Evolution the Lie
Ken Ham - I think he might be one of my favorite speakers now. This guy was engaging and clear even though he has an Aussie accent. Trust me, I love accents, but they aren't always ideal when you are trying to understand a speaker talking about the Bible or science. Just FYI, I heard 4 other speakers this day, but there is just too much to say in one blog, so I am going to talk just about Ken Ham's teachings. He had two of the six (or so).
GUESS WHAT?! This guy has one of the few Creation Museums! That got me really excited because I want to travel the US one day and visit all the Creation Museums that we have. I found several websites and my plan is to make a map of these museums and follow the map...if I can save enough money to compensate for gas that is. Can you imagine spending 3-4 thousand on gas? GAH!
Someone remind me to blog on it one day... I'll make a list of the creation museums that have websites, at least.
Ken Ham starts out by talking about how the U.S. is becoming less and less Christian everyday. In fact, 16-29 year olds are more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than the people the same age a decade ago. Amazingly, the U.S. has more resources than any other country or time in the HISTORY of the world and yet we are becoming less Christian everyday because Christianity has been removed from our country and replaced with naturalism politically and EVEN in the church!
God's Word has been under attack since Genesis 3:1-2 when Satan questioned God's word. This attack has not stopped. Each age may have their different ways, but they are all attacks. The attacks we have today on the Bible are in historical science (geology, astronomy, anthropology, etc). This is our battle and this is the time that God has placed us.
After that, Ken Ham quoted to us 1 Peter 3:15 which, in a nutshell, says, "always be prepared to give an answer." The term apologetic comes from the Greek word apologia which means to speak in defense. So Christian apologetics is therefore to speak in the defense of Christianity. Now, I did not quote out the whole verse, but the end also says, "with gentleness and respect." This is a HUGE part of our witness. We are not meant to scream, shout, curse, and prove our point with the best of them. We are called to tell the truth with gentleness AND respect. Very hard to do when people (even friends) are laughing and mocking you to your face.
Now here are some important questions, "Is it wrong for churches to say that the earth is old, or that God did things through evolution?" Saying that the beginning of Genesis is just symbolic is like saying marriage is just symbolic and we can really have gays, lesbians, mormons, etc. And if that is symbolic then perhaps Christ's death is symbolic and we really aren't saved from our sins. He didn't really die, it was just a symbol of...something. In college, I had professors who taught me to think this way. I literally thought it was OK for Christians to say they believe God created the world through evolution. Without even realizing it, I was saying that Genesis 1-11 was wrong and just "symbolic." Be weary of the term symbolic. I do believe there is good symbolism in the Bible, but it seems today that Christians use the word symbolic in many places they should not so they don't have to say something in the Bible is wrong. It's like a cheat.
Oh and here is another problem with the Church today: The world today is saying that the Bible is NOT TRUE and the Church is saying, "That is ok, just believe in Jesus anyway. La la la la la...". No WONDER the Christianity is fading even though we have unbelievable resources. We should be teaching the answers to the skeptical questions in church. SO when we are teaching Noah's Ark, we should be teaching them about how Noah's ark looks, how the Ark was so big only 1/3rd of it was full. How they took 2 of every KIND of animal. We should be answering the skeptical questions of today in our church.
Don't ever forget that Genesis 1-11 is the foundational history for ALL of the Bible. Answers to questions like these are found there: Why did Christ have to die for our sins? Why do we have to wear clothes? Why is man the leader of the Church and families? Why are there clam fossils on the top of Mount Everest?
I was SO BUMMED when his teaching ended...though I will admit I was happy to get up and stretch. Sitting for hours on end is not always fun.
Resources:
http://www.answersingenesis.org and they have Creation Museum (prepare to believe).
Books: Answers Book, Evolution the Lie, Evolution Exposed, How Could a Loving God..., Darwin's Plantation, Why Won't They Listen?
Why Won't They Listen
Ken Ham
DE-GREEK AMERICA is a new slogan of mine. In fact, when Pastor Isam bought a big ol' box of books from the Answers in Genesis group (whom Ken Ham is a founder of) I promptly wrote "DE-GREEK" on it. Makes no sense right? Well, I shall tell you all about it!
