.

3. God Provides a Foundation

  • Premise: The existence of God (or a transcendent, morally perfect being) is proposed as the best explanation for the existence of objective moral values.
  • Argument: A moral lawgiver (God) is posited to be the source of objective moral values because a perfectly good and just being can provide a foundation for these values, ensuring their objectivity and universality.

4. Conclusion

  • Conclusion: Therefore, the existence of objective moral values is best explained by the existence of God.

THE TRUE HISTORY OF THIS WORLD

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Read what the Apostle Peter reveals to us about God and His World, about angels, about SIN, about God’s judgement, about the worldwide flood of Noah’s day with eight survivors, God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of what He does to the ungodly, and there is a day coming of judgement for all the ungodly – The Day of the Lord.

This is the true history of this world and its 6,000 years of existence. How did we get billions of years? It is absolutely essential if you believe in evolution to go from GOO to YOU. The worldwide flood of Noah’s day (God’s judgement) produced the fossils (billions of dead things all over the world) and the buried vegetation that produced all of our fossil fuels. It happened in one year not billions of years.

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!” 2 Peter 4-14

The Apostle Peter also told us that in the last days scoffers would come denying the true history of the world and the worldwide flood of Noah’s day.

“You should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” 2 Peter 3:2-7

Do you know there are 86 verses in the Bible about The Day of the Lord: this is just one from Isaiah.

“Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation
and to destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless. I will make people more rare than fine gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.” Isaiah 13:9-13

Check out the rest, I am sure God wants you to know that The Day of the Lord is coming: Isaiah 24:21-22, Zephaniah 1:14-18, Jeremiah 46:10, Job 20:28-29, Isaiah 13:4-6. Isaiah 19:16-17, Ezekeil 30:3-4, Isaiah 27:1, Joel 3:12-14, Zephaniah 3:8, Romans 2:16, Revelation 6:15-17, Amos 5:18-20, Isaiah 2:12, Joel 1:15, Joel 2:1-2, Matthew 7:22-23, John 12:48, Romans 2:5, Jeremiah 30:7-8, Joel 2:23-28, Isaiah 11:11, Isaiah 27:12-13, Micah 4:6-7, Matthew 24:30-31, Mark 13:26-27, Zephaniah 3:14-20, Isaiah 4:5-6, Joel 2:32, Joel 3:16-18, Zechariah 9:16-17, Isaiah 4:3-4, Zephaniah 3:11-13, Zechariah 14:20-21, Malachi 4:1-2, Micah 4:8, Micah 5:8-9, Revelation 22:5, Philippians 1:6, Daniel 12:1-2, John 6:40, John 11:24, 1 Corinthians 1:8, 2 Timothy 1:12, Ezekiel 38: 14-16, Zechariah 14:2, Luke 21:20, Revelation 20:8-9, Isaiah 4:2, Isaiah 11:10, Jeremiah 30:9, Hosea 3:5, Amos 9:11, Zechariah 9:9, Zechariah 12:10, 1 Thessalonian 5:2-3, Matthew 23:43-44, Luke 12:39-40, Mark 13:32, 2 Peter 3:10, 1 Thessalonian 5: 4-8, Ezekiel 13:5, Zephaniah 2:1-3, Malachi 4:5, 2 Peter 3:11-12, Matthew 24:33, Marfk 13:29, Luke 21: 31, 2 Thessalonians 2:3, Acts 2:19-20, Joel 2:30-31, Isaiah 13:9-10, Joel 2:10, Luke 21:11, Isaiah 5:29-30, Ezekiel 30:10, Joel 2:2-4, Amos 5:27, Matthew 24:21, Mark 13:19, Isaiah 11:12-14, Haggai 2:23, Zecharia 3:8.

MIRACLES AND SCIENCE

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Origins science uses the principles of causality (everything that has a beginning has a cause) and analogy (e.g. we observe that intelligence is needed to generate complex coded information in the present, so we can reasonably assume the same for the past). And because there was no material intelligent designer for life, it is legitimate to invoke a non-material designer for life. Creationists invoke the miraculous only for origins science, and as shown, this does not mean they will invoke it for operational science.

Miracles are an addition to natural laws rather than a loophole within them. This is because natural laws are formulated in isolated systems. For example, Newton’s 1st Law of Motion states that objects will continue in a straight line at a constant speed — if no unbalanced force is acting. But there is nothing in the law to prohibit unbalanced forces acting—otherwise, nothing could ever change direction!

