CREATION MOMENTS: 5.27.17

CONSIDER THE PRAIRIE LUPINES, HOW THEY GROW

Luke 12:27a

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not;
The remarkable recovery of flora and fauna around Mount St Helens, since the devastating eruption of 1980, was aided in large measure by a seemingly insignificant little plant, called the Prairie Lupine. It grows no taller than 24 inches, but is usually much smaller, with tiny blue flowers. Today, it grows in abundance in the areas most affected by the eruption and landslide.

Like all lupines, it is a legume. This means that it makes its own nitrogen compounds – an essential mineral for plants to grow. We say that it fixes nitrogen. The volcanic soil is deficient in this mineral, so the value of the plant is obvious, as it fixes more than enough for itself, and provides extra nitrogen for other, neighboring plants.

To be exact, it is not the plant itself that does the fixing. This is done by soil bacteria, called rhizobia, which reside in nodules in the roots of the lupine. What is even more interesting is that these bacteria cannot fix nitrogen, without attaching themselves to a suitable host plant, such as the lupine. So, the lupine needs the rhizobia, and the rhizobia need the lupine. This interdependency is known as a symbiotic relationship. A problem for the evolutionist is to explain whether the rhizobia evolved before the lupine, or vice versa. A far more scientific explanation is that both were designed by God for just such interdependence. Once again, the area around Mount St Helens, and the plants that live there, reveal the magnificence of God’s creative work.

Thank You, Lord, that nothing in this world has been left to chance by You. We see Your marvelous design, even in the way that flowers grow, and we thank You that You care for us much more than these flowers. Amen.

 

 

WHERE ARE YOU, GOLDILOCKS?

Isaiah 45:18

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
Secular astronomers have defined a region around each star as the Circumstellar Habitable Zone. It is in this zone that it is assumed that life as we know it, Jim, could exist. The closer a planet is to its star, the higher its average temperature would be, unless there are other factors (like the runaway Greenhouse Effect on Venus). On planet Earth, life depends on liquid water, but the liquid phase of water actually has quite a narrow temperature range, compared to many other liquid phases – just 100 degrees on the Celsius scale, or 180 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale. If the planet is too close to its star, all the water will be steam, but if it is too far away, all the water will be ice. In fact, there is only a narrow circular band where water would be in the liquid phase, and this is the Circumstellar Habitable Zone, or CHZ – not too cold and not too hot! The CHZ is often popularly called the Goldilocks Zone, after the little girl in the nursery rhyme, who, when trying the porridge belonging to the bears, found one bowl too hot, and one bowl too cold, but the other bowl just right.

It is assumed, then, that water could exist mostly as a liquid in the Goldilocks Zone, and that, therefore, life similar to that on the Earth could evolve. Astute listeners will realize that this is all highly presuppositional. God, who decreed that it is the Earth that is inhabited, does not appear to have placed life anywhere else. No amount of water of the right temperature can cause to appear what only God can create.

Thank You, Lord, for making this world just right for us to live in. Thank You for the gift of water, which quenches our thirst, and revives our bodies. Thank You especially for the Living Water, which Jesus provides. Amen.

 

GOLDILOCKS AND THE WOLF STAR

Genesis 1:16b

… he made the stars also.
In a previous Creation Moments, we talked about the Circumstellar Habitable Zone, or CHZ, which is a region around a star, where astronomers think that water is likely to be in liquid phase. This zone, not too hot and not too cold, is sometimes called the Goldilocks Zone.

A star, known as Wolf 1061, approximately 14 light years away from us, is thought to be orbited by at least three planets. The third of these, reckoned by distance from the star, is within the Goldilocks Zone. Therefore, there is speculation about whether it could support life.

One astronomer, studying the planet, known as Wolf 1061c, has noted that its orbit is more eccentric than that of Earth. Additionally, the host star is a red dwarf, so the orbit of the planet is shorter, and the orbital period faster, than that of Earth. He speculates that the climate of the planet could therefore be somewhat chaotic.

It should be noted that these so-called exoplanets are not actually observed by telescope. Their existence is inferred from observed data, such as spectroscopy, and variations in the star’s light and movements. We find nothing wrong per se with the educated guesswork used, to paint word pictures of these supposed environments, but it is disingenuous to describe the planets as if life had almost already been discovered. As we have previously noted, much of the speculation is based on evolutionary presuppositions. It is better to base our legitimate imagination on the hard reality of what God tells us about how He made the universe, in the pages of the Bible.

