ORIGINS: YOUR ANSWER MATTERS!
Hebrews 12:1
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us…”
What makes something right or wrong? Are things that are sometimes wrong always wrong? Most writers and commentators, even most preachers today, have problems with the question of right and wrong. That seems amazing since only a generation or two ago few people had any problems at all with the issue of right and wrong. About the only act that seems to be universally accepted as wrong today is to claim that there is an absolute standard of morality!
How did things change so fast? That’s not hard to answer. When people accepted that they were made by a Creator, they accepted one important consequence of that fact – the Creator owns us lock, stock and barrel and therefore has every right to hold us accountable for our actions. Many people understood that God was determined to steer us from the wrong and urge us toward the right because the wrong hurts us while the right provides us with a sense of fulfilment. So, life cannot be full when the Creator is not included.
When evolutionists convinced much of the population that this personal Creator was a myth, people began to reason that without a Creator, right and wrong were up for grabs – morality was not absolute. And that is just what the first architects of evolution said would happen if evolution was adopted!
Dear Lord Jesus, it is because You have carried the punishment for my sin on the cross and because You were raised on the third day that I have a new, meaningful life to live. Help me to live it and to have the joy that comes only from You. Amen.
Photo: Illustration of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, where ethical decisions are said to be made. Courtesy of Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Hebrews 12:1
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us…”
What makes something right or wrong? Are things that are sometimes wrong always wrong? Most writers and commentators, even most preachers today, have problems with the question of right and wrong. That seems amazing since only a generation or two ago few people had any problems at all with the issue of right and wrong. About the only act that seems to be universally accepted as wrong today is to claim that there is an absolute standard of morality!
How did things change so fast? That’s not hard to answer. When people accepted that they were made by a Creator, they accepted one important consequence of that fact – the Creator owns us lock, stock and barrel and therefore has every right to hold us accountable for our actions. Many people understood that God was determined to steer us from the wrong and urge us toward the right because the wrong hurts us while the right provides us with a sense of fulfilment. So, life cannot be full when the Creator is not included.
When evolutionists convinced much of the population that this personal Creator was a myth, people began to reason that without a Creator, right and wrong were up for grabs – morality was not absolute. And that is just what the first architects of evolution said would happen if evolution was adopted!
Dear Lord Jesus, it is because You have carried the punishment for my sin on the cross and because You were raised on the third day that I have a new, meaningful life to live. Help me to live it and to have the joy that comes only from You. Amen.
Photo: Illustration of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, where ethical decisions are said to be made. Courtesy of Patrick J. Lynch, medical illustrator. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
IS THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL THOUSANDS OF YEARS OLD?
Matthew 3:9
“And think not to say to within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
Did you know that according to one standard method of dating, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. was built before the time of Christ?
Anyone who has ever visited a cave has heard the claim that the stalactites growing in the cave take, on the average, a full century to grow only one inch. Cave visitors stand in awe as they view stalactites and stalagmites up to 40 feet tall. The hundreds of thousands of years of Earth’s history begin to become a reality before their eyes. But the question is, does it really take a century to grow one inch of stalactite?
When the Lincoln Memorial was built during the 1930s, the engineers sank steel cylinders into the bedrock to anchor the monument. The base of the memorial is set high above ground, leaving a cavernous basement beneath the floor. Rainwater seeping through the marble floor has formed stalactites up to five feet long on the basement ceiling! This growth is an inch per year, not per century!
In a very real sense, the stalactites in the basement of the Lincoln Memorial are rocks that carry the testimony of God against the naturalistic, long-age stories of evolution. Isn’t it only right that we who know His love in Christ should tell others of His Creation as given to us in Scripture?
Dear Father, I thank You that You have given me Your Word, the Bible. Help me to truly live as Your child by bearing witness to Your truth in this doubting world. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
“Leaking Marble.” Gems and Mineral Merchandiser, March 1983, p. 6. Photo: Lincoln Memorial at dusk. Courtesy of Erich Robert Joli Weber. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Matthew 3:9
“And think not to say to within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
Did you know that according to one standard method of dating, the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. was built before the time of Christ?
Anyone who has ever visited a cave has heard the claim that the stalactites growing in the cave take, on the average, a full century to grow only one inch. Cave visitors stand in awe as they view stalactites and stalagmites up to 40 feet tall. The hundreds of thousands of years of Earth’s history begin to become a reality before their eyes. But the question is, does it really take a century to grow one inch of stalactite?
When the Lincoln Memorial was built during the 1930s, the engineers sank steel cylinders into the bedrock to anchor the monument. The base of the memorial is set high above ground, leaving a cavernous basement beneath the floor. Rainwater seeping through the marble floor has formed stalactites up to five feet long on the basement ceiling! This growth is an inch per year, not per century!