One of the problems with our culture today is all we care about is the future, the hope, which is not a bad thing, but we have let the foundational teachings of Genesis and our history get beat up and corrupted, which greatly affects the future revelations as well. When your foundation is corrupted, how can the building stand?
Now, Ken Ham told us that there were basically two groups of non-believers in the Bible. The Jews and the Greeks (A.K.A. those without the Jewish history foundation). Good examples of both groups can be found in Acts 2 and Acts 17.
Acts 2 - Paul speaking to the Jews. - The Jews had a foundational knowledge of God because of their beliefs. The Cross was the stumbling point in which Paul needed to teach them and show them how it is a part of what they already know.
Acts 17 - So when Paul speaks with the Greeks, he needed to give them a foundation first of who God is and what sin is, etc. Things need to be started at the beginning in Genesis. He had to turn Greeks into Jews (in a sense - don't freak out on me and say "OMIGOSH, Shanna is a Kosher Christian" or whatever. I love my bacon). In other words, Paul needed to bring the Greeks "up to speed."
Now, one thing that really urks me are people who say they don't believe in the Old Testament or parts of the Old Testament. Taking Genesis out or saying it is just symbolic is like saying lets remove the first chapter of all books. What would those books be like? The first chapters usually reveal the WHOLE PREMISE for the book. Also, Jesus quoted from the Old Testament and he was a true Jew! He had no "New" Testament to quote from! All right, I got that off my chest...moving on.
America used to be a Acts 2 culture (Jews), but more and more today we have becomes an Acts 17 culture (Greeks) because so many people don't know what Christianity is anymore. Many kids have only heard of the word, but nothing else! They just hear that the Bible is full of problems, mistakes, lies, etc. Amazingly, many of our Christian teachers, professors, Preachers, Church leaders, etc are Christian GREEKS. The University that I went to had ONE part time teacher's aid who believed in 6 day creation, and she was one of the best teachers I had at this school. I got into debates about Old earth and evolution with my full time Science professors. Most of them simply said they did not know, but wouldn't it be great if God DID use evolution because that is the only way evolution could ever work anyway....WHAT?! What kind of bluthering, groping, blind logic is that?
Now, our biggest concern today in America is NOT the non-Christians, BUT the CHURCH. Many people say, look at how the culture is and we should be saying look how the Church is. The Church needs to be DE-GREEKED, and then we can be a good witness to the non-Christians. Right now, we are a pretty pathetic light. No wonder people hate Christianity. We have let our Churches turn into illogical, hate-filled, comprimising gatherings of "those nuts over there".
So yeah, for those of you who are Christians that are reading this, get involved at your church, study God's word, and read up on apologetics. Learn the answers to the skeptical questions of today. Amen!
Resources:
http://www.answersingenesis.org
Books - The Answers 1 and 2 (look for them on the website above)
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Disclaimer: I don't re-read my posts. When you read my blog, you are not allowed to sue me for bad spelling, illogical sentences, etc. Everything is read as-is.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Creation Conference - Day 2
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The Search for Noah’s Ark
Dr. John Morris
I ran to get to the conference with a heavy laptop in my hands. I was afraid I would miss the beginning of the next speaker and I had already missed the first speaker because my boss needed me to train 8 people from Pikes Peak United Way (http://www.ppuniteway.org) on how to use their new CMS system. They were a fantastic group of people. I think people who work for non-profit organizations like that generally are a great group of people. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Now you can see their redone site at (http://dev.ppunitedway.infront.com) Once they update this site with their content, it will go live, but until then it is on our development server.
Anyway, I get there just in time to hear the last five minutes of the first speaker. I heard that he was fantastic so I will have to get his video and watch it. His teaching was on Worldview Collisions. Something I would have LOVED to hear and I am looking forward to hearing.
