Christian Apologetics is a consummation of empirical evidence which includes the realms of; science, Biblical manuscripts, philosophy, logic, moral arguments, biology, astronomy, mathematics, paleontology, prophecy, archeology, and history. It is Christian Apologetic’s answer to the theory of evolution and scientific hypothesis of the origin of life and of the universe. Apologetics examine the hard evidence of what we do have, as to opposed to what is assumed.
Apologetics is not an apology for a belief in God, but rather, as the original Greek says, (apologētikos) it is suitable for defense. It is the branch of theology that is concerned with defending or proving the truth of Christian doctrines and this means evidence for Creation, for Jesus Christ and His resurrection. Importantly, it also includes empirical, quantifiable evidence that the Bible is true, as written.
For example, not only is there missing fossil evidence for man, but we have no transitional fossils for animals, mammals, insects, other organic life-forms, and plant life. Three hundred million species and 100 million fossils have been collected and categorized today. The amazing thing is that with these millions upon millions of species and fossils, there is not one single set of transitional fossils that has ever been discovered. Most of the “missing links” turn out to be either hoaxes or extinct species.
Any claims for a lone, single missing link seems ridiculous with the entire chain missing. It may be because you can not find what has never existed. What we do find are plants, already at the flowering stage, appearing suddenly, with no ancestral fossils above or below in the Cambrian period. The same is true with the majority of life forms. Geologically, they appear suddenly and already fully formed with complete body parts, already complete flora, fauna, appendages, etc. Not in a gradual, progressive, evolutionary pattern. Look at evolution’s so-called Tree of Life. Even I can see that a T-rex is not a transitional specie that is interrelated to a chicken! Yet they appear on the same branch of evolution’s hypothetical Tree of Life.
I understand that Apologetics and the Biblical account of Creation swims upstream in this secular culture: one with the predisposition in classrooms, on cable, and on the Internet. If you’ve watched the History Channel, National Geographic, PBS, or the Learning Channel (TLC), evolution is presented as a given fact. You seen cavemen living in the hunting and gathering stage. However, the “facts” manage to do away with the need for conclusive proof, like that of fossil evidence.
The theory of evolution is unable to pass the Scientific Method: On being observable, repeatable, measurable, and falsifiable. If you look closely, the theory of evolution is built upon what has been observed, but not yet proven. It is an educated guess. It’s important to know that theories and scientific laws are quite different. A theory is a hypothesis and much more complex and ambiguous in explanation. It is based upon presuppositions and abstract reasoning.
A scientific law on the one hand can be verified by experimentation and observation and repeatability which can be falsified, whereas a theory explains an entire group of related phenomena. A theory can be proved wrong over time, but a law describes a single action that can be validated as true. [1.] more theories; biogenesis and abiogenesis for example. In reality humans can only make a subjective “guess” about how life and the universe came into existence. For example some scientists believe that the universe has always existed (Steady State theory) but this is impossible to prove conclusively.
The Big Bang theory states that the universe began at a singular focal point. Did the universe have a beginning, or has it always existed (as described in the Steady State theory)? If it has always existed, then the law of Cause and Effect can not always be true. I would ask a scientist to name one thing in the entire universe that had no beginning or that was uncaused. And if all things physical logically had a beginning, so also must these same all things have an ending. Matter and life are finite. And cause precedes effect. An uncaused universe defies logic and a created universe demands a cause.
Humans have tried for over one hundred years by experiment to create life. It has never been done. Amino acids come in two forms called right and left-handed because one is a mirror image of the other. Proteins which contain all left-handed amino acids will connect correctly with the surrounding proteins. However, if a right-handed amino acid is included, the shape of the protein is changed and the protein will not work in a living cell. Scientists have not been able to cause amino acids dissolved in water to join together to form proteins. The energy-requiring chemical reactions that join amino acids are reversible and do not occur spontaneously in water.
The conclusion is that since scientists have no idea how life originally formed, and human attempts at creating life by experiment after failed miserably, time and time again.
The same results have been found for evolutional experiments in trying to “boast” evolution along (see the fruit fly experimental failures) by genetic engineering. The fruit fly did evolve, where it couldn’t fly, now having a cumbersome number of wings, and eventually the fruit flies went sterile.
It is a blessing if we can be in God’s will. It is an even greater blessing if that is what your passion is. For me, it is to reveal Him as existing and as the Creator. Not in an argument or hotly debated issue. Jesus told Peter, and by application, all of us, that the revelation of God and Who Jesus is comes from the Father’s prerogative and that the knowledge of God is impart by God Himself. Most certainly not me. No one has ever been argued into heaven that I know of. The results of arguing are usually a steadfast defensive entrenchment of the one party and a prideful attitude from knowledge on the Christian‘s part (I know all too well).
It doesn’t hurt to inform people of the facts. Those that we do have and those that we don’t have (i.e., in theories and hypothesis). About what is known and what is assumed. But doing this in a spirit of love, genuineness, and in sincere compassion for the other person. You can believe in evolution and still be saved, but it doesn’t hurt to build up the faith of those who do believe and inform those who don’t believe in an all powerful, loving Creator God who desires that none should perish without redemption through Jesus Christ. It’s not about brow-beating them into submission, but revealing the love that the Father has is so great, that He gave the life of His Son, so that we may live and enjoy Him forever (John 3:16).
1. http://wilstar.com/theories.htm
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
The Mystery of the Holy Trinity
The Roles of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit
The mystery of the Holy Trinity in Three Persons is beyond human comprehension. The all work in unison and in harmony with each other. They agree with each other. Neither of these three contradicts the others. If I can learn about the Trinity more clearly, then I can plainly teach this to my Sunday School class. But there is still so much I will never know in this life. It remains a mystery, because what man or woman can know the things of God? Least of all, not I nor can any human fully understand the mind of God, for His ways are past finding out for humans (Rom 11:13). This is what makes Him God. No finite human mind can wrap around the Infinite Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of God. But the most critical things that we need to know about God we can know about, and that’s the most important issue of all and one that even a child can understand (John 3:16). Now let’s try and look at the Three Persons of The God Family starting with The Father.
The Role of God The Father
The Father’s role is distinct from those of the other two of the Trinity. The Father does the calling. Paul’s encouraging statement that everything will work out for us and work together for our own good, tells us that no matter how bad things get, we are still secure. Paul tells the church that God has known you, and chosen you, and loved you, from before the foundation of the world (Rom. 8:28-29, Ephs. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9; 1 Pet.. 1:20; Rev. 13:8; 17:8) which means before we even existed. How incredible is that!?
