Creation and the Environment

There is a great deal of talk in the media these days about global warming. It is said to be a crisis. The change in the climate is blamed on pollution caused by humanity's careless actions. 

Indeed, it is very important that we take care of the well being of the earth. That is our part as the head of God's creation (Genesis 1:26-31). No person with a sound mind would deny that pollution is bad, and that it ought to be eliminated.

However, much of the hype surrounding the global warming crisis is just that - hype. Recorded history shows that climate conditions are cyclical. For example there was the Medieval Warm Period which was followed by the Little Ice Age. 

Interestingly, the Little Ice Age is responsible for the popularization of beer over wine. Vineyards didn't do so well during that period, making wine more expensive than beer. 

It is also thought that the Stradivarius stringed instruments, crafted during the Little Ice Age, owe their tonal quality to the affect of climate cooling on the trees. 

Now perhaps the earth is cycling into another warm period. And so what? In the 1970's everyone was blabbering up a storm about the global cooling crisis.  

Ever since the Flood, the climate has been going through cycles of change. So while it is important for humans to care for God's creation, the global warming crisis is largely a political fabrication. It is a ruse to scare folks into voting a certain way.

As for me, I have little to no confidence in any political party, or humanity for that matter. I only have faith in Jesus the Creator. And I try to follow His teachings. And so I care about the environment. And I try to do my part as a caretaker of God's creation. 

Pagan Religions and Christianity

It has been well noted that the Christian doctrine of salvation from sin through the death and resurrection of God's Son bears a striking resemblance to pagan religions. There are pagan stories about dying gods who rise again to give new life.

C.S. Lewis thought of these similarities as "good dreams" that God gave to the pagans to lead them to the truth (see book 2, chapter 3, paragraph 9 of Mere Christianity). Critics of the gospel see the similarities as evidence against Christianity.

But I think that there is a better explanation. All humanity is one family, descended from Noah - descended from Adam. The early patriarchs; Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew God. These men preserved the truth, which they received from God. They were faithful prophets. 

As I have pointed out in an earlier post, titled Assumptions, the belief that early humans did not have a written language is based on atheistic assumptions about the past. 

There is no real reason to think that the early patriarchs could not have written down their genealogies, as well as life-events, historical events, and prophecies that were given to them by God. Noah likely had written materials that had been passed down from the earlier patriarch. He would have then handed them down to his sons. 

Later on, under Divine inspiration, Moses likely used such earlier materials, as God directed him, to write the Pentateuch. By this I mean that God would have directed Moses in selecting reference materials as He also directed him throughout the whole process of writing Genesis-Deuteronomy.

The pagan nations, all being descendants of Noah's sons, remembered the Messianic prophecies that were given by God to the fore-mentioned, righteous patriarchs. God was already promising a Savior in the Garden of Eden, immediately after sin entered the world (Genesis 3:14-15). 

And there are many other Messianic prophecies throughout the book of Genesis. That is why Jesus said to His critics "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me" (John 5:46). Job, who probably lived contemporaneously to Abraham, also spoke of His coming (Job 19:25). 

So I reiterate that God was always speaking to the very earliest patriarchs. He told them about the Savior that He would send into the world. But turning away from God, the pagans worshiped idols, and god's of their own making. And their contrived myths contained dim memories of the truth, corrupted by the worship of false-gods (see Romans 1:18-28).

These things being said, the historical evidence in support of the life, works, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah set Him apart from the mythological gods of pagan religions. The caliber of His teachings also sets Him apart.

A Natural Mystic

"Many more will have to die

Many more will have to cry - Don't ask me why

I say things are not the way they used to be - Don't tell no lie

One and all have got to face reality now

Though I try to find the answer

To all the questions that they ask" Bob Marley; Natural Mystic

Disclaimer

I have thought twice about whether or not I should write a post based on a Bob Marley song, since this is a blog about Christian theology. I'm not a Rastafarian, as Bob Marley was. Rastafari is a false-gospel (Galatians 1:8-9). 

Not that I would exalt myself over anyone. I know that I am a sinner and that I am only saved by God's grace.

But Haile Selassie was not a reincarnation of Jesus the Messiah, or God the Father, as Rastafarians believe he was. In fact he personally denied being the reincarnation of Jesus the Messiah, or God the Father. 

Jesus Himself warned that false-prophets and false-messiahs would come, and that we must not believe in them (Matthew 24:4-5, 23-25).

However, even the apostle Paul sometimes quoted pagan poets and philosophers to make a point (see Acts 17:28, 1st Corinthians 15:33). And many of Bob Marley's lyrics are based on the Scriptures. So I enjoy his music while being careful to discern biblical truth from unbiblical falsehood.