The first speaker that I got to hear was Dr. John Morris. His teaching was entitled "Search for Noah's Ark." I don' know about anyone else, but I think archeology is just the coolest thing since sliced bread. Archeology is a fantastic field that discovers so many cities, landmarks, etc that the Bible describes. With each discovery, it just shows how atheism is truly a faith.
The discovery of Noah's Ark would be phenomenal. The proof for the world wide flood mentioned in the Bible (not to mention the layers of fossils, rock and dirt that are so easily explained by a world wide flood).
Dr. John Morris explained that we do not know were Noah's Ark is, but we have a lot of eye witness accounts of where it is located in the Ararat Mountain Region (which when the Bible says that Noah's Ark landed on the Ararat Mountains...it really means mountains. It is a whole Mountain range like the Sierra Nevadas or Rocky mountains. HUGE area to explore. Now, the reason why this Ark has not been discovered yet, is because this is a very sensitive area. Most travel is completely restricted and only bribes will get you through. These mountains are surrounded by Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Russia.
Now, the description of Noah's Ark is VERY interesting. It is nothing like the cartoon images we see today. It was built more like a rectangular barge with what looks like a lean-to that spans straight down the middle of the very long, skinny barge. This was designed to float, not to get anywhere. This is how the eye witnesses describe Noah's Ark too.
At this point, I decided that if we all got on Google Earth, we could find Noah' Ark. I'll let you all know how that experiment turns out.
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Dinosaurs and Man
Dr. Thomas Sharp
After Noah's Ark, Dr. Thomas Sharp came out to speak about Dinosaurs. At this point I was just stoked because I LOVE dinosaurs. I loved them ever since I can remember. In fact, my grandmother got me a Dinosaur adventure where I (Shanna) was the main character. Too cool for school, fool!
He started off by stating how the study of Dinosaurs is a new and evolving science. There is so much that scientists don't know about dinosaurs because the fossil record is very poor. The Intact, articulated, museum-quality skeletons are extremely very rare. Fossils fall apart and bones explode when exposed to the elements. (Check out National Geographic, March, 2004).
Also, we are learning more and more about misconceptions that we have with some dinosaurs. The T-Rex for example was probably just a scavenger. The body structure and weight would not allow the T-Rex to get much beyond 10 mph in speed. His little arms, his poor eye site, even falling down would be a serious problem. His brain, only the size of a walnut, had enough size just to give him the sense of smell.
Then Dr. Sharp said that all dinosaur questions can be summarized in 5 questions:
1.Are dinosaurs real?
2.When did they live?
3.What happened to them?
4.Were these animals on the Ark?
5.Could any of these animals be alive today?
Are dinosaurs real? My first thought was OF COURSE they are real! Science and the Bible point to dinosaurs. However Dr. Sharp pointed out that some people think they didn't exist because the word Dinosaur is not in the Bible. Ok, history lesson time. The Bible was first translated into English before the 15th century. The most well known translation was in 1611 for the KJV. The word Dinosaur came into existence in 1841 when Sir Richard Owen coined the term Deino Saurus (Terrible Lizard). Thus, we search for words in the Bible that are similar such as Tannim (which is Dragon) or Behemoth which is described to have a cedar like tail. The Super Saurus or also known as the Apatosaurus had a 5 foot think tail which could be 30 feet long or more. This describes the Behemoth well.
When did they live? OK, this question makes more sense since evolutionists and schools teach 65 million years ago. The Bible says they existed on the 6th day. It tells us that God created all things within the Universe in 6 days including the Dinosaurs (Exodus 20:8,11). Some simple proof for this is that in 1990 blood cells and soft/pliable organic material was found on a dinosaur. How is that even remotely possible? It is impossible if the Dinosaur died 65 million years ago. This dinosaur has to be only thousands of years.
What happened to them and were they on the Ark? Absolutely, Noah was smart enough to take the younger, smaller lizards on the Ark with him. After all, the bigger the lizard, the older he is. You want young, fertile animals to reproduce and not go extinct!
Sadly, the speaker ran out of time here. I will have to get some of his books and continue learning about this! Just fascinating. I love dinosaurs!