"Predestine" means to decide or ordain ahead of time what destiny you will have. And the reason this verse puts such a massive foundation under the promise of Romans 8:28 is that that those who love God and are called according to his promise are destined to be like Jesus — destined to be conformed to the image of Christ. All things work together for your good because you were chosen and loved before you existed, and the way His choice and love expresses itself is in ordaining for you an unspeakably great future. Namely, it is to be more like Christ. All things work for your good because all things work to make you like Jesus. For this you were predestined. God's unbreakable, foreknowing and predestining guarantees our glory and our everlasting, eternal life in joy, regardless of our actions, if we are born-again.
Nothing I could ever do (i.e., good works) could cause this to happen, therefore nothing I could ever do (bad works or sin) could take it away. If it were dependent upon my cause, then I would never succeed and there would be no hope for me. God's purpose in the salvation of his people is invincible--it cannot fail--because it is based first not on our choosing God but on God's choosing us. "He [God] chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4)”. Your salvation did not begin with your choice to believe in Christ--a choice which was real and necessary. Your salvation began before the creation of the universe when God planned the history of redemption, ordained the death and the resurrection of his Son, and chose you to be His own through Christ.
The call of God that Paul has in mind is not like calling your children to supper. The call of God is like the call of Jesus to the corpse of Lazarus: "Lazarus, come forth!" The call contains the power to produce what it commands. It is an effectual call. That is why Paul can say in Romans 8:30 that all "those who are called are [now, already] justified." The certainty of their justification lies in the fact that the faith by which men are justified is produced by the effectual call of God. Therefore when Romans 8:28 says, "All things work together to good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose," it means that the beneficiaries of this massive promise are those who once did not love God but now do love God because God himself has called them effectually from darkness to light, from unbelief to faith, from death to life, and has planted within them a love to Himself. The effectual call of God is the new covenant fulfillment of the promise in Deuteronomy 30:6,"And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." Not try, then fail and die. God always regards things in the future as already existing. A done deal!
The reason that the beneficiaries of Romans 8:28 can have such certainty that God will indeed fulfill this promise for them is that God himself has effectually called them into his covenant and caused them to qualify for it. It is one thing if God sends out a mass mailing addressed "to whom it may concern" inviting all to the banquet where all things work together for good. But it is quite another if God himself drives up to your front door, walks in, picks you up, puts you in the car, drives you to the banquet of Romans 8:28, gives you the banquet garment of love and then seats you at the right hand of His Son. Would not His own personal initiative in the second case give you a deeper confidence that God does indeed intend to pursue you with mercy all your days and work everything together for your good? And He uses us too, when Jesus told them “compel them to come to the wedding feast” when the rich guests failed to show. Someone told me about God, and God certainly knew He would use you to tell others about Him…all in advance. Clearly, predestination does not mean His kingdom is an all-exclusive club and “so why evangelize“? No, He has definitely commanded us to make other disciples (Math. 28:18-20, Acts 1).
Now what was Paul's reason for adding this phrase: "according to his purpose"? I think it was to make perfectly clear and forceful that the call of God originates in God's purpose not ours (John 6:44). The call of God is not a response to anything we purposed to do. God has His own high and holy purposes that govern whom He calls, and His call accords with these purposes not with ours. He did not drive up to my door and pick me up and bring me to the banquet of Romans 8:28 because it accorded with my purpose of salvation, but because it accorded with His. Had he waited for me to have a purpose of salvation, I would still be watching television at home every night, however someone shared Jesus with me and God knew this all along.
This phrase ("according to his purpose") also occurs in Romans 9:12. In the context Paul is trying to show that not all Israelites are true Israelites (verse 6); not all are the children of Abraham just because they are descended from him (verse 7); and the difference whether one is a true Israelite or a true child of Abraham depends on God's purpose and call, not man's. Notice verses 10-12: “...when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11) though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call, 12) she was told, "The elder will serve the younger." The point of this passage is to illustrate by the example of Jacob and Esau (Rebecca's twin sons) the nature of God's call. Jacob and Esau were in the same womb. They had the same father. They had done nothing good or evil. And yet God set his favor on Jacob not Esau. Why? Why not wait until they grow up and have a chance to show which of them will have the distinctives that make it just for God to call the one and not the other? Why did God reveal his choice even before they were born? Verse 11 gives the answer, and it uses the very words of Romans 8:28. It was "in order that God's PURPOSE of election might continue, not because of works but because of his CALL (or literally: "because of the One who calls")."
The unconditional call of God, apart from all human distinctives, is the means by which God maintains his purpose of election. If He did not call men without regard to their distinctives, but instead called them on the basis of their distinctives, then God's purpose of election would fall to the ground and it would be man‘s responsibility of his coming to God, yet that is not what Jesus said. No one can come to God unless the Father does the calling (John 6:44). If it were only up to us, then God would become like a political candidate up for vote going from precinct to precinct to see if he might be elected Lord. God would propose, but man would dispose. The size and make up of God's constituency would owe finally to the vote of man. The success of Christian missions and the possibility of converts from every tongue and tribe and people and nation would depend finally on the vote of man.
It was clear that God set his favor on Jacob and not Esau even before they were born so that His purpose of election might stand, not on the basis of their deeds but only on the basis of his call—the call that accords with his purpose of election. What then is the foundation of Romans 8:28? Where do those who love God find certainty that tribulation and distress and famine and nakedness and peril and sword and slaughter will in fact work together for their good? The answer is that those who love God are also those who have been called by God, and that this call is based not on something as wavering and uncertain as my commitment to God but only on his eternal purpose of election by which he set his favor on me without any respect to my action at all…remember, He knew you were going to be saved. God chose his people individually and personally before the foundation of the world to be saved; and He chose them to be with Him forever, but only through a union with Jesus Christ. And none of us would even love God first, for He first had to love us. We were natural enemies of God before He saved us.
Now add to this the teaching of Paul in Ephesians 1:4-6 and you see clearly how the glory of God is at stake in the denial of God's foreknowledge of the fall of Adam and its consequent miseries. Paul says, "[God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace." In other words, before the foundation of the world – before the sinful choice of Adam, (which some believe was not foreknowable by God) God chose us in Christ and predestined us for Son ship through Christ so that the free and sovereign grace of God would be seen as glorious: "unto the praise of the glory of his grace."
Second, we have seen from 2 Timothy 1:9 that God "has saved us . . . according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity." So the gracious work of Christ, redeeming us from the curse of the Fall, was planned in eternity, and grace was given to us "from all eternity" (literally in Greek, pro chronõn aiõniõn).