If God exists, there is no truly isolated system. Thus there is no basis for disallowing miracles unless you could prove that God doesn’t exist, but you can’t prove a universal negative. And if Jesus really were God Incarnate as I believe (see documentation), He could certainly bring other forces into play without violating science.

C.S. Lewis applied these concepts to the virginal conception of Christ: that is the zygote was made by the Holy Spirit’s action on Mary’s ovum, i.e. an addition to the system. But after that, the embryo developed in a normal manner.

Second, this comment treats natural laws as real entities. In reality, scientific laws are descriptive of what we observe happening regularly, just as the outline of a map describes the shape of a coastline. Treating scientific laws as prescriptive, i.e. the cause of the observed regularities, is like claiming that the drawing of the map is the cause of the shape of the coastline.

The Bible explains that: we are made in the image of a rational God (Genesis 1:26–27), God is a God of order not of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), God gave man dominion over creation (Genesis 1:28), and He commanded honesty (Exodus 20:16). Applying this, as well as a correct understanding of the nature of scientific laws as description, leads to a worldview that historically led to science without jettisoning miracles, as previously stated:

These [founders of modern science], like modern creationists, regarded ‘natural laws’ as descriptions of the way God upholds His creation in a regular and repeatable way (Col. 1:15–17), while miracles are God’s way of upholding His creation in a special way for special reasons. Because creation finished at the end of day 6 (Gen. 2:1–3), creationists following the Bible would expect that God has since mostly worked through ‘natural laws’ except where He has revealed in the Bible that He used a miracle. And since ‘natural laws’ are descriptive, they cannot prescribe what cannot happen, so they cannot rule out miracles. Scientific laws do not cause or forbid anything, any more than the outline of a map causes the shape of the coastline.

C.S. Lewis pointed out that arguing against miracles based on the alleged total uniformity of nature is actually circular reasoning (from Miracles):

No, of course we must agree with the empiricist, David Hume that if there is absolutely ‘uniform experience’ against miracles, in other words, they have never happened, why then they never have. Unfortunately, we know the experience against them to be uniform only if we know that all the reports of them are false. And we know all the reports are false only if we know already that miracles have never occurred. In fact, we are arguing in a circle.

Without a belief that the universe was made by a God of order and that we are made in the image of this God, the Logos, we have no basis for either an orderly universe or that our thoughts can be trusted. Atheists can treat these premises as axioms, i.e. accepted as true without proof, but they are theorems for Christians since they follow from the propositions of Scripture. Indeed, atheists can’t prove that the universe is orderly, because the proofs would have to suppose the order they are trying to prove. Similarly, they can’t prove that their thoughts are rational because the proofs would have to assume this very rationality. Yet evolution would select only for survival advantage, not rationality.

You cannot derive an orderly universe from the proposition ‘God does not exist’. Indeed, you need to accept an orderly universe as a ‘brute fact’, which ironically was actually plagiarized from the Christian world view.

This article has been adapted from an article by Jonathan Sarfati Miracles and Science on the website http://www.creation.com. First published 2/09/2006

PROOF GOD EXISTS – THE BEATITUDES

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In the natural, when we read who Jesus says will be blessed in The Beatitudes we think “crazy” but in our hearts, we know it is right because it is righteousness.

Shortly after Jesus started His ministry he gathered crowds because he healed all who came to Him.

“And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all of Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.” Matthew 4:23

The first time Jesus preached to the “multitudes” He preached the Beatitudes:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:3-12

Surely, those who are open-minded can see that Jesus truly is who He said He was. Before Jesus went to die on the Cross on our behalf, the disciples were perplexed. Take to heart what Jesus said to Thomas.

“Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:5-7

I am sure we can bold;y assert that no man of all the myriads that have ever lived – let him be as wise as Solomon, the absolute best as Job could ever have invented from his own “thoughts”, the GOSPEL. It was impossible for such a plan of salvation ever to be devised by man’s thoughts.

I believe Andy McIntosh (Professor of Thermodynamics and Combustion Theory at the University of Leeds, UK) provides a good answer as to why humans continue to deny God and His son, Jesus.

“As a scientist, I see nothing to discount straightforward belief in Scripture, when considering the mechanisms in nature… man’s prejudice against design in creation can only really be answered by a radical change of heart and by personally meeting the Author of all… I believe that it is because humans do not want to be accountable to a Creator God that they persist with a theory (evolution) that has little evidence to support it.”