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The Floods of the West
David Nutting
As I waited for this teaching to begin, I didn't know what to think of the title or what I would learn. What of the floods of the west? Who cares? I just care about THE flood that covered the earth. Plus, there was a "teacher" right before him SO HORRIBLE that I stopped taking notes after 15 minutes. The guy was seriously the whitest, blondest Italian ever. He very much fit the TV evangelist profile of getting emotionally high and making NO DARN SENSE. I was afraid I would be disappointed with this one since I didn't grasp the title.
HOLY SMOKES I am going back to school to study rocks and become a geologist. This teaching just floored me! I love learning this kind of stuff! And what I mean by "this kind of stuff" is this below:
You know how frustrating it is when you visit the Grand Canyon and they go into their "Millions of years ago" spiel and you just want to jump of the edge? Well, we discussed the wonderful event of Mt. Saint Helens! 25 years ago or so, this mountain erupted and showed us EXACTLY how a grand canyon can be made within just a DAY. Not only that, but when this eruption is dated... it is dated at 300,000 to 2.8 million years ago! Proving that radioactive dating is inaccurate. Take that you scientifically incorrect Grand Canyon Tour guides!
Here are a few other awesome examples:
1. Dry Falls, Washington - carved out lots of land in just a few days.
2. The Top of Mount Everest has sea fossils on it. That is our tallest mountain in the world today even.
3. Milwaukee Public Museum - oldest structure in North American - must be at least 7,200 years old because of the stagnates growing in them.
4. Clams found in great numbers in limestone - they are all whole and buried alive. Also, Nautiloid - squid shells were found all pointing in the same direction in the Grand Canyon. These point to evidence of a great flood.
5. There are many examples of creatures/plants being INSTANTLY preserved.
There are some very interesting facts about the flood. One fact is that there are 270 flood legends all around the World - common event of a world wide flood with people and animals getting on board. Also, did you know that the Chinese characters that make up the the word boat are eight, mouth, and something else I forgot that I need to look up. BUT that 8 is what caught my eye. 8 - Noah, Noah's wife, 3 sons and their wives. WOW. Cultures around the world proclaim God's truth without even knowing it.
Ok time for me to look for rock schools...
Resources:
Grand Canyon a Different View - Christian view book
Of the Discover Creation Center (www.discovercreation.org). Think and Believe newsletter
The Search for Noah’s Ark
Dr. John Morris
I ran to get to the conference with a heavy laptop in my hands. I was afraid I would miss the beginning of the next speaker and I had already missed the first speaker because my boss needed me to train 8 people from Pikes Peak United Way (http://www.ppuniteway.org) on how to use their new CMS system. They were a fantastic group of people. I think people who work for non-profit organizations like that generally are a great group of people. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Now you can see their redone site at (http://dev.ppunitedway.infront.com) Once they update this site with their content, it will go live, but until then it is on our development server.
Anyway, I get there just in time to hear the last five minutes of the first speaker. I heard that he was fantastic so I will have to get his video and watch it. His teaching was on Worldview Collisions. Something I would have LOVED to hear and I am looking forward to hearing.
The first speaker that I got to hear was Dr. John Morris. His teaching was entitled "Search for Noah's Ark." I don' know about anyone else, but I think archeology is just the coolest thing since sliced bread. Archeology is a fantastic field that discovers so many cities, landmarks, etc that the Bible describes. With each discovery, it just shows how atheism is truly a faith.
The discovery of Noah's Ark would be phenomenal. The proof for the world wide flood mentioned in the Bible (not to mention the layers of fossils, rock and dirt that are so easily explained by a world wide flood).
Dr. John Morris explained that we do not know were Noah's Ark is, but we have a lot of eye witness accounts of where it is located in the Ararat Mountain Region (which when the Bible says that Noah's Ark landed on the Ararat Mountains...it really means mountains. It is a whole Mountain range like the Sierra Nevadas or Rocky mountains. HUGE area to explore. Now, the reason why this Ark has not been discovered yet, is because this is a very sensitive area. Most travel is completely restricted and only bribes will get you through. These mountains are surrounded by Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Russia.