God wrote in His Book of Life (Rev. 3:5 & elsewhere) our names, before time, earth or we even existed. He filled out the book of life in anticipation of what not He knew we would do necessarily, but what He could cause to happen. Therefore, He did not write in response to what we actually did; rather, He wrote in response to what He knew that He would actually do. This distinction is very important.
Before you breathed your first word, God knew how you would respond to His offer of grace anyway. According to His foreknowledge, He wrote your name in the book of life. And there it shall remain forever. See for yourself in the following scriptures: Gen. 21:12; Ex. 9:16; 33:19; Deut. 10:15; 32:8; Josh. 11:20; 1 Sam. 12:22; 2 Chr. 6:6; Ps. 33:12; 65:4; 78:68; 135:4; Isa. 41:1-10; Jer. 1:5; Mark 13:20; Luke 22:22; John 6:37; 15:16; 17:2, 6, 9; Acts 2:28; 3:18; 4:28; 13:48; 17:26; Rom. 9:11, 18, 21; 11:5; Eph. 3:11; 1 Thes. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:2.
The next in the Trinity will be looking at the role of the Son of God, and finally, the role of the Holy Spirit.
The Role of Jesus Christ, The Son of God
The Son of God’s role or that of Jesus Christ is distinct from those of the other Two Personages of the Holy Trinity. We are made prefect by Him. Are we perfect? Of course not, but we are perfectly forgiven for past, present and future sins. Just as Paul said “We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all” (Heb. 10:10). It is by “one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified (Heb. 10:14). Not only that, “The Lord…will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom…” (II Tim. 4:18). We will be kept forever by the power of God (I Pet. 1:5) and to “…keep you from falling, to present you spotless… (Jude 24). Christ does not have to shed more blood. It covers all sin, for all humanity (that accepts it) for all eternity. It’s not like the Leviticus priesthood, who time and again had to make sacrifices.
Christ Jesus Himself said, He died in place of the believer, the One for many (Mark 10:45), His life a ransom for many. As He declared, this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:28). This is also what Peter proclaimed, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God…" (I Peter 3:18). Paul's preaching is summarized at the end of II Corinthians 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him…” (II Corinthians 5:21).
A hundred good deeds can not absolve anything but a guilty conscience (Mark 1:15). Jesus has been our atonement or at-onement. That means we are made one with God before His eyes, since He can not even look upon sin. Even after a person is saved, they can feel they might not be saved, then the urge moves to "meriting," "earning," or "being good enough," instead of simply accepting with empty hands, the gift of righteousness in Christ Jesus. But Jesus blood does not have to be continually shed each and every time we sin. It’s a one time occurrence (Heb 10:10, 14). If you want to refuse to accept what God commands as forgiven, then you are repeating what some of the religious Jews of Paul's time did, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." (Romans 10:3) No amount of works can save anyone. Jesus has done it all, once and for all! Since we can not bring about our own salvation, it stands to reason that we can not bring about its loss. Tragically, some churches do not teach eternal security, therefore members often live in fear and doubt. The good news is no one need live in fear or doubt anymore. Jesus took the punishment that was due us. God took out His wrath on the ungodly upon Jesus Christ.
The Role of God, The Holy Spirit
Finally, what is the work and purpose of the Holy Spirit in a believer‘s life? His is the job of our being signed, sealed and delivered (yes, already delivered, yet not present with Him). We are also sealed forever like a letter that can be opened only by God Himself. Once sealed, it becomes an official document and who is worthy to open seals in the Bible? We can actually “…grieve not the holy Spirit of God“, but we can still rest assured the Holy Spirit has “…sealed [us] unto the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30). After we are saved, or “...after that you believed, you were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1:13).
Only the King of kings can open something sealed by God (Rev. 13:8). How awesome to be sealed by God forever, via the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does the sealing against that Day of Judgment so there is nothing to worry about losing the seal or having your surety of redemptions seal broken by any thing or any person, including yourself (John 6:27, Heb 7:25, 12:23, Eph 11:13, 4:30, II Tim 2:19, Jude: 24, I Pet 1:4-5, John 17:12). After the sealing, then He delivers us unto the kingdom which God has promised with certainty (Dan 12:1, Ex. 3:8, Ish 4:3, Act 7:34, 13:48, II Cor 3:2, 13:3, Psl 18:17, 22:4, 34:17, 89:48, Rev 3:5, 21:27, Jhn 7:25, 12:23, II Tim 4:18...etc.).
When you sit down to read the Bible, pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal what is being read in the Bible for part of the role of the Holy Spirit is to also teaches us all things, as Christ told the disciples before He departed. The Holy Spirit is also a Helper, Comforter and teaches us about the things of God (John 14:26, Luke 12:12), and guides us in revealing the meaning of God’s written Word (John 16:13) and reminds us of things we need to remember (John 14:26). If you want to know a sort of job description of the Holy Spirit, John, chapters 14, 15 and 16 will help immensely. It’s also the Holy Spirit which brings godly repentance and brings about an awareness of when we are not doing the right thing. He also will begin to deal with the sins in our life. We are not the ones necessarily that conquer sin, the Holy Spirit is the power to do this. This doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit stops all the urges nor will He stop our returning to sin, but the Holy Spirit prompts and urges the believer not to engage in such behavior as well as other ungodly acts.
Once you are saved, the Holy Spirit then has signed, sealed and, in God’s eyes, already delivered you. Neither anyone nor anything can change that! How can any man or angel wrestle us from the mighty hand of God and Jesus (John 10:28-29)? This signing, sealing and deliverance is permanent and irreversible. How very reassuring this ought to be. God has His sign on us and predestinated us; chosen specially by God before the universe was created (Eph. 1:4-5, Rom. 4:11, Ps. 139:16, Titus 1:2). And we are sealed by the Holy Spirit Himself. And who is able to break a seal of God? And who is He that is worthy to open seals or break any seals in the Bible? Only the King of kings (Rev. 13:8). How awesome to be sealed by God forever (John 6:27, Heb. 7:25, 12:23, Eph. 11:13, 4:30, II Tim. 2:19, Jude: 24, I Pet 1:4-5, John 17:12). The sealing, after being saved, is a deliverance already performed: which an infinity ago, He purposed with certainty (Dan. 12:1, Ex. 3:8, Ish. 4:3, Acts 7:34, 13:48, II Cor. 3:2, 13:3, Ps.18:17, 22:4, 34:17, 89:48, Rev. 3:5, 21:27, John 7:25, 12:23, II Tim. 4:18...etc.).