I like reggae music and I have a lot of Bob Marley's material in my collection. And I also enjoy listening to Christafari and other artists who play reggae music with a strong emphasis on biblical, non-Rastafarian theology.

Body

Recently, Natural Mystic came up on my mp3 player as I had it on shuffle. In the song, Bob Marley describes the brokenness and injustice of this world in contrast to "the way [things] used to be". We do live in a world of suffering, and death, and violence. We live in a world that is broken by the curse of sin.

According to the evolutionary worldview, however, things are precisely the way they have always been. According to the evolutionary doctrine of uniformity, the world has always been undergoing the same processes at the same rates as it is at present. 

According to evolutionary philosophy, there never was a perfect world in the beginning; from which humanity has fallen away, and to which Christ has come to restore us. For as long as life has existed, there has always been suffering, disease, and brokenness - for as long as the universe has existed - from the very beginning. 

If the sedimentary rock layers of the geological column were laid down slowly over billions of years of evolutionary history, than the fossil record is indeed a record of suffering, disease, and death from the very beginning; with no such cause as the curse of sin. There are fossil evidence of animals having cancer and other terrible ailments; as well as ferocious predatory carnivorousness.

"Though I try to find the answer to all the questions that they ask"

The theistic evolutionist is at a remarkable disadvantage when it comes to answering the question of why there is suffering, disease, and death in the first place. If theistic evolution were true, than God created the world broken and cursed from the very beginning, because He likes it that way - BROKEN!

In his book, Contact, Carl Sagans attributed his rejection of God to this: that in his view, if God exists He created a broken world. Richard Dawkins has also attributed his atheistic beliefs to his "understanding of evolution".

But Sagans was wrong. And Dawkins is wrong. God's word is Truth (John 17:17). And Bob Marley was at least right about this one thing: 

"Things are not the way they used to be - Don't tell no lie

One and all have got to face reality now"

In truth, God created a perfect world in the beginning. He did not create a sin-cursed, rebellious, violent, sorrow-pierced, broken world. 

The world became the way it is because of the decision made by Adam and Eve, using their free-will to disobey God. The gospel is predicated on this.

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned...For if by one man's offence many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:12, 15).  

This does not mean that every time something bad happens to an individual, that that particular person is being punished for a specific sin. But what it does mean is that the reason suffering, disease, and death even exist in the first place is because of sin. 

And as unpleasant as we may find it, we are all inheritors by birth, of a fallen human nature. As the Scriptures attest:

"Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5).

As for the geological column, which is mentioned above: These sedimentary layers were laid down swiftly during the Flood, burying the creatures that have since become fossilized. They are a record of God's judgment on sin. 

All the great fountains of the deep were broken up (Genesis 7:11), and the rain fell for forty days. And the water covered the earth for a year. Most of the world's current mountains are made of sedimentary rock layers which were laid down by the Flood; and have been pushed up and bent by tectonic activity, which was first caused by the breaking up of all the great fountains of the deep.

Check out the linked sites below to read material written by trained scientists who affirm biblical creation.
www.answersingenesis.org
www.icr.org

More Than We Are Ready to Bear

In the little upper-room of a house in Jerusalem, Jesus and His disciples partook of the Passover meal. It was the Last Supper before Jesus would be offered up as the Passover Lamb, to die for our sin on a Roman cross.

The words that Jesus spoke to His disciples during that meal, including the prayers that He prayed for His disciples and Himself, have become known as the Last Supper Discourse (John 13-17).

He told about His imminent death, which disheartened His disciples. He also described the hostility and persecution that they would face for being His witnesses. 

But He also told them of the comfort they would receive, and great things that they would accomplish in bringing the message of salvation to the world. He told of the ultimate joy that would be given to them, and all who believe as a result of their preaching. 

Then He said:

"I still have many things to say to you, but you can not bear them now" (John 16:12).

We may readily imagine that He was referring to sad, and discouraging things. And perhaps He was. But the prophet Isaiah and the apostle Paul wrote:

"'What no eye has seen, 

what no ear has heard,

and what no human mind has conceived' - 

the things God has prepared for those who love Him -" (1st Corinthians 2:9, Isaiah 64:4; NIV).

Paul was also moved by the Spirit to say:

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).

At times it can actually be painful to hear glad things. There have been times when I could not stand to listen to joyful music or glad songs. So perhaps when Jesus said what He said, He was also referring to things too wonderful, and marvelous for us to bear while we live in this broken world of sin, trouble, and strife.