Now, the description of Noah's Ark is VERY interesting. It is nothing like the cartoon images we see today. It was built more like a rectangular barge with what looks like a lean-to that spans straight down the middle of the very long, skinny barge. This was designed to float, not to get anywhere. This is how the eye witnesses describe Noah's Ark too.
At this point, I decided that if we all got on Google Earth, we could find Noah' Ark. I'll let you all know how that experiment turns out.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dinosaurs and Man
Dr. Thomas Sharp
After Noah's Ark, Dr. Thomas Sharp came out to speak about Dinosaurs. At this point I was just stoked because I LOVE dinosaurs. I loved them ever since I can remember. In fact, my grandmother got me a Dinosaur adventure where I (Shanna) was the main character. Too cool for school, fool!
He started off by stating how the study of Dinosaurs is a new and evolving science. There is so much that scientists don't know about dinosaurs because the fossil record is very poor. The Intact, articulated, museum-quality skeletons are extremely very rare. Fossils fall apart and bones explode when exposed to the elements. (Check out National Geographic, March, 2004).
Also, we are learning more and more about misconceptions that we have with some dinosaurs. The T-Rex for example was probably just a scavenger. The body structure and weight would not allow the T-Rex to get much beyond 10 mph in speed. His little arms, his poor eye site, even falling down would be a serious problem. His brain, only the size of a walnut, had enough size just to give him the sense of smell.
Then Dr. Sharp said that all dinosaur questions can be summarized in 5 questions:
1.Are dinosaurs real?
2.When did they live?
3.What happened to them?
4.Were these animals on the Ark?
5.Could any of these animals be alive today?
Are dinosaurs real? My first thought was OF COURSE they are real! Science and the Bible point to dinosaurs. However Dr. Sharp pointed out that some people think they didn't exist because the word Dinosaur is not in the Bible. Ok, history lesson time. The Bible was first translated into English before the 15th century. The most well known translation was in 1611 for the KJV. The word Dinosaur came into existence in 1841 when Sir Richard Owen coined the term Deino Saurus (Terrible Lizard). Thus, we search for words in the Bible that are similar such as Tannim (which is Dragon) or Behemoth which is described to have a cedar like tail. The Super Saurus or also known as the Apatosaurus had a 5 foot think tail which could be 30 feet long or more. This describes the Behemoth well.
When did they live? OK, this question makes more sense since evolutionists and schools teach 65 million years ago. The Bible says they existed on the 6th day. It tells us that God created all things within the Universe in 6 days including the Dinosaurs (Exodus 20:8,11). Some simple proof for this is that in 1990 blood cells and soft/pliable organic material was found on a dinosaur. How is that even remotely possible? It is impossible if the Dinosaur died 65 million years ago. This dinosaur has to be only thousands of years.
What happened to them and were they on the Ark? Absolutely, Noah was smart enough to take the younger, smaller lizards on the Ark with him. After all, the bigger the lizard, the older he is. You want young, fertile animals to reproduce and not go extinct!
Sadly, the speaker ran out of time here. I will have to get some of his books and continue learning about this! Just fascinating. I love dinosaurs!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Floods of the West
David Nutting
As I waited for this teaching to begin, I didn't know what to think of the title or what I would learn. What of the floods of the west? Who cares? I just care about THE flood that covered the earth. Plus, there was a "teacher" right before him SO HORRIBLE that I stopped taking notes after 15 minutes. The guy was seriously the whitest, blondest Italian ever. He very much fit the TV evangelist profile of getting emotionally high and making NO DARN SENSE. I was afraid I would be disappointed with this one since I didn't grasp the title.
HOLY SMOKES I am going back to school to study rocks and become a geologist. This teaching just floored me! I love learning this kind of stuff! And what I mean by "this kind of stuff" is this below:
You know how frustrating it is when you visit the Grand Canyon and they go into their "Millions of years ago" spiel and you just want to jump of the edge? Well, we discussed the wonderful event of Mt. Saint Helens! 25 years ago or so, this mountain erupted and showed us EXACTLY how a grand canyon can be made within just a DAY. Not only that, but when this eruption is dated... it is dated at 300,000 to 2.8 million years ago! Proving that radioactive dating is inaccurate. Take that you scientifically incorrect Grand Canyon Tour guides!