Additional scriptures also speak of a non-losable salvation…an eternal, permanent security that you can read for yourself and scriptures that talk about the Holy Spirit‘s permanent sealing of the believer are in the following verses. They are in the Old and New Testament: Gen. 21:12; Ex. 9:16; 33:19; Deut. 10:15; 32:8; Josh. 11:20; 1 Sam. 12:22; 2 Chr. 6:6; Ps. 33:12; 65:4; 78:68; 135:4; Isa. 41:1-10; Jer. 1:5; Mark 13:20; Luke 22:22; John 6:37; 15:16; 17:2, 6, 9; Acts 2:28; 3:18; 4:28; 13:48; 17:26; Rom. 9:11, 18, 21; 11:5; Eph. 3:11; 1 Thes. 1:4; 2 Thes. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:2.
The mystery of the Holy Trinity in Three Persons is beyond human comprehension. The all work in unison and in harmony with each other. They agree with each other. Neither of these three contradicts the others. If I can learn about the Trinity more clearly, then I can plainly teach this to my Sunday School class. But there is still so much I will never know in this life. It remains a mystery, because what man or woman can know the things of God? Least of all, not I nor can any human fully understand the mind of God, for His ways are past finding out for humans (Rom 11:13). This is what makes Him God. No finite human mind can wrap around the Infinite Who, What, When, Where, Why and How of God. But the most critical things that we need to know about God we can know about, and that’s the most important issue of all and one that even a child can understand (John 3:16). Now let’s try and look at the Three Persons of The God Family starting with The Father.
The Role of God The Father
The Father’s role is distinct from those of the other two of the Trinity. The Father does the calling. Paul’s encouraging statement that everything will work out for us and work together for our own good, tells us that no matter how bad things get, we are still secure. Paul tells the church that God has known you, and chosen you, and loved you, from before the foundation of the world (Rom. 8:28-29, Ephs. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9; 1 Pet.. 1:20; Rev. 13:8; 17:8) which means before we even existed. How incredible is that!?
"Predestine" means to decide or ordain ahead of time what destiny you will have. And the reason this verse puts such a massive foundation under the promise of Romans 8:28 is that that those who love God and are called according to his promise are destined to be like Jesus — destined to be conformed to the image of Christ. All things work together for your good because you were chosen and loved before you existed, and the way His choice and love expresses itself is in ordaining for you an unspeakably great future. Namely, it is to be more like Christ. All things work for your good because all things work to make you like Jesus. For this you were predestined. God's unbreakable, foreknowing and predestining guarantees our glory and our everlasting, eternal life in joy, regardless of our actions, if we are born-again.
Nothing I could ever do (i.e., good works) could cause this to happen, therefore nothing I could ever do (bad works or sin) could take it away. If it were dependent upon my cause, then I would never succeed and there would be no hope for me. God's purpose in the salvation of his people is invincible--it cannot fail--because it is based first not on our choosing God but on God's choosing us. "He [God] chose us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4)”. Your salvation did not begin with your choice to believe in Christ--a choice which was real and necessary. Your salvation began before the creation of the universe when God planned the history of redemption, ordained the death and the resurrection of his Son, and chose you to be His own through Christ.
The call of God that Paul has in mind is not like calling your children to supper. The call of God is like the call of Jesus to the corpse of Lazarus: "Lazarus, come forth!" The call contains the power to produce what it commands. It is an effectual call. That is why Paul can say in Romans 8:30 that all "those who are called are [now, already] justified." The certainty of their justification lies in the fact that the faith by which men are justified is produced by the effectual call of God. Therefore when Romans 8:28 says, "All things work together to good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose," it means that the beneficiaries of this massive promise are those who once did not love God but now do love God because God himself has called them effectually from darkness to light, from unbelief to faith, from death to life, and has planted within them a love to Himself. The effectual call of God is the new covenant fulfillment of the promise in Deuteronomy 30:6,"And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." Not try, then fail and die. God always regards things in the future as already existing. A done deal!
The reason that the beneficiaries of Romans 8:28 can have such certainty that God will indeed fulfill this promise for them is that God himself has effectually called them into his covenant and caused them to qualify for it. It is one thing if God sends out a mass mailing addressed "to whom it may concern" inviting all to the banquet where all things work together for good. But it is quite another if God himself drives up to your front door, walks in, picks you up, puts you in the car, drives you to the banquet of Romans 8:28, gives you the banquet garment of love and then seats you at the right hand of His Son. Would not His own personal initiative in the second case give you a deeper confidence that God does indeed intend to pursue you with mercy all your days and work everything together for your good? And He uses us too, when Jesus told them “compel them to come to the wedding feast” when the rich guests failed to show. Someone told me about God, and God certainly knew He would use you to tell others about Him…all in advance. Clearly, predestination does not mean His kingdom is an all-exclusive club and “so why evangelize“? No, He has definitely commanded us to make other disciples (Math. 28:18-20, Acts 1).
Now what was Paul's reason for adding this phrase: "according to his purpose"? I think it was to make perfectly clear and forceful that the call of God originates in God's purpose not ours (John 6:44). The call of God is not a response to anything we purposed to do. God has His own high and holy purposes that govern whom He calls, and His call accords with these purposes not with ours. He did not drive up to my door and pick me up and bring me to the banquet of Romans 8:28 because it accorded with my purpose of salvation, but because it accorded with His. Had he waited for me to have a purpose of salvation, I would still be watching television at home every night, however someone shared Jesus with me and God knew this all along.
This phrase ("according to his purpose") also occurs in Romans 9:12. In the context Paul is trying to show that not all Israelites are true Israelites (verse 6); not all are the children of Abraham just because they are descended from him (verse 7); and the difference whether one is a true Israelite or a true child of Abraham depends on God's purpose and call, not man's. Notice verses 10-12: “...when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11) though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call, 12) she was told, "The elder will serve the younger." The point of this passage is to illustrate by the example of Jacob and Esau (Rebecca's twin sons) the nature of God's call. Jacob and Esau were in the same womb. They had the same father. They had done nothing good or evil. And yet God set his favor on Jacob not Esau. Why? Why not wait until they grow up and have a chance to show which of them will have the distinctives that make it just for God to call the one and not the other? Why did God reveal his choice even before they were born? Verse 11 gives the answer, and it uses the very words of Romans 8:28. It was "in order that God's PURPOSE of election might continue, not because of works but because of his CALL (or literally: "because of the One who calls")."
