THE TRUTH OF IT

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God’s existence confronts us with the reality that there is an ultimate, secure truth from outside ourselves that has something decisive to say about who each of us is. We cannot escape this truth. We can only submit to it or rebel against it.

  1. We are made by God (Genesis 1:26). Nothing makes itself, particularly a Cosmos as intricately designed as it is to sustain all forms of life.
  2. We are made to bear God’s image (Genesis 1:27). There is a high calling for our lives, which involves putting God’s character on display through a holy life and righteous actions.
  3. We are made with a breath of life from God (Genesis 2:7): “The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.“
  4. We have a spirit: “Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him” (Zechariah 12:1), “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? (1 Corinth. 2:11). This is an important verse: human self-awareness, intellect, creativity, personality, and temperament – everything that enables human accomplishment come through the unseen presence of the human spirit. “Man is going to his eternal home… and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7), “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts.” (Proverbs 20:27). When a person accepts Jesus as their Saviour and Lord, they receive the Holy Spirit from our Heavenly Father so that the spirit of man can truly be the lamp of the Lord. A lamp cannot function without oil (Holy Spirit). Our spirit was always meant to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
  5. We are made from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). This means that even though we were made in God’s image, we are not gods. We are creatures—finite, lacking certain power and knowledge, and wholly dependent. We are not immortal. “He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality,” (1 Timothy 6:15-16)
  6. We were made for dominion (Genesis 1:26)—to bring God’s will to God’s world.
  7. We were made to live up to a design as either a male or a female (Genesis 1:27). This is the calling for our lives.
  8. We are fallen in Adam (Genesis 3, 5:1–3; Romans 5:12). Because of the fall, our identity contains sin and death. Our inner selves are corrupt. Our eternity is an eternal second death. This is the great tragedy of the modern identity worldview. It traps people in themselves. It traps us in our sin.
  9. We can be restored to glory and eternity through the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:49), the true image of God in the “dust” of human flesh (Colossians 1:15). When we accept Jesus as our Saviour and Lord our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to indwell our spirit, so it can once again be the lamp of the Lord.

NUCLEAR ENGINEER STAUNCHLY DEFENDS BIBLICAL CREATION

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Dr Jonathan Corrado (B.S., M.S., M.S. (hons.), M.Div., Th.M., Ph.D.) has degrees in science, engineering, and theology. His highest is a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from Colorado State University and his Master of Theology is from Liberty University. He has extensive experience in systems engineering and nuclear science, including research, development, and management. Dr Corrado has authored both secular and creationist scientific papers, theological papers, and a book in his field and one on spiritual deception.

Dr Corrado currently works in both the defence and nuclear industries as a manager and engineer and is a senior officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He is married to Erin, who is a Christian singer-songwriter. They have four children.

Dr Corrado’s science beginnings

Dr C. says he has been interested since childhood: Even in preschool, I said that when I grew up, I wanted to be a scientist, because they looked impressive in a white lab coat! I enjoyed science classes because I enjoyed learning how things worked. I gained an appreciation from an early age of how integrated, complex, and well-designed the natural world is.

From his observations, he realized there must be an intelligent Creator. However, as Romans 1:18 says, such general revelation is enough to deny atheists any excuses but is insufficient for salvation. For salvation, we need special revelation: “When I was saved, the identity of this intelligent designer was made clear.”

Bible: true and self-consistent.

The Bible reveals the beginning of the Cosmos and its end. Man’s purpose and destiny is given. We are given answers to all of life’s pressing questions: why is there death and suffering and what God has done to redeem mankind. Fulfilled prophecy proves the Bible is the inspired Word of God. I have discovered that the Bible is a unified whole, the product of engineered design by a perfect Creator. The Bible, down to the smallest letter and part of a letter (Matthew 5:18), is there for our learning, discovery, and amazement. Truly, our God is an awesome God!

He found that many Bible difficulties disappear “if one simply recognizes the unity and integrity of the 66 books, composed by 40 authors over thousands of years (Proverbs 25:2).”

This deep study brought me to Christ and an understanding of salvation and its implications. Since I’ve been saved, I can’t stop studying the Bible and discovering the complexity and integrity of this perfect book. God never gave up on me through my years of disobedience, and now, I will not give up on Him.

Scientific support for the Bible

As a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), one of his heroes is Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806–1873), a past VMI faculty member. Many plaques are dedicated to Maury as ‘Pathfinder of the Seas’, which arose from his devout Christianity and in reference to Psalm 8:8 (creation.com/maury).

