God Gives Those Who Love And Obey Him His Thoughts

Posted on September 24, 2016 by Will Myers

By Will Myers

JOHN 14:23;  ” Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

Einstein, the great physicist, said that he wanted to know the thoughts of God, and spent his life researching the universe for it’s truths. Although, he didn’t believe in a personal God nor Jesus. But, there were rewards associated with observing God’s works; God’s Will.

Amos 4:13

He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord God Almighty is his name.
Psalm 139:17
How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
Any and all persons can commune with God through the Son of God, Jesus and His Word. Our spirit can talk to God’s Spirit. We must have patience in order to hear God’s Holy Spirit speak as a Spirit that executes a thought in your mind or just simply speaking orally to you. Listen to every word from the mouth of God and obey; such is the purpose of your life.
Jesus is the summed thoughts of God for humans. We are temporary, local beings who must take steps; precept after precept until all mysteries are revealed. We can say that Jesus is summed from infinite for humans by God Who is eternal and omnipresent.
Matthew 7:7
[ Ask, Seek, Knock ] “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Love God and His Son, Jesus, and both shall come into your life and dwell with you. Conversation shall have no limit. Joy and peace and fulfillment of life is your.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Isaiah 1:18
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
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An Update from Dr. Caroline Leaf

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Will Myers
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Dr. Leaf - Switch on your brain

BEAT the MAD (Modern American Diet) Food System

In my new book ‘Think and Eat Yourself Smart’ in the ‘BEAT IT” section, I give you practical tips, both physical and mental, to help start your journey to health – body, soul and spirit. Here is Tip no#10

HOW TO EAT

Our fast-paced modern lifestyles have produced the mindset of “I am too busy to sit down to a home cooked meal.” If you value your health and your relationships, begin changing this mindset. A home-cooked family meal has more benefits than just bodily health!

1. Although modern technology has made our lives easier in many respects for us to work all the time. Do not fall into the trap of living under an unnecessary sense of urgency, which can put you in chronic toxic stress and make you ill—and give you terrible indigestion. Remember the gut-brain connection! (see my book for more info. on this)

2. Eat less from a box, eat less in front of a box: avoid the TV, reading or listening to the radio while eating. You will pay less attention to how you are eating, and how much you are eating.

3. The joy of preparing a meal and sharing it with people is incredibly powerful, and incredibly therapeutic. Do not view cooking as a task; see it as a fun adventure and an opportunity to spend time with those you love.

4. Eat slower. If we eat too fast we will eat more, since it takes up to 20 minutes for our body and brain to signal satiation and for us to realize we are no longer hungry. Make sure that most of your meals last more than twenty minutes. And remember, the first two bites of any food are the most flavorful, so take time to enjoy them!

5. Hara hachi bu! Take this Okinawan saying to heart: stop eating when you are 80% full. 80% is not a strict calculation per se—it just means that if you feel quite full, you have eaten too much. It is based on calorie restriction, and, paired with fasting, it can help maintain a healthy lifestyle. The Okinawans live in one of the seven identified “blue zones”—areas that have the highest life expectancy, and thus their advice is worth taking to heart. The key is eating less, which will be different for everyone. We have somewhat adapted this saying in our house: only seconds for salad, or you will make a hara hachi “boo boo.”

6. Avoid snacking, as your body will not have time to digest your previous meals, and you may end up eating too much. Generally, eat when you are hungry, which requires that you learn to listen to your body’s demands again. Limiting your food intake to three meals a day is a good start.

7. Let your mind, not your eyes, be your guide—it is not a good idea to decide visually how much to eat, since we have a tendency to finish what is on the plate rather than stop when full. Put less food on your plate, or use a smaller plate.

8. Be aware of habits you may have developed over time, such as eating when you are sad or excited (but not hungry), coming home and opening the fridge or pantry door (even if you are not hungry).