When we look at the heavens that You have created, Lord God, we stand in amazement. We thank You that, in Your creative power, You were still mindful of us. Thank You for being our Father. Amen.

San Francisco State University. (2017, January 19). Astronomer searches for signs of life on Wolf 1061 exoplanet: Searching for signs of life in one of the extrasolar systems closest to Earth. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 22, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170119161546.htm
Image: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, credits ESO/M. Kornmesser

 

 IS THE UNIVERSE A HOLOGRAM?

Romans 1:21

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Many astrophysicists have speculated that the universe is like a four dimensional sphere. If we imagine that we were ants, living on the surface of a very large beach ball, we might think that the surface on which we stood was a flat surface, even though it stretches around and back on itself in a sphere through the third dimension. In the same way, astrophysicists surmise that our impression of a 3D universe is just that; it is really stretched back on itself, through a 4th physical dimension (this 4th dimension being physical, not like the 4th dimension of time proposed by Einstein). Why do scientists imagine such a complex scenario, without any real evidence for it? It is because certain measurements give every indication that our galaxy is near the center of the universe, but this is philosophically uncomfortable for secularists. The 4D sphere enables them to imagine that every point in the universe is central, so nowhere is special.

Difficulties with this model are legion, so, recently, a team of astrophysicists at the University of Southampton, England, have supposed that the universe is like a 4D hologram. Holograms that we see on some credit cards look as if they are 3D, but actually the information is encoded in 2D. In a similar manner, the Southampton scientists imagine a sort of 4D encoding, which is really in 3D.

As we have often noted, these complex scenarios are necessary only because secular scientists cannot imagine that God has special purposes for the planet that we live on, and for the human race, of which we are a part.

Help us to remember, O God, that Yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory forever. Amen.

 

 

SHOULD WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN EVOLUTION?

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
In creation ministries, such as this, we are very eager that people should see the fallacies and the lack of a good scientific basis for evolutionism. Instead, we point people to the factual basis for science, found in the pages of God’s Word. It is particularly important that we do not allow our children to be indoctrinated by the godlessness of secular philosophies. It is for reasons such as this, that many parents prefer their children to be educated in Christian schools, or to be homeschooled. For those parents, the question will surely arise; is it a good thing to teach my children about evolution, or should we teach them only about biblical creation?

It is our opinion that children do, in fact, need to know about the theory of evolution. It is a fact that the majority of the world’s scientists believe in evolution. So, if we are telling our children that evolution is wrong, then they need to know why it is wrong.

For example, it is good for students to study the life and work of Charles Darwin. They need to understand how his mind was working, and how this affected the ideas that he presented. Of course, we also want to teach our children to analyze these ideas critically, and to explain why we do not accept them. In fact, I would argue that children of Christian parents should be better educated about evolution than their non-Christian peers!

None of this should detract from our primary purpose, however, to show our children that the God we worship is the Creator God, who has made everything well.

Please help us, Lord, to bring up our children, the way that You would have us do. Above all, we pray that You will draw them to Yourself and save them, for the honor and the glory of Your Name. Amen.

Image: Adobe Stock Photos, licensed to author

 

CREATION MOMENTS: 5.20.17

THE ROAD TO MOUNT ST HELENS

Psalm 29:9

The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.
Most people visit the area around Mount St Helens, by leaving Interstate 5 in Washington state at exit 49, and traveling East, along a road called Spirit Lake Highway. The road is so called, because, before 1980, it used to terminate at Spirit Lake. The lake is no longer accessible by road from the West, and even from the East, a substantial hike is required. So, I like to refer to Spirit Lake Highway as the Road to Mount St Helens.

There is so much of interest to see along this road, which points to God’s amazing power. From the road, you can view the remains of the mudflows, along the Toutle River, a vacation home partially buried in mud, and petrified wood, found in a cutting by the roadside. Closer to the volcano, magnificent views of the mountain open up, enabling the visitor to ponder on the massive extent of the change in the landscape, and the rapid pace of recovery since then. Evolutionists have difficulty accounting for all these changes, but they are easy to explain, within a biblical creationist context. The area provides a unique opportunity, not to prove that the Bible is true, because the Bible is true anyway, but to understand, on a big scale, some of the consequences of knowing that what God has said in His word is true.

We stand in awe of Your works, O Lord. Thank You for all that we see in the world around us, which confirms that Your word is true. Amen.

