THE FAITHFUL WITNESS IN THE SKY
Genesis 1:16
“The lesser light to rule the night...”
The Moon has always fascinated me, as it hangs there in the sky, the only extra-terrestrial world where some of its surface features can be seen with the naked eye.
The Bible tells us that the Moon is a faithful witness (Psalm 89:37). In what way could it be a faithful witness? Australian Aborigines have a story about the Moon dying in a fight with a character of evil. Then the Moon rose from the dead on the third day. New Moon, when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, and hence in darkness, lasts for 3 days.
In Psalm 89:35-37, David prophesies: “Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” The seed of David must refer to Jesus. Jesus’ death and resurrection took place at Passover, which always happens around the time of the New Moon.
I find it endlessly fascinating that the creation itself exists to point us to Christ. Paul says in Romans 1:20 “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” Little wonder that he goes on to warn us that we are all “without excuse”.
Some cultures have tried to worship the Moon – New Agers still want us to do something similar. But like every other object of creation, the Moon exists to point us to Christ, through whom alone there is salvation.
Thank You, Lord, for making the greater and lesser lights. They are part of Your universe, and are there to show forth Your Glory. Amen.
Genesis 1:16
“The lesser light to rule the night...”
The Moon has always fascinated me, as it hangs there in the sky, the only extra-terrestrial world where some of its surface features can be seen with the naked eye.
The Bible tells us that the Moon is a faithful witness (Psalm 89:37). In what way could it be a faithful witness? Australian Aborigines have a story about the Moon dying in a fight with a character of evil. Then the Moon rose from the dead on the third day. New Moon, when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, and hence in darkness, lasts for 3 days.
In Psalm 89:35-37, David prophesies: “Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” The seed of David must refer to Jesus. Jesus’ death and resurrection took place at Passover, which always happens around the time of the New Moon.
I find it endlessly fascinating that the creation itself exists to point us to Christ. Paul says in Romans 1:20 “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” Little wonder that he goes on to warn us that we are all “without excuse”.
Some cultures have tried to worship the Moon – New Agers still want us to do something similar. But like every other object of creation, the Moon exists to point us to Christ, through whom alone there is salvation.
Thank You, Lord, for making the greater and lesser lights. They are part of Your universe, and are there to show forth Your Glory. Amen.
A WHALE OF A TALE
Genesis 1:21
And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
A whale got stuck in the middle of London, England, in 2006. The bottle-nosed whale swam up the River Thames. Attempts to rescue the confused animal led to its death, and an unusual outpouring of popular grief in the UK’s capital.
What do British whales and swans have in common? Under English law, all whales and swans belong to the Queen. Whales within 3 miles of the English coast were taken under Royal Patronage by a statute in 1324, under which they were classified as “fishes royal”. Edward II declared “The King shall have… whales and sturgeons taken in the sea, or elsewhere within the realm. Today, whales are classed as mammals, rather than fish, yet the other thing that whales, sturgeons and swans have in common is that they were all created on the 5th day of creation, whereas land animals were created on the 6th.
This reminds us that evolutionary theory cannot be “fitted in” to the true creation account in Genesis. Evolutionists suppose that whales evolved from land animals, whereas the Bible tells us that whales came before land animals. Both explanations cannot be true. The evolutionary order is refuted by the truth of God’s Word.
Not only the whales and the swans, but all things in heaven and on Earth belong to You, Lord. Thank You that you made everything well. Amen.
Genesis 1:21
And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
A whale got stuck in the middle of London, England, in 2006. The bottle-nosed whale swam up the River Thames. Attempts to rescue the confused animal led to its death, and an unusual outpouring of popular grief in the UK’s capital.
What do British whales and swans have in common? Under English law, all whales and swans belong to the Queen. Whales within 3 miles of the English coast were taken under Royal Patronage by a statute in 1324, under which they were classified as “fishes royal”. Edward II declared “The King shall have… whales and sturgeons taken in the sea, or elsewhere within the realm. Today, whales are classed as mammals, rather than fish, yet the other thing that whales, sturgeons and swans have in common is that they were all created on the 5th day of creation, whereas land animals were created on the 6th.