9. If you overeat, you will carry on eating—the more you eat the less able you are to judge how much you have eaten.

10. Prepare and eat meals together as a family. Not only will this help you health wise, but has added benefits for our children: research shows that family time over meals is associated with lower drug and alcohol abuse, less depression and suicide risk, and even better grades in school. Moreover, good company is associated with positive emotions, which aid digestion, and promote mental wellbeing.

11. Do not eat in your car, and on the run. Making your eating habits as deliberative as your thinking habits.

12. Your posture is important to digestion, whether you are at the table or going about your daily tasks. Pay attention to the way you sit and stand.

13. Whoever cooks should not clean—divide the tasks, and the work will be finished in a shorter amount of time. You can even draw lots; it certainly make mealtime fun.

Watch my TV show…Dr Leaf show on TBN on Wednesdays 3.30pm PST/5.30PM CST and 6.30PM EST. If you miss this new series you can watch the replays at the TV LINK

Currently the new book is on offer on TBN so the series (Season Three) has been interrupted for September and regular programming will resume on October the 5th.

Here is a preview link to the October 5th Episode 4 ‘Addictions’

If you want to get the book you can get it for your Gift of any amount to TBN (see LINK), or from your nearest bookstore or from our online store.

Want to go further and get more disciplined? Get the new ONLINE PROGRAM/APP and download it to two of your Internet devices and take ‘63-days to Think and Eat Yourself Smart.’

Want both the book and the online/App and save $10, see ONLINE/APP COMBO.

 
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Science News Flash: 3.7 Billion-Year-Old Fossils Perplex Origin-of-Life Researchers

Posted on September 19, 2016 by Will Myers

September 7th, 2016
By  Guest Writer, Dr. Fazale Rana

Good things can come from bad circumstances.

This idea is beautifully illustrated by the research efforts of a team of Australian scientists. Climate change has triggered the excessive melting of ice and snow in western Greenland. This loss of snow and ice concerns many people, but, on the other hand, it has been a boon for the scientific community. It has exposed a new outcropping of rocks, giving geologists first-time access to a rare window of the earth’s distant past. As it turns out, these rocks harbor what appears to be the oldest fossils on Earth—stromatolites that date to around 3.7 billion years in age.1

This latest insight has important implications for understanding the origin of life. In fact, on the day researchers from Australia reported this discovery in scientific literature, it made headlines in news outlets around the world.2Evidence for Early Life on Earth

As Hugh Ross and I discuss in Origins of Life, geochemists have unearthed a number of chemical markers in the Isua Supracrustal Belt (ISB) of western Greenland that strongly hint at microbial life on Earth between 3.7 and 3.8 billion years ago. But origin-of-life researchers debate the bio-authenticity of these geochemical signatures, because a number of potential abiotic processes can produce similar geochemical profiles.

Most scientists doubted that fossils would ever be unearthed in the Isua rock formations because these outcrops have undergone extensive metamorphosis, experiencing high temperatures and pressures—conditions that would destroy fossils. But these newly exposed formations contain regions that have experienced only limited metamorphosis, making it possible for fossils to survive.

Careful microscopic and chemical characterization of the Isua stromatolites affirms their biogenecity. These analyses also indicate that they formed in shallow water marine environments.

These recently discovered stromatolites (and the previously detected geochemical life signatures in the Isua formations) indicate that a complex and diverse ecology of microorganisms existed on Earth as far back as 3.7 billion years ago.

Prior to the discovery of 3.7 billion-year-old stromatolites, origin-of-life researchers widely agreed that microbial life existed on Earth around 3.4–3.5 billion years ago, based on the recovery of stromatolites, microbial mats, microfossils, and geochemical signatures in rock formations found in western Australia. Many origin-of-life researchers have expressed amazement that complex microbial ecologies were present on Earth as early as 3.4 billion years ago. For example, paleontologist J. William Schopf marveled:

“No one had foreseen that the beginning of life occurred so astonishingly early.”3

The researchers who recovered and analyzed the Isua stromatolites expressed similar surprise:

“The complexity and setting of the Isua stromatolites points to sophistication in life systems at 3,700 million years ago, similar to that displayed by 3,480–3,400 million-year-old Pilbara stromatolites.”4

From a naturalistic perspective, the only way for these researchers to make sense of this discovery is to conclude that life must have originated prior to 4 billion years ago. They state: “This implies that by ~3,700 million years ago life already had a considerable prehistory, and supports model organism chronology that life arose during the Hadean (>4,000 million years ago).”5

Implications for Evolutionary Models

However, the researchers’ explanation for the appearance of a complex, diverse microbial ecosystem at 3.7 billion years ago is problematic, when the natural history of early Earth is considered.