Here are a few other awesome examples:
1. Dry Falls, Washington - carved out lots of land in just a few days.
2. The Top of Mount Everest has sea fossils on it. That is our tallest mountain in the world today even.
3. Milwaukee Public Museum - oldest structure in North American - must be at least 7,200 years old because of the stagnates growing in them.
4. Clams found in great numbers in limestone - they are all whole and buried alive. Also, Nautiloid - squid shells were found all pointing in the same direction in the Grand Canyon. These point to evidence of a great flood.
5. There are many examples of creatures/plants being INSTANTLY preserved.
There are some very interesting facts about the flood. One fact is that there are 270 flood legends all around the World - common event of a world wide flood with people and animals getting on board. Also, did you know that the Chinese characters that make up the the word boat are eight, mouth, and something else I forgot that I need to look up. BUT that 8 is what caught my eye. 8 - Noah, Noah's wife, 3 sons and their wives. WOW. Cultures around the world proclaim God's truth without even knowing it.
Ok time for me to look for rock schools...
Resources:
Grand Canyon a Different View - Christian view book
Of the Discover Creation Center (www.discovercreation.org). Think and Believe newsletter
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Creation Conference - Day 1
The Beginning and The End of the Universe
This title is very daunting and very fitting. My first thoughts actually wondered to Einstein who grudgingly discovered that the Universe is finite (or in other words...not eternal). According to the Bible and what science tells us, the Universe that we exist in has a beginning and an end.
As I was walking to the conference, I was thinking about what it would be like (and also how fortunate that my work was merely two blocks away from the Pikes Peak Center in which the conference was taking place). I was excited, because from what I had heard, this conference was about the 6 day creation theory and the literal interpretation of the Genesis. Many Christians today believe that God created the earth through evolution or each day mentioned in Genesis was really thousands of years. I have always been a believer in the young earth and 6 day literal creation. After going to a fairly liberal (or open minded as they called it) Christian college, I was ready for some "narrow" minded truth (Matthew 7:13-14 - Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it).
Once I got to the Conference, I promptly tripped on my sandals and almost face planted into the stairs. However, I slyly used the mishap to pretend that I was merely running up the stairs (just not very gracefully). Once I got up to the second level, I found a seat somewhere in the middle and sat down to stare at the big screen. The words on it were fuzzy, and I realized that at 23 I felt old. Another thing that I discovered was that people watching can be entertaining. There was a group of young girls to my front left with "Action Ministry" on their shirts. There was my Pastor Isam on the right side a floor up. I thought about joining him, but the conference started right then. For those who don't know Pastor Isam, he is my college group pastor on Monday nights. He is a hilarious and very convicted man. He teaches us about living for God completely and not just when we come to Church. Learning time management for personal Bible Studies, worship and prayer time on a daily basis. He is a fantastic leader.
After some singing, it was time for the first speaker. John MacArthur, a renowned evangelical writer and minister, was the first speaker at the creation conference held in Colorado Springs, CO. I had heard many great things about this speaker, and I was afraid that his reputation would fall short. After all, I am very pessimistic when it comes to Christians today. I wish I wasn't but after attending a "Christian" College for four years, you discover that true believers are few and far between. So many people claim to be Christians yet don't go to Church, or only attend Church on Sundays and return to their carnal selfs on Monday. Very frustrating, disheartening, and demoralizing.
One of the first things that John MacArthur talked about the matrix of existence discovered by Herbert Spencer. The matrix of existence fits into five categories: time, force, action, space matter. Spencer was hailed as a genius when he died. Quietly chuckling to himself, because he knew what he was about to say, MacArthur stated that Genesis reveals that to us thousands of years before Spencer becausethe Bible says that, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." In a booming voice, he then stated that the beginning is the time, God is the force, created is the action, the heavens are the space, and the earth is the matter. A huge grin swept across my face as the audience laughed and clapped. Maybe I had nothing to be pessimistic about.