“As a naval officer who has sailed the seas, Psalm 8:8 is undoubtedly true and gives credibility to the Bible’s scientific claims.” He also listed many other arguments for God’s existence (cf. creation.com/arguments-for-god.)

Long ages vs the Bible?

The Bible teaches that the world is a little over 6,000 years old (creation.com/6000-years). This is often called a ‘young’ earth creation model, but it’s young only in relation to the dogma of billions of years. In reality, 6,000 years is very old (creation.com/earth-how-old).

Dr C. agrees with CMI that one doesn’t need to believe in a ‘young’ earth to be saved (see creation.com/can-christians-believe-evolution.) However, there are still huge problems with trying to mix long ages with Scripture.

Dr Corrado points out that long-age views don’t come from the biblical text, but must be imposed from outside. This includes the day-age theory, theistic evolution, progressive creationism, and gap theory. However, this affects how one interprets the early chapters of Genesis and spills over into the rest of Scripture.

“If these obviously historical chapters are interpreted as symbolic and/or poetic, then the question becomes: when should Genesis (and really the Bible at large) no longer be interpreted this way? This becomes a subjective determination.”

Instead, he explains that the grammatical-historical method is the right way to understand Scripture. This method considers all figures of speech and literary forms in the text as the writer expressed it and how its original readers would have understood it.

When reading any work of literature, particularly the Bible, we must determine the author’s message, context, and intent, not our interpretation. God intended such exegesis, which is why He instructs us to handle the word of truth correctly (2 Tim 2:15). When the Lord Jesus quoted the Old Testament, He clearly held to a grammatical- historical interpretation [creation.com/nt].

For example, in Luke 4, when Satan tempted Jesus, He responded by quoting from the Old Testament. If God’s commands in Deut 8:3, 6:13, and 6:16 had not been literal, Jesus would not have used them, and they would not have had the power to stop Satan’s mouth, which they did. Additionally, the disciples followed Christ’s (Bible-based) directives.

The Bible, taken in the grammatical- historical sense, clearly indicates a young Earth. I also believe that unbiased scientific inquiry supports this claim.

Dr C. also pointed out a key problem with trying to mix long ages with the Bible:

God created everything ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31), and there was initially no death. Death does not occur until Genesis 3 when Adam sinned. But evolution requires the death of countless creatures for today’s living world to have arisen. And even non-evolutionary long-age views must have death before sin because fossils of both humans and animals are ‘dated’ long before Adam.

Evidence for a ‘young’ earth

Dr C. thinks the best scientific evidence for a ‘young’ earth is its decaying magnetic field:

Historical measurements indicate that Earth’s magnetic field experiences a loss of approximately 50% of its energy every 1,400 years. Even if past reversals of the field are disregarded, which would have further depleted its energy, the maximum age of the Earth’s magnetic field is about 20,000 years. Any older, the electrical current needed for such a strong field would have been large enough to melt the whole earth.

But a decaying field is consistent with God creating the earth about 6,000 years ago, with an electrical current that generates magnetism. And this current decays exponentially as per standard electrical theory (see creation.com/magfield).

Evolutionary geophysicists must claim that Earth has maintained a magnetic field for billions of years. However, they lack a comprehensive understanding of how this could happen.

To sustain such a current, an electrical generator—a dynamo—operating within the interior of the Earth would be necessary. But how could such a generator spontaneously form? Despite a century of investigation, conventional scientists continue to be unable to develop a functional dynamo theory.1

Quantum mechanics and Christianity

Some Christians mistakenly think quantum mechanics (QM) is problematic for Christianity. I disagree (see creation.com/qm), but wanted Dr C.’s take on the issue as a nuclear scientist.

In reply, he quoted one of the world’s leading experts, physicist (and atheist) Richard Feynman (1918–1988). Feynman shared the 1965 Nobel Prize for physics for his discoveries in quantum electrodynamics. But he admitted, “I think I can safely say that nobody really understands quantum mechanics,” and Dr C. agrees that this still holds. He says:

QM’s inf luence on one’s perception of God is primarily determined by personal motivations—and one’s worldview— rather than physics. The scientific method has proven to be a highly effective approach for uncovering the mechanisms by which God achieved specific aspects of His creative endeavours. Acquiring knowledge about the universe’s physical systems does not alter the undeniable existence of the designer and creator who established them. In my opinion, quantum physics, similar to other scientific fields, is entirely consistent with God’s biblical teachings.