Traditionally, planetary scientists have viewed the early Earth as hot and molten, from the time of its formation (4.5 billion years ago) until ~3.8 billion years ago. This era of Earth’s history is called the Hadean. Accordingly, oceans were not present on early Earth until around 3.8 billion years ago. They believe a number of factors contributed to the hellish environment of our early planet, chief of which were the large impactors striking the earth’s surface. Some of these impact events would have been so energetic that they would have volatilized any liquid water on the planet’s surface and rendered the surface and subsurface as a molten state. In light of this scenario, it would be impossible for life to originate much earlier than 3.8 billion years ago. To put it another way, if the traditional understanding of early Earth history is correct, then it looks as if complex microbial ecologies appeared on Earth suddenly—within a geological instant. It is impossible to fathom how the explosive appearance of early life could happen via evolutionary mechanisms.

More recently, a number of planetary scientists have proposed that early Earth only remained molten for the first 200–300 million years of its history. After which time, oceans became permanent (or maybe semi-permanent) features on the planet’s surface. The basis for this view has been the discovery of zircon crystals that date between 4.2–4.4 billion years ago. Geochemical signatures within these crystals are consistent with their formation in an aqueous setting, implying that oceans were present on Earth prior to 3.8 billion years ago.

But this revised scenario doesn’t help the evolutionary approach to life’s origin. Around 3.8 billion years ago, a gravitational perturbation in the early solar system sent asteroids towards Earth. Some estimates have the earth experiencing over 17,000 impact events during this time. This event, called the late heavy bombardment (LHB), was originally regarded as a sterilization event. If so, then any life present on Earth prior to the LHB would have been obliterated. That being the case, again, it appears as if complex microbial ecologies appeared on Earth suddenly, within a geological instant.

Recently, some planetary scientists have challenged the notion that the LHB was a sterilization event. They argue that life on the planet’s surface would have been destroyed, but life in some environments, such as hydrothermal vents, could have survived. In other words, there would have been refugiums on Earth that served as “safe houses” for life, ushering it through the LHB.

Yet the latest discovery by the Australian scientists doesn’t fit this scenario. The Isua stromatolites formed at the earth’s surface in a shallow water environment. In fact, the research team generated data that effectively ruled out stromatolite formation near hydrothermal vents. But if the refugium model has validity, the Isua fossils should have formed in a high-temperature milieu.

Finally, pushing life’s origin back to more than 4 billion years ago doesn’t solve the problem of a sudden origin-of-life—it merely displaces it to another window of time in Earth’s history. Origin-of-life researchers have geochemical evidence suggesting that life was present on Earth between 4.2–4.4 billion years ago. Given that the earth was molten for the first 200–300 million years of its existence (minimally), that doesn’t leave much time for life to originate.

No matter the scenario, a naturalistic, evolutionary approach to the origin-of-life can’t seem to accommodate the sudden appearance of life on Earth. On the other hand, if a Creator brought life into being, this is precisely the mode and tempo expected for life’s appearance on Earth.

Implications for Creation Models

While the discovery of 3.7 billion-year-old stromatolites confounds evolutionary explanations for life’s origins, it affirms RTB’s origin-of-life model. This model is derived from the biblical creation accounts and make two key and germane predictions: (1) life should appear on Earth soon after the planet’s formation; and (2) first life should possess intrinsic complexity. And both of these predictions are satisfied by this latest advance.