This reminds us that evolutionary theory cannot be “fitted in” to the true creation account in Genesis. Evolutionists suppose that whales evolved from land animals, whereas the Bible tells us that whales came before land animals. Both explanations cannot be true. The evolutionary order is refuted by the truth of God’s Word.
Not only the whales and the swans, but all things in heaven and on Earth belong to You, Lord. Thank You that you made everything well. Amen.
WHEN THE ICE CAME
Job 38:29-30
Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
Was there a time, when large parts of the Earth’s surface were so cold, that they were covered with ice sheets? Many U-shaped valleys throughout northern Europe and North America show markings somewhat similar to the impressions left today by moving glaciers – “rivers” of ice.
The worldwide Flood was not a gentle event. We assume that it was accompanied by volcanic eruptions, which would have left aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Deflecting the sun’s rays, these aerosols would have made the atmospheric temperature less than it is today, whereas the ocean temperatures immediately after the Flood would have been slightly warmer than today. Greater evaporation would occur into colder air, resulting in much more precipitation than we have today – much of it as snow.
Secular scientists suggest that this Ice Age would have lasted about 100,000 years, but meteorologist Michael Oard has shown that such a great length of time was not necessary for glacial effects, and could be explained by just 200 years of post-Flood history.
Perhaps the ice mentioned in the book of Job could be a reference to such an Ice Age, when we read in Job 28:30 “the waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen”. A biblical model makes sense of the observed scientific facts.
This is Your world, Lord, and I thank You that You are always in charge. Amen.
Job 38:29-30
Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
Was there a time, when large parts of the Earth’s surface were so cold, that they were covered with ice sheets? Many U-shaped valleys throughout northern Europe and North America show markings somewhat similar to the impressions left today by moving glaciers – “rivers” of ice.
The worldwide Flood was not a gentle event. We assume that it was accompanied by volcanic eruptions, which would have left aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Deflecting the sun’s rays, these aerosols would have made the atmospheric temperature less than it is today, whereas the ocean temperatures immediately after the Flood would have been slightly warmer than today. Greater evaporation would occur into colder air, resulting in much more precipitation than we have today – much of it as snow.
Secular scientists suggest that this Ice Age would have lasted about 100,000 years, but meteorologist Michael Oard has shown that such a great length of time was not necessary for glacial effects, and could be explained by just 200 years of post-Flood history.
Perhaps the ice mentioned in the book of Job could be a reference to such an Ice Age, when we read in Job 28:30 “the waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen”. A biblical model makes sense of the observed scientific facts.
This is Your world, Lord, and I thank You that You are always in charge. Amen.
HUMAN RIGHTS FOR CHIMPANZEES
Ecclesiastes 3:21
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
I loved the zoo, when I was a boy. How we used to laugh at the antics of the chimpanzees at their “tea parties”! We were amused that they wore clothes, as they performed activities that looked vaguely human. Well, we kept on laughing, until we decided that it was an improper anthropomorphism, and the events were banned.
The media have recently reported talk of reclassifying chimpanzees, because the researchers claim (wrongly) that chimps are very closely related to humans – even more closely than they are related to other great apes, such as gorillas and orangutans.
The physical similarities between humans and apes are supposed to be evidence for a common ancestor. These similarities, however, are exactly what we would expect, if humans and chimps had a common designer, rather than a common ancestor. That designer is, of course, God.
Classifying chimps as humans could presumably lead to chimps being granted protection under human rights legislation. How would such legislation affect the actions of law enforcement officers, in the event of a chimp escaping from a zoo? In one such incident, a chimp was assumed to be potentially dangerous, and was shot dead.
The writer of Ecclesiastes draws a distinction between animals and humans, observing that “the spirit of the sons of men... goes upward, and the spirit of the animal... goes down to the earth”. Evolutionary philosophy is leading to absurd conclusions, and it is only a biblical worldview, from which flows common sense.
What is man that You are mindful of him, Lord? Thank You that You cared for me, and sent Your Son to die for me. Amen.
Ecclesiastes 3:21
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
I loved the zoo, when I was a boy. How we used to laugh at the antics of the chimpanzees at their “tea parties”! We were amused that they wore clothes, as they performed activities that looked vaguely human. Well, we kept on laughing, until we decided that it was an improper anthropomorphism, and the events were banned.