The unconditional call of God, apart from all human distinctives, is the means by which God maintains his purpose of election. If He did not call men without regard to their distinctives, but instead called them on the basis of their distinctives, then God's purpose of election would fall to the ground and it would be man‘s responsibility of his coming to God, yet that is not what Jesus said. No one can come to God unless the Father does the calling (John 6:44). If it were only up to us, then God would become like a political candidate up for vote going from precinct to precinct to see if he might be elected Lord. God would propose, but man would dispose. The size and make up of God's constituency would owe finally to the vote of man. The success of Christian missions and the possibility of converts from every tongue and tribe and people and nation would depend finally on the vote of man.
It was clear that God set his favor on Jacob and not Esau even before they were born so that His purpose of election might stand, not on the basis of their deeds but only on the basis of his call—the call that accords with his purpose of election. What then is the foundation of Romans 8:28? Where do those who love God find certainty that tribulation and distress and famine and nakedness and peril and sword and slaughter will in fact work together for their good? The answer is that those who love God are also those who have been called by God, and that this call is based not on something as wavering and uncertain as my commitment to God but only on his eternal purpose of election by which he set his favor on me without any respect to my action at all…remember, He knew you were going to be saved. God chose his people individually and personally before the foundation of the world to be saved; and He chose them to be with Him forever, but only through a union with Jesus Christ. And none of us would even love God first, for He first had to love us. We were natural enemies of God before He saved us.
Now add to this the teaching of Paul in Ephesians 1:4-6 and you see clearly how the glory of God is at stake in the denial of God's foreknowledge of the fall of Adam and its consequent miseries. Paul says, "[God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace." In other words, before the foundation of the world – before the sinful choice of Adam, (which some believe was not foreknowable by God) God chose us in Christ and predestined us for Son ship through Christ so that the free and sovereign grace of God would be seen as glorious: "unto the praise of the glory of his grace."
Second, we have seen from 2 Timothy 1:9 that God "has saved us . . . according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity." So the gracious work of Christ, redeeming us from the curse of the Fall, was planned in eternity, and grace was given to us "from all eternity" (literally in Greek, pro chronõn aiõniõn).
God wrote in His Book of Life (Rev. 3:5 & elsewhere) our names, before time, earth or we even existed. He filled out the book of life in anticipation of what not He knew we would do necessarily, but what He could cause to happen. Therefore, He did not write in response to what we actually did; rather, He wrote in response to what He knew that He would actually do. This distinction is very important.
Before you breathed your first word, God knew how you would respond to His offer of grace anyway. According to His foreknowledge, He wrote your name in the book of life. And there it shall remain forever. See for yourself in the following scriptures: Gen. 21:12; Ex. 9:16; 33:19; Deut. 10:15; 32:8; Josh. 11:20; 1 Sam. 12:22; 2 Chr. 6:6; Ps. 33:12; 65:4; 78:68; 135:4; Isa. 41:1-10; Jer. 1:5; Mark 13:20; Luke 22:22; John 6:37; 15:16; 17:2, 6, 9; Acts 2:28; 3:18; 4:28; 13:48; 17:26; Rom. 9:11, 18, 21; 11:5; Eph. 3:11; 1 Thes. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:2.
The next in the Trinity will be looking at the role of the Son of God, and finally, the role of the Holy Spirit.
The Role of Jesus Christ, The Son of God
The Son of God’s role or that of Jesus Christ is distinct from those of the other Two Personages of the Holy Trinity. We are made prefect by Him. Are we perfect? Of course not, but we are perfectly forgiven for past, present and future sins. Just as Paul said “We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all” (Heb. 10:10). It is by “one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified (Heb. 10:14). Not only that, “The Lord…will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom…” (II Tim. 4:18). We will be kept forever by the power of God (I Pet. 1:5) and to “…keep you from falling, to present you spotless… (Jude 24). Christ does not have to shed more blood. It covers all sin, for all humanity (that accepts it) for all eternity. It’s not like the Leviticus priesthood, who time and again had to make sacrifices.
Christ Jesus Himself said, He died in place of the believer, the One for many (Mark 10:45), His life a ransom for many. As He declared, this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:28). This is also what Peter proclaimed, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God…" (I Peter 3:18). Paul's preaching is summarized at the end of II Corinthians 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him…” (II Corinthians 5:21).
A hundred good deeds can not absolve anything but a guilty conscience (Mark 1:15). Jesus has been our atonement or at-onement. That means we are made one with God before His eyes, since He can not even look upon sin. Even after a person is saved, they can feel they might not be saved, then the urge moves to "meriting," "earning," or "being good enough," instead of simply accepting with empty hands, the gift of righteousness in Christ Jesus. But Jesus blood does not have to be continually shed each and every time we sin. It’s a one time occurrence (Heb 10:10, 14). If you want to refuse to accept what God commands as forgiven, then you are repeating what some of the religious Jews of Paul's time did, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." (Romans 10:3) No amount of works can save anyone. Jesus has done it all, once and for all! Since we can not bring about our own salvation, it stands to reason that we can not bring about its loss. Tragically, some churches do not teach eternal security, therefore members often live in fear and doubt. The good news is no one need live in fear or doubt anymore. Jesus took the punishment that was due us. God took out His wrath on the ungodly upon Jesus Christ.
The Role of God, The Holy Spirit
Finally, what is the work and purpose of the Holy Spirit in a believer‘s life? His is the job of our being signed, sealed and delivered (yes, already delivered, yet not present with Him). We are also sealed forever like a letter that can be opened only by God Himself. Once sealed, it becomes an official document and who is worthy to open seals in the Bible? We can actually “…grieve not the holy Spirit of God“, but we can still rest assured the Holy Spirit has “…sealed [us] unto the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30). After we are saved, or “...after that you believed, you were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1:13).
Only the King of kings can open something sealed by God (Rev. 13:8). How awesome to be sealed by God forever, via the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does the sealing against that Day of Judgment so there is nothing to worry about losing the seal or having your surety of redemptions seal broken by any thing or any person, including yourself (John 6:27, Heb 7:25, 12:23, Eph 11:13, 4:30, II Tim 2:19, Jude: 24, I Pet 1:4-5, John 17:12). After the sealing, then He delivers us unto the kingdom which God has promised with certainty (Dan 12:1, Ex. 3:8, Ish 4:3, Act 7:34, 13:48, II Cor 3:2, 13:3, Psl 18:17, 22:4, 34:17, 89:48, Rev 3:5, 21:27, Jhn 7:25, 12:23, II Tim 4:18...etc.).