In a very real sense, the stalactites in the basement of the Lincoln Memorial are rocks that carry the testimony of God against the naturalistic, long-age stories of evolution. Isn’t it only right that we who know His love in Christ should tell others of His Creation as given to us in Scripture?
Dear Father, I thank You that You have given me Your Word, the Bible. Help me to truly live as Your child by bearing witness to Your truth in this doubting world. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
“Leaking Marble.” Gems and Mineral Merchandiser, March 1983, p. 6. Photo: Lincoln Memorial at dusk. Courtesy of Erich Robert Joli Weber. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
SWIMMING IN SAND
Romans 11:33-36
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”
Their crystalline world might seem like another planet as they swim past monolithic crystals larger than themselves and down channels lined with nearly clear, often form-fitted boulders. But this exotic world is not on another planet. It may be below your feet.
While the wet sand of the beach may sometimes appear to be completely lifeless, it is literally saturated with life. Under a microscope, you would see countless creatures, some of them so small that they can actually swim in the small amounts of water between grains of sand. There might be tiny sand fleas which were washed ashore, appearing as giants next to the single-celled dinoflagellates which swim freely between the grains. The microscope can also show tiny marine worms and crustaceans of unimagined shapes navigating channels that may be smaller than a human hair. And even if you were to take dry sand from high above the water line and add water, you would soon find it teeming with the same kind of life.
Man’s sin has caused untold destruction of the perfect form of God’s creation. However, that original creation was so vibrant and wonderful that even the present shadow of what God originally made is saturated with life and beauty. While even our best science cannot hope to create anything like this, who among us creatures could even imagine creating such wonders!
Dear Lord Jesus Christ, the wonders that were made through You are beyond my ability to imagine. Help me to always remember that I look toward a new heaven and Earth, even as I have been made a new creation through Your saving work. Amen.
William H. Amos. “The Living Sand.” National Geographic, Vol. 127, No. 6, pp. 828-833. Photo: At night, bioluminescent dinoflagellates can give water the appearance of sparkling light. Courtesy of Hans Hillewaert. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Romans 11:33-36
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”
Their crystalline world might seem like another planet as they swim past monolithic crystals larger than themselves and down channels lined with nearly clear, often form-fitted boulders. But this exotic world is not on another planet. It may be below your feet.
While the wet sand of the beach may sometimes appear to be completely lifeless, it is literally saturated with life. Under a microscope, you would see countless creatures, some of them so small that they can actually swim in the small amounts of water between grains of sand. There might be tiny sand fleas which were washed ashore, appearing as giants next to the single-celled dinoflagellates which swim freely between the grains. The microscope can also show tiny marine worms and crustaceans of unimagined shapes navigating channels that may be smaller than a human hair. And even if you were to take dry sand from high above the water line and add water, you would soon find it teeming with the same kind of life.
Man’s sin has caused untold destruction of the perfect form of God’s creation. However, that original creation was so vibrant and wonderful that even the present shadow of what God originally made is saturated with life and beauty. While even our best science cannot hope to create anything like this, who among us creatures could even imagine creating such wonders!
Dear Lord Jesus Christ, the wonders that were made through You are beyond my ability to imagine. Help me to always remember that I look toward a new heaven and Earth, even as I have been made a new creation through Your saving work. Amen.
William H. Amos. “The Living Sand.” National Geographic, Vol. 127, No. 6, pp. 828-833. Photo: At night, bioluminescent dinoflagellates can give water the appearance of sparkling light. Courtesy of Hans Hillewaert. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER SAYS MAN IS DIVINE CREATION
Romans 1:20
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”
When he was 17, medical student John Eccles began asking questions about the nature of man, what is thought, and what is the meaning of life? Fifty years later, after he had become one of the world’s greatest experts on the human brain, had become Sir John Eccles and had received the Nobel Prize, he felt free enough to speak out about his studies.
Sir John made it perfectly clear that the purely materialistic and evolutionary definition of man simply isn’t supported by science. He pointed out that his research has helped us describe in great detail what happens in the brain, nerves and muscles when you decide to move your finger. But, he says, there is no material event that describes how this complex sequence of actions gets started. Man, he concludes, is more than tissue. Man has a non-material mind. He thinks scientists who say that man can be fully explained by materialistic principles are spreading a modern form of superstition. He adds, “Their beliefs are worn out, they lead us nowhere. Materialism gives you a hopeless, empty life, one without values.”
Sir John concluded, “Each of us is a unique, conscious being, a divine creation…it is the only view consistent with all the evidence.” At least to this last one point we say a hearty, Amen!
Dear Father in heaven, I pray that You would provide a witnessing Christian at the side of every person who has been led to an empty life by the materialism of our age so that they might be guided to a full life in Your Son, Jesus Christ. In His Name. Amen.