Then MacArthur started talking about science and the beginning. He mentioned that the theory of evolution was irrelevant when it came to the beginning and how God created the Universe. it made me think of how some of my professors would say how it doesn't matter whether evolution is true or creation is true. The only thing that matters is that God did it. That always made me uncomfortable. For instance, if evolution was true, when did God decide we looked enough like Him to have souls transfered into us? So once again, I was on edge, waiting for the Great Disappointement. MacAurther seemed to sense this in the crowd (or perhaps he was just prepared for it) because then he went on to state, "Now, if you are asking me, 'Couldn't God have used evolution to create the Universe,' then the answer is no. The Bible says 6 days. It is either right or wrong." I decided right then and there that it would be great if I could shrink this guy and put him in my backpack. I would take him everywhere with me.
After that, he gave me an awesome tool to use when finding out if someone believes the Bible to be right or wrong. Basically, just ask them what they think about Genesis 1:1-2. Very quickly you find out if they are 6 day literal believers as the Bible says or if they are not. Once you know that, you know whether they are the types of people who believe the truth of the Bible or who twist the truth of the Bible. Isn't it fantastic that God gives us such a test right away?! This and asking about how they perceive Jesus. Is he a great prophet? A wonderful teacher? The Son of God who came to save the world? 1 John 4:1 - Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have fone out into the world.
I love it when speakers make me think in ways I never through before (even though it's right in front of my nose). For example, MacArthur said that environmentalists are in for a big shock because one day God will completely destroy this earth and replace it with a new one. The universe has a beginning and an end. Our earth is temporary. This is part of God's plan. What purpose could their possibly be for creating and ending the universe? MacArthur said one word: redemption. Just as God created a bride for Adam, God is redeeming the bride he created for the second Adam. And the universe will end, history will end, time will end. Once God's plan is done.
Once John MacArthur was done speaking, I realized that I was suddenly excited for the rest of the conference, though I am afraid I won't have enough time to write all about it! There will be four or more speakers tomorrow and four or more the day after that. YIKES! But I am determined to get the highlights in. Once everything had wrapped up, the hundreds of people got up and went to the dinosaur and book displays. Realizing that I needed to make the 30 minute drive home soon (and that I have a thousand books I have still yet to read in my personal library) I decided to just glance at some of the books (hey, I have that one...oh and I have that one... WOW I want to buy THAT one...) and I then slipped out and walked back to my work.
Driving home, I called my mother and talked with her about it and she said, "I am so glad this took your mind of the speeding ticket you got this morning". DOH!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: I am not a re-reader, so who knows how many spelling errors or bad sentences are in there. Also, I have no quarantees that what I just wrote is coherent or logical. It is what it is.
This title is very daunting and very fitting. My first thoughts actually wondered to Einstein who grudgingly discovered that the Universe is finite (or in other words...not eternal). According to the Bible and what science tells us, the Universe that we exist in has a beginning and an end.
As I was walking to the conference, I was thinking about what it would be like (and also how fortunate that my work was merely two blocks away from the Pikes Peak Center in which the conference was taking place). I was excited, because from what I had heard, this conference was about the 6 day creation theory and the literal interpretation of the Genesis. Many Christians today believe that God created the earth through evolution or each day mentioned in Genesis was really thousands of years. I have always been a believer in the young earth and 6 day literal creation. After going to a fairly liberal (or open minded as they called it) Christian college, I was ready for some "narrow" minded truth (Matthew 7:13-14 - Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it).
Once I got to the Conference, I promptly tripped on my sandals and almost face planted into the stairs. However, I slyly used the mishap to pretend that I was merely running up the stairs (just not very gracefully). Once I got up to the second level, I found a seat somewhere in the middle and sat down to stare at the big screen. The words on it were fuzzy, and I realized that at 23 I felt old. Another thing that I discovered was that people watching can be entertaining. There was a group of young girls to my front left with "Action Ministry" on their shirts. There was my Pastor Isam on the right side a floor up. I thought about joining him, but the conference started right then. For those who don't know Pastor Isam, he is my college group pastor on Monday nights. He is a hilarious and very convicted man. He teaches us about living for God completely and not just when we come to Church. Learning time management for personal Bible Studies, worship and prayer time on a daily basis. He is a fantastic leader.