The Road to Mount St Helens, (Toutle, WA: J6D Publications, 2016)
Image: Adobe Stock Photos, licensed for use by author

 

SPIRIT LAKE

Psalm 29:10

The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever.
To the North of Mount St Helens is a beautiful lake, called Spirit Lake – probably from trapped water in an earlier eruption of the volcano. This lake played a fascinating role in the events of May 19th 1980, when the mountain blew.

The volcano erupted laterally. That is to say, its eruption was horizontal, rather than vertical. The volcanic blast knocked down enormous, mature trees on the heavily forested mountainsides up to 17 miles away. Part of the landslide, caused by this eruption, went into Spirit Lake, and pushed its water, in a huge wave, 800 feet up the mountainside opposite, where the trees had, moments before, been knocked down by the blast. The returning water brought with it a million trees. This water settled on top of landslide debris, so the bottom of the lake is now some 300 feet higher than it was before the events of 1980. The hillside today bears the scars of that wave. Below the 800ft mark, there are few trees, whereas above that point, there are many fallen trees remaining nearly 40 years on.

This landscape, like so many in the area, was changed catastrophically, in minutes. The change did not take millions of years. In Genesis, we read that the entire world’s surface was changed by a devastating worldwide flood. It is not a surprise to us, therefore, to see how fast the landscape was changed, in this small, localized catastrophe, without requiring millions of evolutionary years.

Lord, we acknowledge that You are in control, even of natural events. Nothing takes You by surprise, and You are Sovereign over all. Amen.

Image License: photo taken by author

 

 THE MOST OFFENSIVE VERSE

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
I recently recorded a Creation Moments program about the Trinity, as reflected in the first verse of the Bible. My reason for revisiting this matter is for two reasons. 1. I read a blog, entitled “Genesis 1:1 – the Most Offensive Verse in the Bible”, and 2. A recent visit from religious people to my door.

When we teach High School children to write essays, we expect them to lay out all the arguments for and against a proposition, with their conclusion. The Bible is not a High School essay! You will not find a discussion of the relative merits of arguments for and against the existence of God. Indeed, the Bible starts with the simple sentence “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” This states that there was indeed a beginning, and that God, who must, therefore, have existed before that beginning, created everything.

I was recently visited by a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses. We had a friendly discussion, during which I shared the Gospel – though they wanted to discuss points of doctrine, such as the Trinity. Having shown them a couple of verses that explain the Trinity, or the Deity of Christ, I pointed them to the first verse of the Bible, and explained how the word for “God” is triply plural, while the word for “created” is singular; best explained by the Trinity. For the first time in our conversation, these two men got very angry. They denounced my exegesis in all sorts of ways!

Jesus said, in Matthew 11:6, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Yet all those who do not acknowledge Him will be offended by Him.

Help us, please Lord, to proclaim the truth of who You are. Help us to do this with boldness, knowing that it is You who created this entire universe, for Your Glory. Amen.

WHICH WAY THE WIND BLOWS

John 3:7-8

Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
As I sat in my office, to write this program, the wind was howling outside. We have some idea, today, of why the wind blows, as the atmosphere contains shifting areas of high and low pressure. However, the direction of the wind is not simply from high to low – other factors, such as the rotation of the Earth, are also important. From a human perspective, the unpredictability of the wind – where it comes from, and where it goes to – is understood in the common English phrase “Which way the wind blows”, which I looked up in several online dictionaries of idioms and quotations, to see that it referred to the changing nature of the world. But none of the sites that I visited referred to a Bible passage that says the same thing.

When I was a very young Christian, a contemporary song of the time had exactly this title, and was performed by a group called the Second Chapter of Acts. The song compared the uncertainty experienced by unbelievers, with the certain knowledge we have in Christ. In fact, it was Jesus who referred to this, in John 3. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes”. Jesus said this, to emphasize to Nicodemus the importance of being born again – of being born of the Spirit. When the wind blows, it is one more “natural” reminder that should point us to the Savior, because He is the One who knows which way the wind blows.

Lord God, thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to take the punishment for our sins, that we might be born again of the Spirit. Amen.

Image: Adobe Stock Photos, licensed to author

 

AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT ST HELENS

Psalm 29:7-8

The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
In another Creation Moment, I talked about the Road to Mount St Helens. One of my favorite spots on this road can be found 40 miles along the road – still 12 miles short of the dead end at the Johnston Ridge Observatory. At this point, you will find Castle Lake Viewpoint. Castle Lake can be seen across the valley – a lake, which did not exist before the 1980 eruption, but collected in a side valley, which was blocked by the amazing landslide. Even more spectacular to me is the view of Mount St Helens, and the area below it, where we can see the unique eco-system known as the Hummocks, which are little hills, where portions of the landslide lost energy, and settled in lumps, as would happen to baking flour, poured down a sloping baking sheet.