Resources
Origins of Life: Biblical and Evolutionary Models Face Off by Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross (book)
Creating Life in the Lab: How New Discoveries in Synthetic Biology Make a Case for the Creator by Fazale Rana (book)
“Life May Have Begun 300 Million Years Earlier Than We Thought” by Fazale Rana (podcast)
“Early Life Was More Complex Than We Thought” by Fazale Rana (article)
“When Did Life First Appear on Earth?” by Fazale Rana (article)
“Insight into the Late Heavy Bombardment and RTB’s Creation Model” by Fazale Rana (article)
“Origin-of-Life Predictions Face Off: Evolution vs. Biblical Creation” by Fazale Rana (article) 

Endnotes

  1. Allen P. Nutman et al., “Rapid Emergence of Life Shown by Discovery of 3,700-Million-Year-Old Microbial Structures,” Nature, published electronically August 31, 2016, doi:10.1038/nature19355.
  2. For a detailed discussion of this discovery and its implications for the creation/evolution controversy, listen to “Fossils Indicate Early Life Was Metabolically Complex and Diverse,” Apologia (Ex Libris), podcast audio, August 31, 2016, http://www.reasons.org/podcasts/apologia-premium/fossils-indicate-early-life-was-metabolically-complex-and-diverse.
  3. J. William Schopf, Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth’s Earliest Fossils (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 3.
  4. Allen P. Nutman, “Rapid Emergence of Life.”
  5. Ibid.

 

 

 

Subjects: Earth’s History, Fossil Record, Origin of Life

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Jesus past Is Now; Jesus “I Am”; Jesus future Has Already Been

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Will Myers

By Will Myers Ecclesiastes 3:15, King James Version (KJV) 15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. Ecclesiastes 3:15; New Int…

Source: Jesus past Is Now; Jesus “I Am”; Jesus future Has Already Been

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Jesus Past Is Now; Jesus “The Great I Am”; Jesus In The Spirit Future Is Now, And Shall Bodily Return

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Will Myers

By Will Myers

Ecclesiastes 3:15, King James Version (KJV)

15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

Ecclesiastes 3:15; New International Version (NIV)

15 Whatever is has already been,
    and what will be has been before;
    and God will call the past to account.

Notes: Ecclesiastes 3:15 Or God calls back the past

The Old Testament is Jesus concealed, and the New Testament is Jesus, Son Of God, revealed.

 

MATTHEW 17:1-5;

The Transfiguration

17 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

The formal scriptures let us know that the Son Of God was concealed in the Old Testament and has been revealed in the New Testament as depicted by The Transfiguration whereas the main Jewish spiritual leader, Moses, and a major Jewish prophet, Elijah, stands with Jesus Who is the one and only Son Of God. This transfiguration also implies that Jesus, Son Of God, is the Jewish Messiah.

We can see that Jesus Whom God created the universe by Him is the beginning and the end. All creation is molding each person to be like Jesus, the Son of God. The works of God is to make people believe in whom He has sent. Jesus is our gracious gift of salvation directly from God the Father.

The Spirit of Truth in the world whom one can not see is emanating from God (Uspace (a)) which can be called God’s Perfect Righteousness. The Spirit of Truth testifies about Jesus and tells of things to come. As one’s faith increases the more one hears the Spirit of Truth and gains power.

God has sent a Comforter in the name of His Son, Jesus, that resides inside of each believer. The Comforter naturally witnesses Jesus and tells of things to come.

God gives power. God’s Holy Spirit gives eternal life. Not only does God give a taste of everlasting life here and now, and life eternal to come through the Holy Spirit; God gives a joyful life pressed down and shaken together and running over with happiness.

If one listens by and through  the Word of God then one’s faith increases while receiving God’s Holy Spirit visitations with increasingly. This is power; the empowerment of your soul, mind, will, and emotions. If one study the Word of God it shall come alive in you. There is a rising of your mind as yeast raises bread. This is power.

God lives in one eternal moment because He already knows everything and has all power. God knows every thought that one has thought; God knows our heart intimately. God is immovable and immutable. God is the same yesterday, now, and forever. The same applies to God’s Son, Jesus, as the title of this message states. We work not for the kingdom of God’s victory but we work to the kingdom victory which has already been won by Christ Jesus.