However, he points out that atheists have abused QM for their own ends. E.g., Lawrence Krauss (b. 1954), a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, as well as a vociferous antitheist, wrote the book A Universe from Nothing (2012—see creation.com/krauss). Here and elsewhere, Krauss asserts that the universe could come into existence out of nothing (without God).

However, his ‘nothing’ was not really nothing—but something. In particular, it was the quantum vacuum with properties, including energies and quantum fields. Even if our universe had come out of a quantum vacuum, one would still have to explain where the quantum vacuum came from.

Advice for Christians wanting a scientific career?

Science was founded on a biblical worldview, and most of its founders were biblical creationists (creation.com/name-game). So there is excellent precedent for young Christians wanting to become scientists (or engineers or doctors). Dr C. says to such people:

If you have an interest in science or engineering, pursue it! The scientific community needs more Christians in its ranks to counter secular theories (e.g., naturalism and evolution) with biblical truth, uplift God as the intelligent Designer and brilliant Creator that He is, and inject unbiased science back into the evolution/creation debate. The biblical worldview is sound, accurate, reasonable, and grounded in truth, and we need more scientists to defend this position.

BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ARE INCOMPREHENSIBLE WITHOUT TAKING GOD INTO ACCOUNT

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Hundreds of different programs are used by cells to function efficiently. Who designed and created these programs? And what about all the manufacturing units and distribution machinery in every cell the programs control?

Mass media, YouTube, and the modern form of (mis)education

Much of the indoctrination in evolution, defined as litter → LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor) → Laureates, is currently being conducted through mass media and YouTubers. Very few read or are qualified to understand, the primary evolutionary literature. Middlemen produce interpretations, having a veneer of vague, conceptual plausibility, with a generous sprinkle of technical terms thrown in.

One YouTuber who has engaged in many online video debates with creation scientists and Intelligent Design supporters reviewed Maury’s paper and educated his followers with the missing details for how amyloids supposedly led to the modern genetic system. Disturbingly, more people see videos like these than are critically evaluating the primary literature.

With supreme confidence, the YouTuber explained:

“And ATP is another naturally occurring energy source near hydrothermal vents. So, we know that amyloids have ATPase activity they can utilize the energy of ATP to do work. And once you develop this interaction between amyloids and ATP, it’s only a matter of time until you start having refinements into the information storing system. The stringing of ATP and different triphosphate nucleotides together into DNA and RNA, the incorporation of lipids which are again found naturally at hydrothermal vents and which spontaneously formed bilayer membranes; as well as the creation of protein enzymes to do specific function.” 

Addressing all the errors in this one paragraph alone required a full paper (Truman, R., Amyloids and ATP fictitious chemistry)

Our concern is that careless wording by evolutionary scientists and those embellishing and passing on errors are seriously misguiding many.

Evolution theory and the influence of science fiction

Norbert Wiener, the founder of Control Theory, showed that information is a real entity and that reality can only be understood by considering the effects of matter, energy, and information. Downgrading the meaning of information instead of using well-understood concepts to describe matter leads to serious mistakes. Not only is what philosophers call a category mistake created, but a tendency is increasing in the origin of life community to replace hard scientific work with vague imagery.

If design is so readily detectable outside science, and if its detectability is one of the key factors keeping scientists honest, why should design be barred from the content of science? Why do Dawkins and Crick feel compelled to constantly remind us that biology studies things that only appear to be designed, but insist they are not designed? Why couldn’t biology study things that are designed?

The biological community’s response to these questions has been to resist design absolutely, which is absurd.

Dr. Scott Todd, an immunologist at Kansas State University, said: “Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic.” Ref: Todd, Scott C., correspondence to Nature 401, num. 6752 (September 30, 1999):423

“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. 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.”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. 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 1:19-23

AN IRONIC QUESTION: WHO CREATED GOD?

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The author of this article is Marlon De Blasio. He is a cultural apologist, Christian writer, and the author of Discerning Culture: Knowing the Depths of Scriptural Christianity in a Culture of Scriptural Indifference.

The Christian faith claims “The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth … his understanding is unsearchable” (Isaiah 40:28). How can this be verified to the satisfaction of an inquiring mind? Even committed Christian thinkers know that the cliches, “by faith,” “by experience” or “by biblical analyses,” do not necessarily satisfy questioners. Nevertheless, I believe the Eternal God can be known personally and intellectually to satisfy rational thought.