When you sit down to read the Bible, pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal what is being read in the Bible for part of the role of the Holy Spirit is to also teaches us all things, as Christ told the disciples before He departed. The Holy Spirit is also a Helper, Comforter and teaches us about the things of God (John 14:26, Luke 12:12), and guides us in revealing the meaning of God’s written Word (John 16:13) and reminds us of things we need to remember (John 14:26). If you want to know a sort of job description of the Holy Spirit, John, chapters 14, 15 and 16 will help immensely. It’s also the Holy Spirit which brings godly repentance and brings about an awareness of when we are not doing the right thing. He also will begin to deal with the sins in our life. We are not the ones necessarily that conquer sin, the Holy Spirit is the power to do this. This doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit stops all the urges nor will He stop our returning to sin, but the Holy Spirit prompts and urges the believer not to engage in such behavior as well as other ungodly acts.
Once you are saved, the Holy Spirit then has signed, sealed and, in God’s eyes, already delivered you. Neither anyone nor anything can change that! How can any man or angel wrestle us from the mighty hand of God and Jesus (John 10:28-29)? This signing, sealing and deliverance is permanent and irreversible. How very reassuring this ought to be. God has His sign on us and predestinated us; chosen specially by God before the universe was created (Eph. 1:4-5, Rom. 4:11, Ps. 139:16, Titus 1:2). And we are sealed by the Holy Spirit Himself. And who is able to break a seal of God? And who is He that is worthy to open seals or break any seals in the Bible? Only the King of kings (Rev. 13:8). How awesome to be sealed by God forever (John 6:27, Heb. 7:25, 12:23, Eph. 11:13, 4:30, II Tim. 2:19, Jude: 24, I Pet 1:4-5, John 17:12). The sealing, after being saved, is a deliverance already performed: which an infinity ago, He purposed with certainty (Dan. 12:1, Ex. 3:8, Ish. 4:3, Acts 7:34, 13:48, II Cor. 3:2, 13:3, Ps.18:17, 22:4, 34:17, 89:48, Rev. 3:5, 21:27, John 7:25, 12:23, II Tim. 4:18...etc.).
Additional scriptures also speak of a non-losable salvation…an eternal, permanent security that you can read for yourself and scriptures that talk about the Holy Spirit‘s permanent sealing of the believer are in the following verses. They are in the Old and New Testament: Gen. 21:12; Ex. 9:16; 33:19; Deut. 10:15; 32:8; Josh. 11:20; 1 Sam. 12:22; 2 Chr. 6:6; Ps. 33:12; 65:4; 78:68; 135:4; Isa. 41:1-10; Jer. 1:5; Mark 13:20; Luke 22:22; John 6:37; 15:16; 17:2, 6, 9; Acts 2:28; 3:18; 4:28; 13:48; 17:26; Rom. 9:11, 18, 21; 11:5; Eph. 3:11; 1 Thes. 1:4; 2 Thes. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:2.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Do Babies Go To Heaven?, Why Does God Allow Suffering? (Click Here to Buy)
Do babies go to heaven? What about infants & young children? Or Special Needs children & adults? What does the Bible say? And, do pets go to heaven? Also...why does God allow suffering? People have suffered unfairly and unjustly. Good things happen to people who don't deserve it, just as those who are a blessing to others have bad things happen to them. This is a major stumbling block for people of faith and those outside the faith. Life just isn't fair. No one seems to get what they deserve...good or bad. The question, With so much suffering, where is God? This question have caused some to fall away from the faith. For others, it has kept them from even wanting to know God. What I think doesn't matter; what the Bible says about these things is important. The book I wrote is about them & it's at the link below if you like.
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/do-babies-go-to-heaven-why-does-god-allow-suffering/7834332
10% goes to missions, 10% tithe goes to my local church. The rest I leave, after I'm gone, to my children & grandchildren (& even into great grandchildren) to finish college like grandpa did. But, #1 is to know and accept Jesus as Savior & Lord to see "Paw Paw" again some day with Jesus.
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/do-babies-go-to-heaven-why-does-god-allow-suffering/7834332
10% goes to missions, 10% tithe goes to my local church. The rest I leave, after I'm gone, to my children & grandchildren (& even into great grandchildren) to finish college like grandpa did. But, #1 is to know and accept Jesus as Savior & Lord to see "Paw Paw" again some day with Jesus.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Blind Chance or Intelligent Design? Empirical Methodologies & the Bible (Click Here to Buy)
BLIND CHANCE OR INTELLIGENT DESIGN?
Empirical Methodologies and the Bible
This book is a consummation of empirical, scientific, philosophic, archeological, historical evidence, intended for home-schooled children, for the graduating High School Seniors, for High School students, college students, for the skeptic, or the curious or Christians. It is Christian Apologetic’s answer to the unproven theory of evolution and scientific hypothesis on the origin of life and the universe. The book examines the hard evidence of what we do have, as to opposed to what is assumed.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 The Word: Biblical Manuscripts and the Inerrancy of the Word
Chapter 2 Jesus Christ: An Historical Fact
Chapter 3 Evidences of the Resurrection
Chapter 4 Archeology and the Bible
Chapter 5 What Are The Odds of Jesus’ Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecies?
Chapter 6 Blind Chance or Intelligent Design?
Chapter 7 What are the Probabilities for Life by Spontaneous Generation?
Chapter 8 The Moral Argument
Chapter 9 The Cambrian Explosion
Chapter 10 Missing Links or Fossil Phonies?
Chapter 11 Are Carbon-14 Dating Methods Accurate or Reliable?
Chapter 12 The Universe, Young or Old, Finite or Infinite?
Buy the paperback or eBook...just click below
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/blind-chance-or-intelligent-design-empirical-methodologies-the-bible/7798472
Blind Chance or Intelligent Design?
Copyright © 2009 by Jack Wellman
10% to missions, 10% to church on all proceeds
For new to rare books at great prices, visit the following links:
http://www.amazon.com/shops/solomon_valley_books">http://www.amazon.com/shops/solomon_valley_books
http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/Sunflower_Boutique">http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/Sunflower_Boutique
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=solomon_valley_books_01
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.
Empirical Methodologies and the Bible
This book is a consummation of empirical, scientific, philosophic, archeological, historical evidence, intended for home-schooled children, for the graduating High School Seniors, for High School students, college students, for the skeptic, or the curious or Christians. It is Christian Apologetic’s answer to the unproven theory of evolution and scientific hypothesis on the origin of life and the universe. The book examines the hard evidence of what we do have, as to opposed to what is assumed.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 The Word: Biblical Manuscripts and the Inerrancy of the Word
Chapter 2 Jesus Christ: An Historical Fact
Chapter 3 Evidences of the Resurrection
Chapter 4 Archeology and the Bible
Chapter 5 What Are The Odds of Jesus’ Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecies?
Chapter 6 Blind Chance or Intelligent Design?