Our future with Christ Jesus has already been. Jesus ascended into Heaven and God spoke saying this same Jesus shall return in the way he went. One can have a revelation from “I Am” Jesus. If one considers factors as time pass with self out of the way, then one with wisdom and honesty will arrive at Jesus Who already has been. I am no way denying His second coming which is physical. I am referring to Jesus spiritually liken unto He walks with you, but I want to emphasize a descending into the mind to help one that calls for His Help. Jesus has established this upon His resurrection and ascension in heaven; it has been done. If one then take account of the past with wisdom and honesty with self out of the way it shall give Jesus now. This is the nature of the universal truth.

In order to enhance our knowledge of a universal truth I am going to use an example that most people may not understand but here we go. The speed of light is a universal constant, c. If at a point in time one measures the speed of light coming from the past one gets, of course, the value c. If one moves into the future moving at the speed of light and measures again the same speed of light source from the past one gets the value c once again. If one shines light into the past while still moving at the speed of light into the future, guess what, the departing speed between the two light sources is not 2c as would be if one car is moving at 50mph and another car is moving at 50mph in the opposite direction then they would be departing from each other at the speed of 100mph, but once again, we get the value c between the two departing light sources. Such is the nature of a universal truth; measure it any which way and the universal truth remains the same from perspective to perspective and concept to concept.

(a) Note: Uspace is God’s perfect righteousness giving a perfect order to all things. Uspace times Vspace = Q, gives our laws or principles. Vspace is the nexus of all thing in existence; our continual flux in the universe; nothing is absolutely still. This contains all knowledge. God created all that exist. This time has come.

ISAIAH 28:16;

So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone (Uspace) in Zion (Meaning “in the essence of things), a tested stone (Uspace),
    a precious cornerstone (Q) for a sure foundation;
the one who relies on it
    will never be stricken with panic.

We along with all creation are submerged in God’s perfect Righteousness, giving a perfect order to all things.

Matthew 21:42
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
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WHAT LIES ARE YOU BELIEVING?

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Will Myers

 

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If Jesus Is God, Why Did He Call Himself the Son of Man?

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Will Myers

 

August 18th, 2016
ByGuest Writer,  Dr. Hugh Ross

I have met a lot of skeptics and cultists who assert that Jesus never claimed to be God. Rather, they say he referred to himself as the son of man. It is not just skeptics and cultists who are troubled by this issue. I have met just as many Christians who ask, “If Jesus is the Son of God, why did he so consistently refer to himself as the son of man?” The common follow-up question is how can I be certain that Jesus is really God and that the Trinity is a correct doctrine?

Whole books have been written answering these questions. My goal here is to provide three brief yet adequate answers that you can quickly share with people expressing these kinds of challenges, concerns, and doubts.

First, while Jesus in the gospels almost always referred to himself as the “son of man,” there is at least one occasion where he explicitly claims to be God. The gospel text is John 8:58, where Jesus declares to the Jewish religious leaders, “Before Abraham was born, I AM!” Here, Jesus assumes the name God had assigned to himself in Exodus 3:14, “I AM who I AM. This what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” The Jewish religious leaders clearly understood that Jesus was claiming to be God, and it is evidenced by the fact that they attempted to stone him to death for his act of “blasphemy.”

Second, the Old Testament in Jeremiah 23:6 assigns the name YHWH (I AM) to the righteous Branch, the King, who will come from the lineage of David. Jesus in several places in the gospel claims to be this righteous Branch and King.

Third, Jesus is making a special theological point about his deity in calling himself the son of man in the gospels. This point becomes clear in examining the New Testament. For every New Testament passage referring to Jesus Christ that happened chronologically after the first day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1–41), Jesus is always referred to as the Son of God and never as the son of man. Conversely, in the gospels, Jesus consistently calls himself the son of man and never the Son of God.