Perhaps some expect me to provide a concrete reference that explains God’s origin. I must genuinely submit that this expectation is not reasonable. Even if I were to prove indisputably that “A” brought God into existence, the skeptic would then ask who/what created “A”? These demands could continue ad infinitum into absurdity. They lead to a fallacious line of thinking.

Knowledge does not require an explanation for its explanations to be true. For example, aviators know how much fuel is required to reach a destination and this workable knowledge is true without an explanation of where the computational values originated. We could attempt to investigate the origins, but only after we have acknowledged the computational values.

Likewise, a questioner must acknowledge God’s existence before asking where He came from. If God does not exist, the question is senseless. “Where did God come from?” is a question that is committed to His existence. In other words, a sincere questioner seeks an answer that informs about God and not about whether or not He exists. The question does have a correct answer, and even if one were to reject it that would not negate the actual existence of God.

Further, the Design Argument is often challenged by the question, who designed the Designer? Note that this question does not refute the argument. The argument is compelling and so the question is an attempt to avoid the conclusion by conflating the issue into confusion. The explanation that something is designed can be true regardless of what we know about the designer. I can understand why such an irrelevant question is asked because the questioner doesn’t like where the conversation is going.

Knowledge of the Christian faith is always rigorously challenged. Unlike other knowledge, concessions to a tenet of Christianity could entail moral accountability. Christian thinkers offer explanations that are often compelling, and so a skeptic who wishes to escape accountability often spins the content. Confusion is then deemed as a warrant for unbelief.

In Christian theology, God is eternal. He is without beginning and without end. He is the ultimate ground of reality. That is why we refer to Him as God. The question of “Where did God come” from is purposeless unless it’s asked with theological curiosity. As a young Christian, I remember asking a pastor what God was doing before He created us and the universe. The pastor explained that we don’t know, and although it was a fair question it had no bearing on our relationship with Him as He has decided to reveal Himself to us. Since then, I have grown to understand that in a human lifetime, there is no way we could understand everything about God.

Limited knowledge of God does not equate to His non-existence. On the contrary, it means that our knowledge of God is finite as we are finite beings grappling with the One whose “understanding is unsearchable.” Theologically and philosophically, it’s reasonable to believe and conclude that reality has an ultimate ground. For a Christian, there is a consciousness of God’s presence within (Holy Spirit) that is also informed intellectually. We experience and understand God exactly as the biblical writers revealed: “Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting” (Psalms 93:2). What was understood and experienced of God thousands of years ago has been real to subsequent generations of believers, as well as to us today. We comprehend meaningfully that, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

A questioner is sincere only if committed to exploring the attributes of God, and then making up one’s own mind about personal salvation in Christ. Isn’t it reasonable to consider that God is the ultimate ground of reality? It makes philosophical sense; otherwise, we regress into absurdity. All the evil, selfishness and ill will we encounter have a remedy in Jesus Christ. It’s a fact that throughout history the Gospel has transformed countless lives, and continues to do so today. Isn’t it intellectually honest to read and investigate this Good News for oneself? Questions are meaningful only when we are genuinely open to considering the answers.

I have a question for the skeptic who asks, who created God? That is, if you somehow discovered that the Christian faith is true would you become a Christian? If you were to answer, no, then you should shift focus on why you would answer, no. It will reveal a great deal about your own questions.

You can follow Marlon De Blasio at MarlonDeBlasio@Twitter

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY PART 2

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Can archaeology help show that the Bible is true? In this episode of “Basics of Biblical Archaeology,” Dr. Doug Petrovich discusses the importance of archeology to Christian apologetics. Apologetics is the art of defending the Bible. Archeology is an amazing help. This is part 2 of a 12-part series entitled “Basics of Biblical Archaeology.” If you have not watched part 1. then I suggest you do so as it lays the foundation with “What is Biblical Archaeology. Can I also suggest two websites for more information on Biblical inerrancy: http://www.creation.com and http://www.answersingenesis.com. Thank goodness new technology is uncovering more of the complexity of this Cosmos and human life, demonstrating that an intelligent designer is the only explanation that makes any sense. Natural selection and random chance only produce chaos.