The landscape of the Hummocks was barren in the aftermath of the eruption. Scientists, at the time, supposed that a thousand years would be needed for the area to recover. Yet, recovery began in months, and can now be seen to be extensive – just as the recovery of the whole world would have been after the Flood. Most of the Visitors’ Centers close to the volcano refer to the “remarkable” or “astounding” rate of recovery seen in the Monument area – an area where deliberate planting has been banned since the eruption. For Believers, we are reminded that this recovery is exactly what we would expect. God oversaw the recovery of an entire planet, after the worldwide devastation that He had sent in Genesis 6 through 8. Rapid recovery at Mount St Helens is only understandable, because the Bible is true.

We love Your word, O God, and we thank You that Your invisible attributes are clearly seen in the whole of creation. Amen.

Ref: The Road to Mount St Helens: A Mount St Helens Creation Center Guidebook, (Toutle, WA: J6D Publications, 2016)
Image: Adobe Stock Photos, license held by author

 

 

CREATION MOMENTS: 5.13.17

FOSSIL TUMORS ARE PROBLEMS FOR THEISTIC EVOLUTION

Genesis 1:25

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
There are many Christians, who choose to believe that God created the world as it is today by guiding a natural process of evolution. Such Christians accept all the teaching of evolutionary biologists, but part company where such evolutionists deny the existence of God. I have often been told “God could have produced this world by evolution, if He wanted to.” What God could have done, however, is not the most important issue. The most important issue is what God Himself said about how He created things.

A recent research article has been published, as a study of an extinct species called gorgonopsians. One fossilized specimen – alleged by evolutionists to be 255 million years old – featured a tumor on the jawbone. This animal had been suffering from cancer.

Theistic evolutionists want to believe that the creation week is simply symbolic in some way of the millions of years of evolution. Yet God saw everything that He had made, and said that it was good. How could this poor extinct gorgonopsian have been said to have a good life, prior to Adam’s sin, if it was suffering from cancer? In a creationist worldview, we see that fossils were produced later – around the time of the Flood, and therefore the reason for such a painful disease being in the world – Adam’s sin – is so much more understandable.

Thank You, Father, that when You created this world, You created it perfect in every way, with no death or sin. Amen.

 

DINOSAUR TAIL FEATHER IN AMBER?

Matthew 6:26

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Evolutionary scientists have recently claimed strong evidence to support the evolution of birds from dinosaurs. Palaeontologist Lida Xing was visiting a market in Myanmar, when he saw a piece of amber, containing a tiny feather, along with the more usual insects. He claimed that the feather had to belong to a dinosaur, rather than a bird, because the vertebrae present in the specimen were all separate. This, he claimed, contrasted with the tail of archaeopteryx, the tip of whose tail has vertebrae which are fused at the terminus. Archaeopteryx is widely accepted to be a bird, although the article on Wikipedia classifies it as a feathered dinosaur.

Creation scientist Dr David Menton has shown that the feather could not have belonged to a dinosaur. Therapod dinosaurs would have been bipedal, and their long tails balance their bodies as they walk, like other bipeds, from their hips. But birds do not walk from their hips. Their femurs and knees are within their body walls. The part of the bird’s leg, often assumed to be a “wrong-facing” knee, is, in fact, equivalent to the ankle in other vertebrates. The amber feathered tail shows that it would have had insufficient weight to provide balance for a bipedal dinosaur. It is much more likely, therefore, that the feathered tail belonged to a bird.

Evolutionists have an a priori commitment to finding feathered dinosaurs, as evidence of evolution. Once again, it is seen that they have jumped the gun, if not the shark, in their enthusiasm.

Help us, Lord, to consider again the works of Your creation, and give You the praise and the glory. Amen.

 

HOW OLD DOES THE EARTH LOOK?

Isaiah 46:9b-10a

I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done…
I have often been asked this question. “If the Earth is only 6,000 years, why does it look as if it is millions of years old?” Other people have suggested that the Earth could look as if it is millions of years old, because God could have chosen to make it look old. However, I am going to suggest a different answer to this question.