Chapter 7 What are the Probabilities for Life by Spontaneous Generation?
Chapter 8 The Moral Argument
Chapter 9 The Cambrian Explosion
Chapter 10 Missing Links or Fossil Phonies?
Chapter 11 Are Carbon-14 Dating Methods Accurate or Reliable?
Chapter 12 The Universe, Young or Old, Finite or Infinite?
Buy the paperback or eBook...just click below
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/blind-chance-or-intelligent-design-empirical-methodologies-the-bible/7798472
Blind Chance or Intelligent Design?
Copyright © 2009 by Jack Wellman
10% to missions, 10% to church on all proceeds
For new to rare books at great prices, visit the following links:
http://www.amazon.com/shops/solomon_valley_books">http://www.amazon.com/shops/solomon_valley_books
http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/Sunflower_Boutique">http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/Sunflower_Boutique
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=solomon_valley_books_01
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
"Blind Chance or Intelligent Design?", the E-Book
I have a 12-chapter E-book for sale "Blind Chance or Intelligent Design?", for $9 that uses scientfic, mathematical, archeological, historical, etc. evidence for Jesus' existence & His resurrection, and the myth of evolution. It is a comprehensive, empirical methodology of science, biology, history, archeology, paleontology, mathematics, etc. to reveal evidence for creation and debunk the myth of evolution. http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/blind-chance-or-intelligent-design-empirical-methodologies-the-bible/5616269
I also have a blog at www.jackwellman.blogspot.com, have a Facebook, Twitter, and have actively used Digg and Stumbleupon and such. I have a BA in history, and another in science, & education. I love Christian Apologetics: Fossilization, Is Carbon-14 Dating Reliable (Does it pass the test for the definition of Science [Observable, Measurable and Repeatable], Dinosaurs in the Bible, Defects of Evolutional Theory, Darwin Doubts His Own Theory, The Big Bang Bust, Biblical Manuscripts & Inerrancy of the Word, The Missing Link (What about the entire chain missing!?), Lack of Fossil Evidence, The Odds On Prophecies being Fulfilled, The Odds for Creation, Blind Chance or Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design vs. Evolution, Historical Evidence for Jesus (can Jesus’ existence be proven?), Evidence for the Resurrection, Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, Health, Wealth & Prosperity Gospels, Instant Healing Services, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Tomb of Christ?, Gospel of Judas, Why Does God Allow Suffering?, Do Babies Go To Heaven?, Do Pets go to Heaven?, Who Built the Pyramids?, Mystery of the Wise Men (the Magi), etc.
I also have a blog at www.jackwellman.blogspot.com, have a Facebook, Twitter, and have actively used Digg and Stumbleupon and such. I have a BA in history, and another in science, & education. I love Christian Apologetics: Fossilization, Is Carbon-14 Dating Reliable (Does it pass the test for the definition of Science [Observable, Measurable and Repeatable], Dinosaurs in the Bible, Defects of Evolutional Theory, Darwin Doubts His Own Theory, The Big Bang Bust, Biblical Manuscripts & Inerrancy of the Word, The Missing Link (What about the entire chain missing!?), Lack of Fossil Evidence, The Odds On Prophecies being Fulfilled, The Odds for Creation, Blind Chance or Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design vs. Evolution, Historical Evidence for Jesus (can Jesus’ existence be proven?), Evidence for the Resurrection, Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, Health, Wealth & Prosperity Gospels, Instant Healing Services, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Tomb of Christ?, Gospel of Judas, Why Does God Allow Suffering?, Do Babies Go To Heaven?, Do Pets go to Heaven?, Who Built the Pyramids?, Mystery of the Wise Men (the Magi), etc.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The Origins of Life
Where did life come from? What source or cause created an effected such life? Was it blind chance, extremely lucky random accidents, or initiated by some cause or force? In the natural sciences, abiogenesis attempts to answer the question of the origin of life; a study of how life on Earth could have arisen from inanimate matter. It should not be confused with evolution, which is the study of how living things change over time.
By the middle of the 19th century, the theory of biogenesis had accumulated so much evidential support, due to the work of Pasteur and others, that the alternative theory of spontaneous generation had been effectively dropped from popularity among the scientific community. Pasteur himself remarked, after a definitive finding in 1864, "Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment."[1.] The collapse of spontaneous generation, however, left a vacuum of scientific thought on the question of how life had first arisen.
When one theory is dashed and since even science hates a theory-vacuum, Abiogenesis was born (so to speak). Abiogenesis is the theory that life can arise spontaneously from non-life molecules under proper conditions. However t is an extremely fine and almost invisible line between this and biogenesis. Evidence for a large number of transitional forms to bridge the stages of this process is critical to prove the abiogenesis theory, especially during the early stages of the process, which desribes how life originally developed from non-life to an organism capable of independent life and reproduction.
Scientists not only have been unable to find a single undisputed link that clearly connects two of the hundreds of major family groups, but they have not even been able to produce a plausible starting point for their hypothetical evolutionary chain [2.]. The first links— actually the first hundreds of thousands or more links that are required to produce life—still are missing [3.]! Horgan concluded that if he were a creationist today he would focus on the origin of life because “this is by far the weakest strut of the chassis of modern biology. The origin of life is a science writer’s dream. It abounds with exotic scientists and exotic theories, which are never entirely abandoned or accepted, but merely go in and out of fashion” [3].
Abiogenesis is only one area of research which illustrates that the naturalistic origin of life hypothesis has become less and less probable as molecular biology has progressed, and is now at the point that its plausibility appears outside the realm of probability. Numerous origin-of-life researchers, have lamented the fact that molecular biology during the past half-a-century has not been very kind to any naturalistic origin-of-life theory. Perhaps this explains why researchers now are speculating that other events such as panspermia or an undiscovered “life law” are more probable than all existing terrestrial abiogenesis theories, and can better deal with the many seemingly insurmountable problems of abiogenesis.
An estimated 100,000 different proteins are used to construct humans beings. Using an unrealistically low estimate of 1,000 steps required to “evolve” the average protein (which is not possible) implies that many trillions of links were needed to evolve the proteins that once existed or that exist today. And not one clear transitional protein that is morphologically and chemically in between the ancient and modern form of the protein has been convincingly demonstrated. The same problem exists with fats, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and the other compounds that are produced by, and necessary for, life. Scientists have yet to discover a single molecule that has “learned to make copies of itself” [4.]. And many scientists seem to be oblivious of this fact.