C.S. Lewis once remarked about Tolkien's books:

"Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron here is a book which will break your heart".

Certainly, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him can be no less, but more even more beautiful.

Forgiveness vs. Reconciliation

As Jesus was dying on the cross, He prayed:

 "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34). 

He was praying for everyone involved in His trial and crucifixion. And so it only makes sense that He was praying for all sinners.

The question for some then arises: Why do we need trust in Jesus for salvation, since we are already forgiven? Why even think about our relationship with God, since He has already forgiven all sin?

This is actually not a very good question, because it shows the depravity of the one who asks it. But we all are sinners, and there is a very good answer in the Bible:

 "Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God" (2nd Corinthians 5:20; emphasis added).

Jesus paid the penalty for all sin. God has forgiven you, me, everyone. But it takes two parties to reconcile a relationship.

God spoke through the prophet Isaiah saying:

 "All day long I stretch out my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths, and their own crooked schemes" (Isaiah 65:2; New Living Translation).

So we see that His arms are open, but we still have to turn and be reconciled to Him. We must repent - turn away from sin. It was sin that severed our relationship with God in the first place. And it is God's forgiveness that makes it possible to turn away from sin and be reconciled to Him. As the Scripture says:

"In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity; and by the fear of the LORD one departs from evil" (Proverbs 16:6, also see Psalm 130:3-4, and Romans 2:1-4). 

Why did sin sever our relationship with God? Because God is holy, righteous, immaculate. God and sin are diametrically opposed, so it is impossible to be living a life of sin and simultaneously be right with God. And God will never stop being holy. So we must stop being sinners. As He has said to His people:

 "Be holy, for I am holy" (1st Peter 1:16, Leviticus 11:45, 19:2, 20:7).

"Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

The Christian life is a process of sanctification (becoming holy). We begin by admitting that we are sinners in need of being reconciled to God; trusting that Jesus died for our sin, and rose again. We make a personal decision to let God begin the process of making us holy, just as He is holy. As the Scriptures say:

"If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him" (1st John 2:29). 

"being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in [us] will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:16, also see 2:13 and Isaiah 26:12).

We do not practice righteousness by our own power. Nor can we. Our sinful, fallen nature makes it impossible to become holy by our own effort. As the Son of God said:

 "...for without me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). 

By faith we must trust in Him so that His righteousness becomes our righteousness. Just as He wore our sin, having no sin of His own; we wear His righteousness, having none of our own. And by His working in us who trust in Him, we will become like Him. Our fallen nature will be restored to perfect, Christ-like holiness. As the Scripture says:

"...we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1st John 3:2-3).

The Ephesian Goddess, Evolution, and the Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah

The Riot

In the course of his missionary journeys, the apostle Paul and his companions came to the city of Ephesus. Located in what is presently the country of Turkey, Ephesus had been under Greek and Roman rule successively. It was also the home of the temple of the goddess Diana, aka Artemis.

Paul was there, preaching the gospel of salvation through Jesus the Messiah. And there was a certain silversmith named Demetrius who became incensed by the Christian's denial of all gods other than Yahweh, the living God who created the heavens and the earth. Obviously, since Demetrius was a silversmith, he made his living by sculpting images of Diana and her temple.

Demetrius called together a crowd of people who did similar work to his own. He gave a speech against Paul and the gospel, and a riot began to boil. For two hours the crowd was shouting and chanting "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!"

Then the city clerk quieted the crowd and said "Men of Ephesus, what man is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple guardian of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Zeus? Therefore, since these things can not be denied, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rashly" (Acts 19:35-36).

The "Empirical" Claim

I love how the city clerk considered what was probably a meteorite to be proof of the existence of Zeus and Diana. It reminds me of people who think evolution is confirmed by empirical science.

The city clerk had his interpretation of the fact. An "image" came down from Zeus. And it was probably kept in the temple of Diana, like a fossil in a museum. But his worldview did not come from the fact. Rather he used his pagan worldview, which he already had, to interpret the meaning of the object that fell from the sky.

In the same way, evolutionists have their interpretation of the facts. There are fossils. There are objects that range from simple to complex. There are sedimentary rock layers all over the earth. There are different kinds of creatures with similar biological or anatomical features. The evolutionist interprets these things according to his or her naturalistic worldview.

As a creationist, I see the fossil record as a record of extinction, not evolution. I see the simple-to-complex nature of things not as proof of evolution, but of the plain fact that there have always been simple-to-complex things in the universe. I see the sedimentary layers of the geological column as evidence of deep water (during the Genesis Flood), not deep time. I see biological/anatomical similitude in different kinds of creatures as evidence of a common Creator, not of a common evolutionary ancestor.

