Why I Blog About Creation

One of the reasons I’m so passionate about the evolution issue is because I believe evolution is perhaps the foremost obstacle preventing people from coming to Christ today. The logic goes something like this: people are told evolution is a FACT (have you noticed how evolutionists, when make this statement, always capitalize the word “FACT”?); the people then reject or water down the Genesis account of creation; next, they reject the need of a Creator; soon, they reject the entire Bible; finally, they reject the idea of God altogether. There was no creation, there was no Adam, there was no sin of Adam, there was no Fall, so there is no need of a Savior.

I have to admit it’s a reasonable conclusion. If evolution is true, the whole foundation of Christianity is shaken.

Jesus Himself talked about these very things. There are several passages that we could point to as examples of this. Consider first John 5:45-47:

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

Here we see a perfect example of Jesus pointing out the simple fact that, if we don’t believe Moses (the author of Genesis), then we won’t believe Jesus either.

Also from John, Jesus gave us these insightful words:

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? John 3:11-12

In this passage, Jesus draws a connection with God’s revelation of earthly things and His revelation of spiritual things. God has told us about the creation of the earth, the Flood, etc. If we don’t believe the Bible about these things, how can we believe it about anything?

Finally, consider the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). There, the Rich Man, being in torment, asked Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn the rich man’s brothers to repent before they came to this place. Abraham told him the brothers had Moses and the prophets (i.e. the Old Testament Scriptures) and that they could repent by hearing them. The rich man insisted that they were not persuaded by the prophets but would be convinced if someone came back from the dead. Listen to Abraham’s response (v.31): “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

Today, we have someone who came back from the dead: Jesus Himself. Even so, some people still refuse to believe. Why? Because they don’t believe Moses and so neither will they believe Jesus.

Normally, I don’t care if someone believes something that’s not true. If people want to watch pro-wrestling, look for UFO’s, hunt for Bigfoot, or have Santa come visit their children, you won’t hear a peep from me. I say let them have their fun. But a belief in evolution can have life changing consequences. I cannot simply sit by and let people reject God because they believe something that’s not true.

This is why I blog about creation.

Happy Thanksgiving

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Phillipians 4:4-7

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation

Washington, D.C.October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,Secretary of State

Even if You're Rich, You Can Still Be Thankful

I’ve read about a hundred “be thankful” messages in emails this year. You’ve probably seen them too; those short pearls of wisdom that seem to say every cloud has a silver lining. Things like, “Look at the people around you and be thankful that you are not spending Thanksgiving alone.”

Now, it’s true that we are sometimes ungrateful and take for granted the blessings God bestows on us. But I feel it is somewhat short sighted to measure our blessings by comparing our situation to a worse alternative: “I may be out of work but I still have my health.” OK, so what about people who don’t have good health? “Well, maybe they don’t have their health but they still have a family that loves them.”

And what’s more, are we only thankful if we can think of something “good” God has done for us? “God, I know I’m in terrible health but I’m not dead yet so thanks!”

Is that really how some people try to make themselves feel better – by considering how much worse off they could be? To me it’s like being waist deep in quick sand and saying, “I’m thankful that I’m not chest deep like that fellow over there.”

To me, there is exactly one thing to be thankful for: my new life through Jesus. When we are passed from death into life, everything else in this world becomes secondary. It doesn’t really matter if I’m rich or wretched, comfortable or destitute, fat or starving. I’m thankful to God because no matter how good or bad I have it now, I’ve got something infinitely better prepared for me.

Even if I were the richest person in the world, I know that it would someday all pass away so why would I be thankful for that? Think about the rich man in Luke 12:17-20:

“And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”

I have a home ready that was not made by hands. I have a treasure stored up where thieves cannot steal it and rust does not corrupt it. What more could I possibly ask for?

Jesus said:

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Wow! Now that’s something to be thankful for.