They cannot countenance a Creator to whom they are responsible for their actions. Where do you stand? What do you believe?

THE FOOL SAYS IN HIS HEART, “THERE IS NO GOD”

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“When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”—G.K. Chesterton

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Psalm 14:1

“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:21-23

“When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.“ Proverbs 19:3

As much as atheists pretend otherwise—talking as if ‘reason’ and ‘science’ are exclusively atheistic values— it is actually the rejection of God that requires ‘leaving your brain at the door.’ And the effects of both godly and godless thinking on the world make this abundantly clear to any honest observer.

We must remember that just ten generations from Adam this is what God said about the wickedness of man and He destroyed all but eight people when He poured out His wrath upon the earth with the flood of Noah’s day.

“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.” Genesis 6:5

The Bible is a true, authentic, historically accurate, reliable, and trustworthy revelation from God. It states that the way to true fulfilment, lasting peace, and joy in life is found in the person, Jesus Christ. N.B. what Jesus said to the apostle Thomas.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7

You too, can have a relationship with the co-creator of all that exists.

Many Bible scholars tell us that up to one-third of the Bible is predictive prophecy and all of the prophecies up to date have been accurate so we can expect the many prophecies of Jesus’ second coming will also be accurate.

Jesus tells us that God will pour out His wrath again upon an unrepentant world with the Trumpet and Bowl judgements (Revelation 8 & 16). It is at the trumpet blast when the seventh seal is opened that the rapture of the Saints happens and the Trumpet judgements begin.

Will you be foolish and deny God’s existence and face the coming wrath of God, or will you repent and turn from selfishness and reckless living without God? If you do repent, you need to acknowledge and thank Jesus for His sacrifice on the cross that has paid your debt of sin and guilt in full.

If I can be of help you can contact me on ron@bakb.com.au

AMERICAS CIVILISATION DECAY ACCELERATES

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What does civilizational decay look like? On Wednesday afternoon, Americans received a major warning sign that their Republic is teetering on the brink. It came in the unlikely form of a Senate cloture vote — a rather obscure parliamentary procedure that sets up the final passage of a bill in the Senate. But it wasn’t just any cloture vote, and it’s not just any bill under consideration.

I’m talking about the so-called Respect for Marriage Act, it is anything but that if you accept marriage as defined by God, and it just moved one step closer to President Biden’s desk, where it will certainly be signed into law. It passed cloture by a vote of 62-37, as 12 Republican senators joined Senate Democrats to throw “people of faith under the bus” — and possibly into prison.

Whether you realize it or not, marriage is one the best indicators of the health and stability of a nation. Just like buildings societies demand a stable foundation. Without one, they will crumble and crash, leaving a wreckage of human suffering and misery in the ruins.

No matter how hard progressives try to deny it, marriage is the irreplaceable foundation for stable societies. Not just any “marriage” but one man joining with one woman in a permanent, monogamous, committed union and dedicated to caring for any offspring such a union may produce.

Patrick Brown, at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, put it clearly. He explains that:

“But the institution of marriage itself — in law, custom, and tradition — is intimately bound up with the act of creating and raising children. Marriage, at its core, is the social institution most fundamentally oriented towards procreation. It is God’s way, (he said societies way) of harnessing, binding, and supporting the relationship that creates a new life, and it gives the child produced from that union (and his or her parents) the best chance at a stable life.”

Why is marriage the bedrock of society? Because it is how humanity endures throughout the ages, just as God intended for it to be. Jesus, Himself reminds us of the inescapable gravity of marriage.

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Matthew 19:4-6

Now, Jesus is addressing divorce here, but the principle, which is that God-defined marriage is between one man and one woman for life, applies to the proposed redefinition of marriage that is now sailing through the United States Congress with the so-called “Respect for Marriage Act.” They are trying to separate “what God has joined together.”

If we start unraveling this thread, there is no telling where the stopping point may be. Well, we actually do have a stark and dark preview: “sex change” operations on teenagers at top hospitals around the country, “kid-friendly” drag shows in your small town, and the rise of the acceptance of pedophilia. When you cut the brakes on God’s design for human sexuality and flourishing you can soon expect to fly off the cliff and crash into hell.