The New Testament makes the same kind of demarcation for the human followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ followers before the first day of Pentecost are always called sons of men or children of men and never as sons of God. Jesus’s followers after the first day of Pentecost are always called sons of God and never as sons of men (for biblical references, see appendix c in Navigating Genesis).

The theological point here is this: it is not until Jesus of Nazareth dies on the cross to atone for the sins of all humanity, is raised bodily from the dead, and sends the Holy Spirit to permanently indwell and spiritually baptize his followers, does he complete his role as the Son of God, the second person of the triune God. Likewise, not until Jesus’ followers receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit do they become sons of God.

This theological point is affirmed by the observation that nowhere in the Old Testament is a human follower of God referred to as a son of God. Even Daniel, as “highly esteemed” (Daniel 10:11, 19) as he was for his righteousness before God was called “son of man” (Daniel 8:17). The one Old Testament exception is Hosea 1:10 where God promises that a time will come in the future when some of the Israelites will become “children of the living God.” This prophecy was fulfilled on the first day of Pentecost described in Acts 2.

Anyone desiring a more in-depth and thoroughly documented answer will find it in my book Navigating Genesis. It is in chapter 14 and appendix c.

Subjects: Apologetics, Jesus Christ

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Universe Cannot Be Created Because That Would Be Magic?

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Will Myers

 

August 10th, 2016

By Guest Writer, Dr. Hugh Ross

Naturalists, atheists, and skeptics are taking a not-so-new approach to dismissing the scientific evidence for God. Recently, they have been asserting that any claim to God creating the universe is out of bounds since such a claim is an appeal to magic. An example is this question that appeared on my Facebook page.

Q: How would you respond to naturalists and atheists who continually say that the universe cannot be created because that would be magic?

A: I would respond first by pointing out to the naturalists and atheists that they are engaging in circular reasoning. They begin with the presuppositions that miracles and magic are impossible and, therefore, conclude that a God who performs miracles or magic cannot exist. Often it helps to illustrate their appeal to circular reasoning with a neutral example, one that has nothing to do with God. Consider the following:

“I am always right.”
“Because I said it, it must be right.”
“Therefore, I am always right.”

Second, I would explain that if the universe has a beginning then the cause of that beginning must lie outside of the universe. If the cause is outside the universe, then by definition the cause is some kind of miracle or “magic.”

Third, I would show the voluminous observational, experimental, and theoretical evidence that establishes beyond all reasonable doubt that the universe has a beginning. Astronomers have measurements showing that the universe is expanding and has been expanding at all look back times (because of the finite and constant velocity of light, the farther away an astronomer looks, the farther back in time he is observing). As astronomers look back in time they note that the galaxies get progressively closer together and the temperature of the universe measures progressively hotter in a manner that can be explained only if the universe arose from an infinitesimally small volume and an infinitely high temperature. The relative abundances of the elements making up the periodic table, again, can be explained only if the universe had a beginning about 13.8 billion years ago. The most conclusive proof that the universe has a beginning comes from the space-time theorems. Based on two unassailable assumptions, namely that the universe contains mass and the equations of general relativity reliably describe the movements of massive bodies in the universe, the space-time theorems prove that the universe has a beginning, a beginning that even includes the origin of space and time itself.

The foregoing paragraph outlines just some of the evidence that eliminates all reasonable doubt that the universe has a beginning. Those desiring a more complete account will find it in two of my books.1

The space-time theorems a decade ago were generalized to apply to all possible inflationary hot big bang models that conceivably could support some kind of physical life. As Alexander Vilenkin, one of the authors of the most powerful of the space-time theorems, wrote,

With the proof now in place, cosmologists can no longer hide behind the possibility of a past-eternal universe. There is no escape: they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning.2

The “problem” is that the space-time theorems imply that a God beyond space and time must have performed a miracle in bringing about the existence of the universe. Evidence establishing the beginning of the universe that includes the beginning of space and time establishes that scientists have proven the greatest possible miracle that science could ever hope to uncover. The discovery of such a miracle means that science can no longer operate as if miracles never happen. That God performed such an outstanding miracle 13.8 billion years ago opens up the possibility that He may have performed other miracles. Thus, scientists must be open-minded to the possibility that the causes they are investigating in their scientific research could be natural or supernatural.