To do so, I need you to think about the nature of questions. The question “why does the Earth look as if it is millions of years old” contains a false assumption. The assumption is that it does indeed look millions of years old. But how old does something look, if it is millions of years old? Since the Bible tells us that the Earth is only thousands of years old, there are no million-year-old objects against which to measure such an appearance. Therefore, well-meaning creationists, who suggest that God has incorporated an appearance of age in creation, have conceded the very point that is at issue.

Of course, the Earth does indeed look very old. It looks about 6,000 years old, and it cannot look older, because there has been no time for it to appear older. It is important to interpret our observations from the facts of our biblical presupposition, not the other way around.

We praise You, O God, and declare that there is none like You, the Ancient of Days. Amen.

 

 THREE IN ONE IN GENESIS

Colossians 1:16

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they bethrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
One of the most fundamental doctrines about the nature of God is the doctrine of the Trinity. This primary doctrine states that there is only one Being called God. At the same time, we find in the Bible that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all described as God, and as Persons in their own right. Therefore, God is One Being, yet Three Persons.

This doctrine is derived in the New Testament, yet reflected in the Old Testament, in passages, such as Isaiah 48:16. One of the Old Testament passages, best explained by the Trinity, is the very first verse of the Bible. In Genesis 1:1, the Hebrew word for God is Elohim, and this word is a plural, which must imply at least 3. Yet the verb “created”, which follows (bara) is in the singular form, as if its preceding subject were singular, rather than triply plural.

We would not derive the doctrine of the Trinity from Genesis 1:1 alone. However, having previously seen the importance and truth of this doctrine elsewhere, it makes sense to understand the strange grammar of the Bible’s first verse, by presupposing the Trinity.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and shall be forever, Amen.

 

 

GOD’S RAINBOW

Genesis 9:13

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
Rainbows are beautiful. But why do they happen?

Isaac Newton showed in his famous experiment that white light is a mixture of colors, which can be separated by refraction, or bending, using a prism. Light is similarly refracted by droplets of rainwater in the atmosphere, when the sunlight shines on them. The large bow-shaped spectrum of colors thus produced is what we see as a rainbow.

Yet there is a deeper reason for the existence of the rainbow. God has given it as a “sign of the covenant”. The rainbow is not the covenant – it is the sign of that covenant. God has promised to all humanity, that the seasons will continue, as long as the Earth does, and that He will never again send a Flood to deluge the whole world. God would be within His rights to send another Flood, but He does not do so, because of His mercy.

Other groups of people have wanted to commandeer the use of the rainbow, as a symbol for their own ideas, cultures and behaviors. Yet the Bible is clear what the appearance of the rainbow is meant to signify for us. God has given a clear message of mercy and hope, through the appearance of this remarkable and beautiful phenomenon.

Thank You, Lord God, for Your rainbow in the clouds. And thank You that it speaks to us of Your love and mercy. Amen.

 

CREATION MOMENTS: 5.6.17

LIFE AND PHYSICS

Colossians 1:17

And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
It is rumored that GK Chesterton sad “When a man stops believing in God, he does not believe in nothing – he believes in anything”. Of course, the quote is somewhat inaccurate. It was actually said by Émile Cammaerts, in his book The Laughing Prophet: The Seven Virtues and G. K. Chesterton, and what Cammaerts actually said, in commenting on Chesterton’s views, was “The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything”. Nevertheless, the point still holds. Stopping belief in God does not, as some would have it, lead to rational thought.

There is a study, known as astrobiology – the study of life in outer space. One might imagine that astrobiologists are not very busy, but, as we reported in another Creation Moments broadcast, there are those who believe that alien life is the explanation for life on Earth. It is unsurprising that such a conclusion should be reached, by those, whose philosophical starting point is that there is no God.

Those of us, who know the Bible as the correct starting point, say that it is unlikely that we will find life in outer space. That is because the Bible makes clear that the Earth is the Center of God’s purposes. He created the Earth, before He created all the other astronomical bodies. It is on the Earth that Jesus Christ was incarnate. And it is to the Earth that Jesus will one day return.

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us this Earth, to be inhabited. Thank You that You designed it for us, and You placed us on it to look after it. Amen.

 

ALIENS IN THE DARK MATTER

Romans 1:21

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke once said “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. I guess it is true that the concept of having all the information of the Internet on my pocket cellphone would have seemed like magic to me, during my teenage years in the 1970s. The quote has often been used to suggest that super-intelligent alien lifeforms would appear to us like deities, if they ever visited us. Astrobiologist Caleb Scharf has now suggested that some super-advanced alien technology might not appear to us like magic, but like physics.