After some singing, it was time for the first speaker. John MacArthur, a renowned evangelical writer and minister, was the first speaker at the creation conference held in Colorado Springs, CO. I had heard many great things about this speaker, and I was afraid that his reputation would fall short. After all, I am very pessimistic when it comes to Christians today. I wish I wasn't but after attending a "Christian" College for four years, you discover that true believers are few and far between. So many people claim to be Christians yet don't go to Church, or only attend Church on Sundays and return to their carnal selfs on Monday. Very frustrating, disheartening, and demoralizing.
One of the first things that John MacArthur talked about the matrix of existence discovered by Herbert Spencer. The matrix of existence fits into five categories: time, force, action, space matter. Spencer was hailed as a genius when he died. Quietly chuckling to himself, because he knew what he was about to say, MacArthur stated that Genesis reveals that to us thousands of years before Spencer becausethe Bible says that, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." In a booming voice, he then stated that the beginning is the time, God is the force, created is the action, the heavens are the space, and the earth is the matter. A huge grin swept across my face as the audience laughed and clapped. Maybe I had nothing to be pessimistic about.
Then MacArthur started talking about science and the beginning. He mentioned that the theory of evolution was irrelevant when it came to the beginning and how God created the Universe. it made me think of how some of my professors would say how it doesn't matter whether evolution is true or creation is true. The only thing that matters is that God did it. That always made me uncomfortable. For instance, if evolution was true, when did God decide we looked enough like Him to have souls transfered into us? So once again, I was on edge, waiting for the Great Disappointement. MacAurther seemed to sense this in the crowd (or perhaps he was just prepared for it) because then he went on to state, "Now, if you are asking me, 'Couldn't God have used evolution to create the Universe,' then the answer is no. The Bible says 6 days. It is either right or wrong." I decided right then and there that it would be great if I could shrink this guy and put him in my backpack. I would take him everywhere with me.
After that, he gave me an awesome tool to use when finding out if someone believes the Bible to be right or wrong. Basically, just ask them what they think about Genesis 1:1-2. Very quickly you find out if they are 6 day literal believers as the Bible says or if they are not. Once you know that, you know whether they are the types of people who believe the truth of the Bible or who twist the truth of the Bible. Isn't it fantastic that God gives us such a test right away?! This and asking about how they perceive Jesus. Is he a great prophet? A wonderful teacher? The Son of God who came to save the world? 1 John 4:1 - Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have fone out into the world.
I love it when speakers make me think in ways I never through before (even though it's right in front of my nose). For example, MacArthur said that environmentalists are in for a big shock because one day God will completely destroy this earth and replace it with a new one. The universe has a beginning and an end. Our earth is temporary. This is part of God's plan. What purpose could their possibly be for creating and ending the universe? MacArthur said one word: redemption. Just as God created a bride for Adam, God is redeeming the bride he created for the second Adam. And the universe will end, history will end, time will end. Once God's plan is done.
Once John MacArthur was done speaking, I realized that I was suddenly excited for the rest of the conference, though I am afraid I won't have enough time to write all about it! There will be four or more speakers tomorrow and four or more the day after that. YIKES! But I am determined to get the highlights in. Once everything had wrapped up, the hundreds of people got up and went to the dinosaur and book displays. Realizing that I needed to make the 30 minute drive home soon (and that I have a thousand books I have still yet to read in my personal library) I decided to just glance at some of the books (hey, I have that one...oh and I have that one... WOW I want to buy THAT one...) and I then slipped out and walked back to my work.
Driving home, I called my mother and talked with her about it and she said, "I am so glad this took your mind of the speeding ticket you got this morning". DOH!
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Disclaimer: I am not a re-reader, so who knows how many spelling errors or bad sentences are in there. Also, I have no quarantees that what I just wrote is coherent or logical. It is what it is.
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