Worldviews do not come from evidence. Worldviews are used to interpret the evidence. 

Evidence for Jesus the Messiah

But perhaps the most well attested event in all of antiquities is the miraculous, bodily resurrection of Jesus the Messiah from the dead.

It is a historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth really lived in first century Israel. He was crucified and died. Furthermore, His disciples believed that He was raised from the dead and that He appeared to them as the risen Lord. 

It is a historical fact that Jesus' half-brother, James, became a believer after initially doubting Jesus. And it is a fact that Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee, ceased persecuting Christians and began preaching that Jesus is the risen Savior, and had appeared to him on the road to Damascus. And he began to go by his gentile name, "Paul" since his ministry was primarily aimed at converting gentiles to the Messiah, Jesus.

These disciples of Jesus were willing to spread His gospel under severe persecution. All of them, except John, died martyr's deaths because they were convinced that Jesus rose from the dead and had appeared bodily to them. 

John, the youngest of the twelve apostles, suffered persecution for preaching about Jesus. In his old age he was exiled to the Island of Patmos. There he wrote the book of Revelation. John was also the author of the fourth Gospel account, and three letters (1st, 2nd, and 3rd John) that are now a part of the New Testament.

In fact, one of the oldest extant fragments from the New Testament is the Rylands Library Papyrus P52, also known as St. John's Papyrus. Being a portion of John chapter 18, the fragment of ancient papyrus was uncovered in Egypt and is considered to date back to approximately 100 A.D. to 150 A.D.

John died around 100 A.D. That's about seventy years after he witnessed the miracles of Christ, including His post-resurrection appearances, with his own eyes (1st John 1:1-4).

There is also much reason to believe confidently that Luke's gospel and the book of Acts were written by Luke before 65 A.D. If the book of Acts had been written later, it would not end where it does.

Acts is a sequel to Luke's gospel. It is a record of the works (deeds, or actions) of the apostles after Jesus rose from the dead.

The narrative of Acts ends with the apostle Paul still alive in Rome. Paul was beheaded by the Romans circa 67 A.D. for preaching about Jesus.

The book of Acts ends with no mention of the Jewish War, or the fall of Jerusalem which happened in 70 A.D. These major events of the first century were significant to early Church history.Yet the narrative ends where it does because Luke wrote it before these events took place.

In addition to all this, the Church leaders of the second century quoted so much from the New Testament books that even if there were no copies of the New Testament texts from earlier, virtually the entire N.T. could be reproduced just from the writings of the early Church leaders.

What it comes down to is this. Those who deny the resurrection of Jesus, do so not because of the historical evidence, but because they hold to a worldview that miracles don't happen. 

As C.S. Lewis wrote in the first chapter of his book, Miracles:

"In all my life I have met only one person who claims to have seen a ghost. And the interesting thing about the story is that the person disbelieved in the immortal soul before she saw the ghost and still disbelieves after seeing it. She says that what she saw must have been an illusion or a trick of the nerves...If anything extraordinary seems to have happened, we can always say that we have been the victims of an illusion. If we hold to a philosophy which excludes the supernatural, that is what we always shall say" (emphasis added).

So again we see that worldviews do not come from the evidence, but are utilized to interpret the evidence. 

Subterranean Flood-Sick Blues

Genesis 7:11 provides and interesting detail concerning the Great Flood. "...on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."

So as the Scriptures tell, there was water coming down in the form of rain for forty days; and water was also being released in vast quantities from great, broken-up, subterranean fountains. 

It is the view of Flood geologists that prior to the Flood, the tectonic plates were one whole, unbroken layer of the earth. In this view, the tectonic plates are the broken-up "fountains of the deep". 

Certainly, the Flood of Noah's time changed the face of the earth. Prior to that Flood, the earth was not as topographically extreme as it is in our time. There were hills and mountains from the time of creation. But there was nothing like the highest mountains or the lowest valleys and basins of our time. 

Most of the mountains on the earth at present are composed of sedimentary layers, which were laid down by the Flood, and have become bent and pushed up by shifting tectonic plates.

This explains why there are fossilized clam shells at the highest points of the earth. It also explains why bent layers of sedimentary rock are not fractured and broken. They were still soft when they were pushed up and bent by tectonic activity.

The topographical extremes of the post-Flood world ensure what God Himself decreed, that He will never flood the whole earth again, as He did in those days (Genesis 9:11-17).

But the final judgment of sin will come by fire. As the Scriptures tell: 

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:10-13).