Jennifer Boeth. “A Scientific God.” Dallas Times Herald, Feb. 3, 1983, pp. 1,8. Photo: Sir John Carew Eccles (1903-1997). Courtesy of John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Romans 1:20
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”
When he was 17, medical student John Eccles began asking questions about the nature of man, what is thought, and what is the meaning of life? Fifty years later, after he had become one of the world’s greatest experts on the human brain, had become Sir John Eccles and had received the Nobel Prize, he felt free enough to speak out about his studies.
Sir John made it perfectly clear that the purely materialistic and evolutionary definition of man simply isn’t supported by science. He pointed out that his research has helped us describe in great detail what happens in the brain, nerves and muscles when you decide to move your finger. But, he says, there is no material event that describes how this complex sequence of actions gets started. Man, he concludes, is more than tissue. Man has a non-material mind. He thinks scientists who say that man can be fully explained by materialistic principles are spreading a modern form of superstition. He adds, “Their beliefs are worn out, they lead us nowhere. Materialism gives you a hopeless, empty life, one without values.”
Sir John concluded, “Each of us is a unique, conscious being, a divine creation…it is the only view consistent with all the evidence.” At least to this last one point we say a hearty, Amen!
Dear Father in heaven, I pray that You would provide a witnessing Christian at the side of every person who has been led to an empty life by the materialism of our age so that they might be guided to a full life in Your Son, Jesus Christ. In His Name. Amen.
Jennifer Boeth. “A Scientific God.” Dallas Times Herald, Feb. 3, 1983, pp. 1,8. Photo: Sir John Carew Eccles (1903-1997). Courtesy of John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
ANIMALS THAT MAKE AND USE TOOLS
Proverbs 3:7-8
“Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy naval, and marrow to thy bones.”
At one time textbooks defined man as the only tool-using animal. But then they discovered a number of animals that do use tools. So the definition of man was changed to say that man was the only animal that uses and makes tools. Before long, however, scientists began to discover that many of those tool-using animals actually make their own tools.
For example, chimpanzees will make tools out of sticks and grass to help them fish termites out of logs and trees. Chimps chew leaves to make a sponge that comes in handy for soaking water out of hard-to-drink-from places. Gorillas have been seen using crooked sticks to pull ripe fruit into reach. Elephants use sticks for back-scratchers. The California sea otter uses a stone to break open clamshells. The Galapagos woodpecker finch uses a stick or cactus spine to fish for grubs in trees, and the satin bower bird makes a paint brush out of bark to paint the inside of its bower. But notice that more non-primates than primates make and use tools.
Our growing knowledge of the gift of intelligence that God has given to the animal world clearly shows that tool-making and tool-using have nothing to do with any supposed evolutionary development. But it does lead us to stand in wonder and thanksgiving at God’s goodness towards His Creation!
Heavenly Father, help me to understand that intelligence, ability and even understanding itself are all Your gifts to us and not our own accomplishments. Help me to avoid pride and to use Your gifts as You would have me use them. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Jane Van Lawick-Goodall. “Tool-Using Bird: The Egyptian Vulture.” National Geographic, Vol. 133, No. 5, pp. 633-641. Photo: Chimpanzee using a stick to gather termites. Taken at the Zoological Center of Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan in Israel.
Proverbs 3:7-8
“Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy naval, and marrow to thy bones.”
At one time textbooks defined man as the only tool-using animal. But then they discovered a number of animals that do use tools. So the definition of man was changed to say that man was the only animal that uses and makes tools. Before long, however, scientists began to discover that many of those tool-using animals actually make their own tools.
For example, chimpanzees will make tools out of sticks and grass to help them fish termites out of logs and trees. Chimps chew leaves to make a sponge that comes in handy for soaking water out of hard-to-drink-from places. Gorillas have been seen using crooked sticks to pull ripe fruit into reach. Elephants use sticks for back-scratchers. The California sea otter uses a stone to break open clamshells. The Galapagos woodpecker finch uses a stick or cactus spine to fish for grubs in trees, and the satin bower bird makes a paint brush out of bark to paint the inside of its bower. But notice that more non-primates than primates make and use tools.
Our growing knowledge of the gift of intelligence that God has given to the animal world clearly shows that tool-making and tool-using have nothing to do with any supposed evolutionary development. But it does lead us to stand in wonder and thanksgiving at God’s goodness towards His Creation!
Heavenly Father, help me to understand that intelligence, ability and even understanding itself are all Your gifts to us and not our own accomplishments. Help me to avoid pride and to use Your gifts as You would have me use them. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Jane Van Lawick-Goodall. “Tool-Using Bird: The Egyptian Vulture.” National Geographic, Vol. 133, No. 5, pp. 633-641. Photo: Chimpanzee using a stick to gather termites. Taken at the Zoological Center of Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan in Israel.
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