The concept that the universe looks so well designed that it must, in fact, be designed, has been acknowledged by many unbelievers for quite some time. As they cannot attribute such design to a deity, there are many who attribute it to the work of alien intelligence. Scharf has gone a step further, proposing that the entire universe is a sort-of alien laboratory. In support of his position, he cites the existence of dark matter – the supposed “extra” matter, required to make the gravitational forces of the universe work in a Big Bang scenario, despite the fact that, by definition, no one can detect this dark matter.

It is noteworthy that creationist cosmogonies do not require the supposition of dark matter. And, once again, we see that certain scientists accept the inevitability of evidence for design, without ascribing the honor for that design where it is deserved. This reminds us of Romans 1:21 – “Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him”.

Heavenly Father, when we look at the Heavens, the work of Your fingers, we stand in awe of You, and ascribe to You all the praise and glory. Amen.

 

 WHY DOES GOD ASK QUESTIONS?

Ezekiel 33:11

Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Why does God ask questions? He has been asking questions, since the beginning of time.

For example, in Genesis 3, God called to Adam “Where are you?” Did God not know? Of course He knew. So why did He ask? Again, in the same chapter, once Adam had told Him that they had hidden, because they were naked, He asked “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Once again, God knew what the serpent had said, and what Adam and Eve had done. There are many other examples in Scripture. If God knew the answers to the questions already – and, after all, He is omniscient – then the questions were not for His benefit. They were for the benefit of those who He asked. In this case, His questions were for the benefit of Adam and Eve. They were designed, so that they could confess their sins, and repent. Sin is disobedience to God’s Law. God’s Law, at that time, was not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Scripture does not tell us if Adam and Eve had repented – though, for other reasons, I suspect they did. Notice that God did not ask any questions of the serpent, who is Satan, because there was no opportunity for such a spirit being to repent. But for us, there is that opportunity for complete salvation, if we will repent and trust in Christ.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the salvation offered to all those, who will repent and put their trust in Jesus. Amen.

 

HE FORMED IT TO BE INHABITED

Isaiah 45:18

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
There are those who believe that they can read the supposed evolutionary order of things into the account of creation in Genesis 1. However, when we look more closely, we realize that there are a number of discrepancies, which cannot be reconciled. Even evolutionary atheists have noticed this – for example, Richard Dawkins is adamant that it is not possible to harmonize Genesis with evolution.

One of the most obvious of these discrepancies is that Genesis tells us that God made the Earth before He made all other astronomical objects. The Earth was created on Day One, whereas the greater and lesser lights and the stars were created on the Fourth Day.

The Earth is the focus of God’s activity, and in particular the human race, who He has purposed to live here, to have dominion over it. He tells us in Isaiah 45:18 “For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other.’”

God says “I am the Lord, and there is no other”. To prove this to us, if proof were needed, He reminds us not only that He created everything, but that “He formed it to be inhabited”. It is through humanity, and therefore, ultimately, through the person of Jesus Christ, that the creation of the Earth has its fulfillment and meaning.

Thank You, Lord God, for this planet, on which You have placed us. We thank You that Your love and mercy are demonstrated throughout creation, but most especially in the work of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

BACTERIAL RESEARCH DOES NOT REQUIRE EVOLUTION

2 Timothy 2:15

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Scientists at the University of Lincoln, in the UK, have discovered that there is no link between the shape of bacteria and their movement. The study, published in Nature’s Ecology and Evolution Journal, concerned the famous flagellum motors possessed by many bacteria. Their reasonable predictions that rod shaped bacteria would move faster than other shapes proved to have no support.

Such experiments are interesting, and indicative of good science, imaginative hypotheses, and the readiness to abandon those hypotheses in the face of contrary evidence. However, these biologists, like so many others, feel the need to present their findings in an evolutionary context. One of the scientists commented “We fully expected to confirm a widely-held belief, backed by strong theoretical predictions, that rod-shaped cells would move more effectively than coccoid (spherical) cells, and that shape and motility had co-evolved.” Those of us with a biblical creationist starting point can see that the attempt to fit real science into an imaginary evolutionary commentary is superfluous.

Such hyperbole once more underlines why research is better carried out under biblical presuppositions, without the need to pay homage to a false framework of biological history, in order to make sure that funding sources do not evaporate. If scientists were freed of these evolutionary shackles, they would find it so much easier to research into the wonderful world, in which God has placed us.

All of life has come from You, Heavenly Father. We praise You for all that we learn about You from Your Word and Your creation. Amen.