To fund more classes like this one, consider donating to the Genesis Fund. The Genesis Fund was started last year to support Creation Science education and research. To learn more about how you can help support creation science, go to https://bit.ly/genesis-fund

NATURAL LAWS EXIST BECAUSE THE UNIVERSE HAS A CREATOR

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Democracy without the Ten Commandments, without God’s morality, is destined to fail. Whilst Americans were Bible-based, democracy was great but without it, America is becoming lawless. The professors at prestige universities that were started by Bible-believing Christians are now morally bankrupt including those teaching Theology. The Bible is no longer considered to be God’s Word and therefore inerrant. Evolution and the Big Bang are considered adequate to explain the origins of the Cosmos and yet the evidence of complex design, irreducible complexity, and the universe obeys certain rules—laws to which all things must adhere, prove they are totally inadequate. These laws are precise, and many of them are mathematical in nature. The law of biogenesis states that life always comes from life. Both observational science and Genesis 1 tell us that organisms reproduce after their own kind.

Natural laws are hierarchical in nature; secondary laws of nature are based on primary laws of nature, which have to be just right in order for our universe to be possible. But, where did these laws come from, and why do they exist? If the universe were merely the accidental by-product of a big bang, then why should it obey orderly principles—or any principles at all for that matter? Such laws are consistent with Biblical creation. Natural laws exist because the universe has a Creator God who is logical and who has imposed order on His universe.

Despite billions of dead things buried in rocks all over the world and the abundance of fossil fuels the worldwide flood of Noah’s day is considered a myth. Also, stories about a worldwide flood are found in historical records all over the world? According to Dr. Duane Gish in his popular book Dinosaurs by Design, there are more than 270 such stories, most of which share a common theme and similar characters. So many flood stories with such similarities surely prove they come from the Flood of Noah’s day.

It is important to remember why God destroyed all of mankind with a worldwide flood.

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth” Genesis 6:11-13

It is also important to remember that the Bible tells us that in the last days before Jesus returns, scoffers will deliberately overlook the fact that God destroyed mankind except for eight people by the flood of Noah’s day. Moreover, He tells us how the story ends.

“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… 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 3:3-5

THE MEANING OF ANYTHING DEPENDS UPON ITS ORIGINS

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The ORIGIN of anything can only be from one of two sources: GOD or MAN. From our CREATOR or from the CREATED. You need to get that right or you can expect chaos.

To believe that this world with all of its complexity and finite laws could come into existence by random chance is foolishness in its extreme and yet our prestigious universities promote it as science. Science according to them cannot countenance the supernatural, despite the fact that all of the Cosmos evidence screams intelligent design.

God’s Word, Genesis 1–11, tells us the origin of all the basic entities of life and the universe. And the meaning of anything is dependent on its origin.

Take any topic. For instance:

  • Abortion. We need to start with Genesis and the information found there. God created life, and humans were made in God’s image. Humans are not to murder other humans. This is the foundation to begin to deal with abortion.
  • Marriage. God created the first marriage when he created the first man and woman, as related in Genesis 1 and 2. “He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” Matthew 19:4–5
  • Fossils. In Genesis 6–9, we are told about the catastrophic global flood. This would have caused massive fossil formation all over the earth including fossil fuels from buried vegetation.
  • Age of the Earth. We start at the beginning of history in Genesis 1:1, where God began to create the space-mass-time universe. He tells us He created all things in six days and why: man is to work six days and have one rest day. It was the pattern for mankind. The first man, Adam, was made on day six. We are told when Adam had a son and when that son had a son and so on. The Bible gives us the history so we can add up the dates and determine when the universe and life came into existence.
  • The Fall. We learn that because of the rebellion of Adam and Eve, God cursed the initial perfect World. Man’s rebellion against God is the reason we have death, pain, suffering, and evil in this world.
  • Nations. God confused the language, he had given Adam and Eve, at the Tower of Babel and created many languages to force people to populate all of the earth. God created the nations and He created one nation, Israel, to represent Him. Sadly, as prophesied in God’s Word, they would not do as God commanded and He scattered them all over the Earth. However, this is extremely important, God also prophesied that He would re-gather them back to the land He gave them and that Jesus Christ would return to Earth and rule and reign the nations from Israel. Israel was miraculously re-established as a nation in 1948 so the first major sign of Jesus’ second coming to Earth has taken place and many of the rest of the end times prophesied signs are playing out now as well.
  • Spiritual Warfare. We are told in Genesis that God created spiritual beings called Angels. Just as Adam and Eve rebelled against God we learn that one-third of the angels that God created rebelled against God due to the rebellion of the Prince of Angels, Lucifer now called Satan. His minions are now called demons. We are also told that a battle is raging over the hearts and minds of men and women. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:11-12

Genesis 1–11 is the foundation for everything! God’s Word, the Bible is largely prophecy. Fulfilled prophecies prove that God exists and His Bible is inerrant. God is in control of everything that happens in His Cosmos.