 

Endnotes

  1. Hugh Ross, The Creator and the Cosmos: How the Latest Scientific Discoveries Reveal God, 3rd ed. (Glendora, CA: Reasons to Believe, 2001); Hugh Ross, Why the Universe Is the Way It Is (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008).
  2. Alex Vilenkin, Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes (New York: Hill & Wang, 2006): 176.

Subjects: Apologetics, Cosmology, Uncategorized, Origin of the Universe

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If We Allow Science to Correct the Bible, Doesn’t That Make Science God?

Posted on August 12, 2016 by Will Myers
August 3rd, 2016
By Guest Writer, Dr. Hugh Ross

Many Christians, and for that matter many non-Christians, are uneasy about an alliance between science and the Bible. Non-Christians worry that the Bible will be allowed to trump or discount science. Christians worry that science will be permitted to trump or discount the Bible. An example of these worries is the following question that was posted on my Facebook wall. In my answer I attempt to alleviate the unease and worries about integrating science and the Bible.

Q: If the Bible needs to be constantly corrected by science, does that not make science god along with everyone who works in science?

A: There is no doubt that many people in the twenty-first century consider science to be god and the practitioners of science as the high priests of that god. This worship of science explains much of the unease that Christians express about integrating science and the Bible.

The Bible clearly and repeatedly exhorts us, however, to study the book of nature (science) to gain truth and revelation from God. A few such texts are Job 12:7–10, Psalm 8, Psalm 19:1–4, Psalm 97:6, Psalm 104, and Romans 1:18–20. These texts are the basis of the two-books doctrine codified in article 2 of the Belgic Confession of Faith:

“We know God by two means: First, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe, since that universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God. . . . Second, God makes himself known to us more clearly by his holy and divine Word, as much as we need in this life, for God’s glory and for our salvation.”

The Bible assures that both the book of nature and the book of Scripture are utterly trustworthy, reliable, and inerrant. Neither one, therefore, can correct or falsify the other. What they can do is clarify our human interpretation of one or the other. What they can correct is our faulty interpretation of one or both books.

Another way to look at the interface between the book of nature and the book of Scripture is to recognize that both books are perfect. That which is perfect cannot be more perfect than something else that is perfect. A useful analogy would be the 66 books of the Bible. Each one is the perfect, inerrant revelation from God. Each book has different content and addresses different subject matter. Each one, though perfect in what it reveals, is incomplete by itself. Likewise, both the book of nature and the book of Scripture is perfect and inerrant in what it reveals but each is incomplete by itself and even together they are incomplete.

In giving us Scripture, God gave us 66 different books. The multiplicity of books, as we integrate their content, assists us in correctly interpreting each one. In the same manner, as we integrate the different disciplines of science, that integration helps us to correctly interpret each discipline. Similarly, as we integrate the book of nature with the book of Scripture, that integration helps us to correctly interpret each.

In my opinion, the best guidelines for constructively integrating science and the Bible was codified by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI) in their Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics. Their affirmations and denials relevant to science-faith integration (articles 19–22) are as follows:

  • We affirm that any preunderstandings which the interpreter brings to Scripture should be in harmony with scriptural teaching and subject to correction by it.
  • We deny that Scripture should be required to fit alien preunderstandings, inconsistent with itself; such as naturalism, evolutionism, scientism, secular humanism, and relativism.
  • We affirm that since God is the author of all truth, all truths, biblical and extrabiblical, are consistent and cohere, and that the Bible speaks truth when it touches on matters pertaining to nature, history, or anything else. We further affirm that in some cases extrabiblical data have value for clarifying what Scripture teaches, and for prompting correction of faulty interpretations.
  • We deny that extrabiblical views ever disprove the teaching of Scripture or hold priority over it.
  • We affirm the harmony of special with general revelation and therefore of biblical teaching with the facts of nature.
  • We deny that any genuine scientific facts are inconsistent with the true meaning of any passage of Scripture.
  • We affirm that Genesis 1–11 is factual, as is the rest of the book.
  • We deny that the teachings of Genesis 1–11 are mythical and that scientific hypotheses about earth history or the origin of humanity may be invoked to overthrow what Scripture teaches about creation.