Lest I conclude on such a dark note, join me in remembering that just as human history began with a marriage so too it ends with a marriage. The arc of redemption stretches from Genesis 2:21-25, the marriage of Adam and Eve, to Revelation 19:6-9, the “marriage supper of the Lamb,” that is, of Christ and the Church. The Senate, the Democrats, and worthless Republicans may prevail against the definition of marriage and our religious liberty here in America, but God has guaranteed that the gates of Hell will not prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18)

However, the Bible reveals it will take Jesus’ return to this earth to restore sanity to the world. First, Jesus comes in the clouds to take His Saints to heaven, and then He pours out His wrath upon an unrepentant world with the Trumpet and Bowl judgements. The severity of God’s judgement is fierce. Below, I reveal what the Bible tells us about the first two trumpet judgements. The judgements escalate in intensity.

We need to warn our unbelieving family members and friends of what they are facing if they do not repent of their rebellion against God and His commandments. Show them how to ask God for His saving grace provided by Jesus. It is only by dying to self and becoming a new creature in Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit indwelling their spirit can they avoid God’s coming judgement.

The Seven Trumpets
“Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.“ Revelation 8:6-9

The above is a much-abbreviated version of the original article published at the Standing for Freedom Center. The last three paras. are mine.

The author William Wolfe served as a senior official in the Trump administration, both as a deputy assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon and a director of legislative affairs at the State Department. Prior to his service in the administration, Wolfe worked for Heritage Action for America, and as a congressional staffer for three different members of Congress, including the former Rep. Dave Brat. He has a B.A. in history from Covenant College and is finishing his Master of Divinity at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

KNOWING GOD

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Believers are usually pretty comfortable with revering God for his immortality, power, and perfection, and so we should be. He is the Creator, in whom we live and move and have our being. He is the Great I Am. But our connection with God will always be unfolding. If a person only focuses on the immensity of God, and on reverence for him, they will know little intimacy. If a person understands the great freedom we are promised in Christ but knows no reverence, they will be without foundation, To walk closely with God, we must be ever journeying, getting to know facet after facet of the divine nature. It is madness to think of him as less complex, less finely calibrated than ourselves.

God has sovereignly chosen to make himself vulnerable, in that he experiences difficult and negative emotions, along with great joy and delight, in response to earthly events.

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” Genesis 6:5-7

Divine regret is a difficult concept, as it challenges our understanding of infallibility. We relate regret to either poor choices, bad luck, or lack of knowledge – ‘If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have done it.’ But God was fully cognizant of every one of his actions and choices, and still found himself regretting some of them. For God to feel regret, he must therefore be vulnerable to our choices. Free will must actually be free, and poor choices on our part can cause divine pain. The Lord gets upset and frustrated, just as He is pleased and delighted by us in turn. The only way I can make sense of this vulnerability is as a deliberate, sovereign choice. The Lord of All could have placed himself above such feelings, but instead, he chose a version of creation in which the choices of his children affect him.

We can see the breadth of God’s emotions at work in the life of Jesus. What do you make of the following passage?

‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!’ Matthew 23:37

Compassion, for example, drove him to acts of kindness and mercy, such as healing the sick.

‘And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick.’” Matthew 14:14

Jesus knew ordinary, everyday emotions too, such as pleasure and friendship. There was a particular disciple he was closer to than any other, on a human level. John is referred to as ‘the disciple that Jesus loved’ on several occasions and was depicted leaning back on Jesus’ chest at the last supper to ask him a question. On the cross, Jesus charged this same disciple with looking after his mother, and his mother with looking after this disciple.

“When Jesus, therefore, saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.’” John 19:26-27

How human! How relatable! On the day of his death, he was concerned about those he was leaving behind, providing for their emotional needs by calling them, mother and son. How dear, how important, this must have been to Jesus, at that moment.

There was no time when the emotions of God were stretched like they were in the Garden of Gethsemane.

‘And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.’ Luke 22:41-44

At that moment Jesus was a man in torment, able to prevent his own suffering but choosing to embrace it anyway. He was desperate to escape the agony of the cross – not just the physical pain, but the spiritual horror of becoming all human brokenness, for our sake – and yet he bowed his head. This total mastery of self serves as a supreme example to us. If Jesus were not a deeply emotional person, mastery might have been easier, but being torn up inside and still submitting to God? That is staggering, to me, what about you?

Adapted from an article by Duncan Edward Pile, October 27th, 2021 “Hold Me Closer Cosmic Dancer” http://www.patheos.com