Praise God that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to provide the way for mankind to get back into a right relationship with Him. Jesus died to pay the price for our redemption. If we repent of our rebellion/sin and are prepared to submit to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour then we are restored to God’s family and our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to indwell our spirit to be our counselor, teacher, and comforter thus enabling us to live as a child of God, as a Christian. We have a good God but we must submit to His authority, and His commandments to be part of His family. That means dying to self and being prepared to say not my will but your will be done, Lord. Sadly, most of mankind, like Satan, wants to be the God of their own lives. God gave us free will so the choice is ours but we will suffer the consequences of our decision. All will stand before God on judgment day, for those that reject Jesus Christ will suffer punishment and second death. “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

BUILDING A RIGHT WORLDVIEW

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How can we build the right worldview? There is only one way and that is to start with the origins of this complex universe with its multitude of living things that require many scientific laws to make it function correctly. Those inter-related laws could not have constructed themselves. Science has discovered that DNA (complex information) controls all of the machinery in living cells instructing them what to do. Both the information and the machinery have to be complete and functional at the beginning. They cannot evolve. Moreover, information only comes from intelligence, not matter or energy, hence proof there is an Intelligent Designer. Even better still the Intelligent Designer has revealed Himself to us both by Word, and the person of Jesus Christ, God incarnate.

Down through the ages God has spoken to and worked with individuals so we know He created us in His image to be in a relationship with Him. As a result, we have His Word (Bible) most of which is now fulfilled prophecies so that we know it is God’s Word and that the many end times prophecies will also be fulfilled.

Why is church attendance decreasing SO drastically? In this presentation, Ken Ham discusses the mass exodus that churches are experiencing in Western society and what Christians can do about it.

Ken Ham’s talk is based on his book, Divided Nation: Cultures in Chaos and a Conflicted Church. The good news is that there is a link to download Ken’s slides (in four different formats) so you can use them to help get this message of biblical authority out to more believers! He also includes notes with each slide. You can find that resource on the Answers in Genesis online bookstore.

EVIDENCE FOR INTELLIGENT DESIGN: AN INFORMATION-BASED UNIVERSE

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A team of scientists has recently uncovered new evidence of how geckos can deftly scuttle around vertical surfaces without falling off. The animals studied to reveal this ‘new trick to their stick’ were tokay geckos (Gekko gecko).

The research article states that gecko feet, “possess the most hierarchically integrated natural structures that span seven orders of magnitude in size…” The images opposite demonstrate what that means. The ‘hierarchical’ structure of a gecko’s foot (fig. 2) is shown photographed by an electron microscope (fig. 3). Many rows of extremely fine hairs (setae) can be seen, about 1/10 of a millimetre long and densely packed, with 5,000 per square mm (three million per square inch). The end of each seta has up to 1,000 branches, ending in spoonlike structures (spatulae), approximately 0.2–0.5 μm (micrometres—less than 1/50,000 inch) long. All of this is constructed at the molecular level from proteins by molecular machinery, encoded on the DNA—an astounding biological fact!

When these microscopic structures come into contact with a surface, van der Waals (vdW) forces come into play. These are weak electrostatic forces that operate at very small distances. vdW forces are very short-range, decreasing with the sixth power of distance. This is why gecko feet, and gecko-inspired biomimetic sticky tape, need extremely fine hairs so the surfaces can be close enough for vdW forces to operate.

The fact that geckos’ spatulae are so numerous means that a huge surface area is available, producing an overall large attracting force. Tokays demonstrate this in that their entire weight can be suspended from a single, upwardly pointing toe, in contact with a smooth, vertical surface.

Terrific tokay technology

Previously, it was discovered that tokay feet and skin have superhero-like abilities to repel liquids, leading to new gecko-inspired materials. Gecko toe structures have inspired new materials (‘nano-tape’) that take advantage of vdW forces. Under normal conditions, the tape is completely non-sticky, but under shear force, the material’s engineered coating induces vdW forces, enabling the tape to stick strongly to any surface. This allows objects to be lifted or pulled, or surfaces to be climbed by robots (or people) using the tape. As soon as the shear force is reduced, the tape simply falls away from the surface in a similar fashion to how geckos ‘unstick’ their feet. 

More evidence for intelligent design. How could this evolve by random chance. It is ludicrous to think that our schools and universities are teaching evolution as the means by which our complex information-based universe with such diverse living creatures came into being without having any possible plausible mechanism and explanation for how it could have happened.

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