We at Reasons to Believe are so impressed with the outstanding achievement of the ICBI in carefully defining what biblical inerrancy is and what it is not that we have every member of our staff scholar team commit to its articles of affirmations and denials. In summary, neither the book of Scripture nor the book of nature is subject to correction, however, our interpretations of both will continue to be corrected as we learn more from both books, as we constructively integrate what we learn from both books and as we repent of our sinful biases. Furthermore, the constructive integration of the two books will reassure us that we are on the pathway to a more complete understanding of God’s truth if we see the adjustments in our interpretations of the two books getting smaller and smaller as we continue to learn more from Scripture and the record of nature.

Subjects: Apologetics, Bible, Interpretation, Science & Faith

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Special Interest Groups (SIG) of Ephesians 6:12

Posted on August 4, 2016 by Will Myers

By Will Myers

Ephesians 6:12;  “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

The special interest groups that monitor the government are very good but those that target private citizens are very bad for any quality of a democracy. As those special interest groups growth strengthens, our democracy which is now being undermined is going to experience the increase of fascism. With the extreme of fascism, we are going to experience living in an authoritarian nation, and this is not far away.

The Patriot Act and the amended Patriot Act has been sneaked into law. The acts has provided a means to listen to all telephone conversations of the private citizens. It has also undermined the traditional search warrant signed by the courts. Now, it only takes reasonable suspicion by any officer to make a search. We have so many laws on the bo0ks with ever increasing number of laws until any officer can arbitrarily punish any citizen at will. The act opened the door for the 72 hour hold law to be circumvented with many extenuating circumstances that undermine and extend hold time of a suspect beyond 72 hours. We are rapidly approaching a police state.

During the 50’s there was a top secret organization called, I am guessing the true name, Sociological Science and Warfare College (?). It was leaked that the organization was creating a dossier on every human on the face of the earth. At the time, the dossiers were passive or inactive. When the organization was dissolved every bit of information was given to think tanks. From this action, we got special interest groups that worked to activate as many dossiers as possible. I have tagged these organizations as SIG of Ephesians 6:12. After my experiences on the streets in college classrooms, and working in businesses my tag is very appropriate.

Looking at the Ed Snowden case, if the government is only listening to words spoken by the bad people, and they are keeping these communications secure then why are they wanting to hang Snowden for treason because if listening to private conversations is so innocent then Snowden would not have anything of interest to tell the public. This is a no-brainer, my case is made. I suspect that information on every American citizen and some abroad is flowing into those same think tanks, and they are working to active each dossier. Shortly after 911, Bush announced that we were now in a new age. The Patriot Act was quickly crafted undermining each citizen’s privacy rights. Home Secure was instituted and given more powers to override the rights of any citizen. The government won’t tell you how powerful the post 911 institutes really are. Hear ye, hear ye,  listen closely to what Ed Snowden has to say. The snake of SIG of Ephesians 6:12 is crawling into our bedrooms. Intimidation shall be the order of the day.

The most definitive description of SIG of Ephesians 6:12 is the move of our government away from religion. As we all know, there has been an attack on Christianity for the past 30 years. The Atheist has made gigantic steps; pushing God out of public schools with the help of our government. As public schools and colleges stigmatize Christianity the secular humanist is celebrating the demise of all religions in the not far future. Why destroy the faith? Simply because SIG wants control of our minds. It’s that simple. SIG wants to be our God. Globalization includes the expansion of SIG of Ephesians 6:12. From these organizations, AntiChrist shall grow into being. The sad thing is that the bible has stated that all these things shall happen and we can not stop it. The bible also confirms that true believers of Christ Jesus are going to be raptured away from SIG of Ephesians 6:12.

 

 

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