The media have recently reported talk of reclassifying chimpanzees, because the researchers claim (wrongly) that chimps are very closely related to humans – even more closely than they are related to other great apes, such as gorillas and orangutans.
The physical similarities between humans and apes are supposed to be evidence for a common ancestor. These similarities, however, are exactly what we would expect, if humans and chimps had a common designer, rather than a common ancestor. That designer is, of course, God.
Classifying chimps as humans could presumably lead to chimps being granted protection under human rights legislation. How would such legislation affect the actions of law enforcement officers, in the event of a chimp escaping from a zoo? In one such incident, a chimp was assumed to be potentially dangerous, and was shot dead.
The writer of Ecclesiastes draws a distinction between animals and humans, observing that “the spirit of the sons of men... goes upward, and the spirit of the animal... goes down to the earth”. Evolutionary philosophy is leading to absurd conclusions, and it is only a biblical worldview, from which flows common sense.
What is man that You are mindful of him, Lord? Thank You that You cared for me, and sent Your Son to die for me. Amen.
HOW DID DINOSAURS DIE OUT?
Job 40:19
[Behemoth] is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
A report in a British newspaper about 10 years ago suggested that dinosaurs may have died out, because they picked up diseases from insect bites, with which they were not able to cope. Previously, it had been an article of faith for over 20 years that dinosaurs had died out as a result of a massive asteroid strike on the Earth, supposedly at Chicxulub, Mexico. The BBC’s popular CGI-based documentary series, “Walking with Dinosaurs”, showed this catastrophic event, which they suggest kicked up clouds of dust into the atmosphere, thus changing the climate and making it unwelcome to dinosaurs. The problem with the Mexican asteroid is that it offers no explanation as to why dinosaurs should have gone extinct, but not more environmentally sensitive groups, such as butterflies or frogs.
The insect bite theory appears to be no better. Why would disease-carrying insects have preferred the taste of dinosaur blood to that of mammal blood? Changes in theories of dinosaur extinction are nothing new. When I was in elementary school, my teacher confidently taught us that dinosaurs had died out, because their egg shells became too thin to survive.
When we accept Genesis as literal truth, the great dinosaur mystery disappears. Most dinosaurs, in common with all other land animals not on the Ark, were killed in the Flood. Some of these were rapidly fossilized. After the Flood, many remaining large reptilian creatures began to die out. That some remained for a considerable period is confirmed by the many legends that exist about dinosaurs (or dragons). The fact that some scientists have moved away from the scientifically orthodox asteroid impact theory merely underlines that we should have simply accepted the Bible all along.
Thank You, Lord, that in Jesus are hidden all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge. Amen.
Job 40:19
[Behemoth] is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
A report in a British newspaper about 10 years ago suggested that dinosaurs may have died out, because they picked up diseases from insect bites, with which they were not able to cope. Previously, it had been an article of faith for over 20 years that dinosaurs had died out as a result of a massive asteroid strike on the Earth, supposedly at Chicxulub, Mexico. The BBC’s popular CGI-based documentary series, “Walking with Dinosaurs”, showed this catastrophic event, which they suggest kicked up clouds of dust into the atmosphere, thus changing the climate and making it unwelcome to dinosaurs. The problem with the Mexican asteroid is that it offers no explanation as to why dinosaurs should have gone extinct, but not more environmentally sensitive groups, such as butterflies or frogs.
The insect bite theory appears to be no better. Why would disease-carrying insects have preferred the taste of dinosaur blood to that of mammal blood? Changes in theories of dinosaur extinction are nothing new. When I was in elementary school, my teacher confidently taught us that dinosaurs had died out, because their egg shells became too thin to survive.
When we accept Genesis as literal truth, the great dinosaur mystery disappears. Most dinosaurs, in common with all other land animals not on the Ark, were killed in the Flood. Some of these were rapidly fossilized. After the Flood, many remaining large reptilian creatures began to die out. That some remained for a considerable period is confirmed by the many legends that exist about dinosaurs (or dragons). The fact that some scientists have moved away from the scientifically orthodox asteroid impact theory merely underlines that we should have simply accepted the Bible all along.
Thank You, Lord, that in Jesus are hidden all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge. Amen.
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