Now if naturalistic sponges-to-mankind evolution were true, multibillions of links would have been required to bridge modern humans with the chemicals that once existed in the hypothetical “primitive soup”. This putative soup, assumed by many scientists to have given birth to life over 3.5 billion years ago, was located in the ocean or mud puddles. Others argue that the origin of life could not have been in the sea but rather must have occurred in clay on dry land. Still others conclude that abiogenesis was more likely to have occurred in hot vents. It is widely recognized that major scientific problems exist with all naturalistic origin of life scenarios. This is made clear in the conclusions of many leading origin-of-life researchers. A major aspect of the abiogenesis question is “What is the minimum number of parts necessary for an autotrophic free living organism to live, and could these parts assemble by naturalistic means?” Research shows that at the lowest level this number is in the multimillions, producing an irreducible level of complexity that cannot be bridged by any known natural means.
The String Theory, now falling out of favor among scientists and well after the Big Bang Theory went bust, they are now down to Biogenesis to explain the origin of matter and life. What it does not explain is the origin of matter to be able to produce any life forms they theorize might have came from Biogenesis. Nor from it’s kissing-cousin, Abiogenesis (molecules-to-man).
Abiogenesis deals with the origin of life, is the study of how life on Earth emerged from inanimate organic and inorganic molecules. Scientific research theorizes that abiogenesis occurred sometime betwee4.4 and 3.5 billion years ago. By 2.4 billion years ago the ratio of stable isotopes of carbon (12C and 13C), iron (56Fe, 57Fe, and 58Fe) and sulfur (32S, 33S, 34S, and 36S) points to a biogenic origin of minerals and sediments and molecular biomarkers indicate photosynthesis. Abiogenesis is a limited field of research despite its profound impact on biology and human understanding of the natural world. Progress in this field is generally slow and sporadic and depends upon spontaneous generation.
Biogenesis: Is the process of life forms producing other lifeforms, e.g. a spiderlays eggs, which develop into spiders. The term is also used for the assertion that living matter can only be generated by other living matter, in contrast to the hypotheses of abiogenesis which hold that life can arise from non-life under suitable circumstances, although these circumstances still remain unknown.
Until the 19th century, it was commonly believed that life frequently arose from non-life under certain circumstances, a process known as spontaneous generation. This belief was due to the common observation that maggots or mold appeared to arise spontaneously when organic matter was left exposed. It was later discovered that under all these circumstances commonly observed, life only arises from the replication of other living organisms.
A second meaning of biogenesis was given by the French Jesuitpriest, scientist and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to mean the origin of life itself due to an inherent drive of matter towards higher consciousness, an extension of the now disproven orthogenesis hypothesis.
"La génération spontanée est une chimère" ("Spontaneous generation is a dream") said Louis Pasteur. Pasteur's (and others) empirical results were summarized in the phrase, Omne vivum ex vivo or Omne vivum ex ovo), which is Latin for “all of life [is] from an egg”. This begs the question, who laid the egg in the first place. It must have took a life form already living to do this! Eggs don’t lay themselves. This is sometimes called the "law of biogenesis" and shows that modern organisms do not spontaneously arise in nature from non-life. *
The law of biogenesis is not to be confused with Ernst Haeckel's Biogenetic Law.
No cellular life has ever been observed to arise from non-living matter. The construction of viable viruses capable of infection and evolution from abiotic material has been reported; however, considerable debate still exists regarding if viruses are actually alive. Various other experiments into the possibility and potential mechanisms of abiogenesis have also been reported but remain unproven.
In a letter to Joseph Dalton Hooker on February 1, 1871, Charles Darwin made the suggestion that the original spark of life may have begun in a "warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, lights, heat, electricity, etc. present, so that a protein compound was chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes". He went on to explain that "at the present day such matter would be instantly devoured or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed." In other words, the presence of life itself makes the search for the origin of life dependent on the sterile conditions of the laboratory.
Biogenesis, Abiogenesis, the String Theory or even the Big Bang Theory can not answer where the universe and all matter originated, and thus enabling life to be possible. Theories should never be confused with laws, since they lack complete, legitimate evidence, else wise they would not be called theories. Especially one’s that are not humanly possible to prove. If it is said that life must have came from outside of the earth, this just pushes the question back to “Where did that life originate?” And there is a strange, relatively new energy force in the universe, called Dark Matter.
Dark Matter. What is it? Does it serve a purpose? Why be left “in the dark about Dark Matter?“ In December of 2008, new discoveries have challenged the notion that dark matter hangs out in halos around large galaxies. Instead, it has been found within the galaxies, which means it also affects solar systems, like ours.
Dark matter acts as gravitational glue, holding millions or billions of stars together in galactic globs or disks. Without it, "our own galaxy should have fallen apart by now," said Frederic Bournaud, an astrophysicist with the French Atomic Energy Commission. "So dark matter — this unseen force — is somewhere keeping it glued together." Dark Energy is the same thing, except it is unseen and undetected energy that joins with the Dark Matter in acting as a cohesive force in galaxies. It is not Star War’s “dark side” but the truth of it is stranger than fiction.
Scientists have no firm idea what dark matter actually is. They haven't even agreed on a single definition for the mysterious stuff, because they can only guess as to what it's made of. While dark matter is a source of gravity and reacts with regular matter on large scales, it has no measurable effect on small scales (for instance, within our solar system), there is no picture of it and there's no known way to detect it directly. But the effects are clearly seen.
A scientific theory is a statement that must contain a setting of real evidence. A theory would be right only if it has been submitted to a rigorous testing, and it only will be true if it is in concordance with facts. A theory could be reworked, as new evidence is accumulated, but unfortunately evolution can not be tested, observed, measured or made repeatable. This leaves it without concrete evidence and in a permanent state of have inconclusive proof. Humans just don’t know. They can only hypothesize, make assumptions, and formulate theories. The fact that evolution can not even pass the Scientific Method* should make us consider that there must be something more that’s holding together the universe beyond Dark Matter [5.]. Just as our life had a beginning, it will have an ending. Cause and effect. Science can only placate theories about the origin of life and it’s starting point, but there are other alternatives [6.].
1. Oparin, Aleksandr I. (1953). Origins of Life. Dover Publications, New York. p.
196.
2. Shapiro, Robert. 1986. Origins; A skeptics guide to the creation of life on
earth. Summit Books, New York. p.254
3. Behe, Michael. 1996. Darwin’s black box. Basic Books, New York. pp. 154–156, 138.
4. Simpson, Sarah. 1999. Life’s first scalding steps. Science News, 155(2):24–26.
5. Hebrews 1:2-3, Colossians 1:16-17.
6. Rom 1:20, John 1:3, 10.
* http://www.biocab.org/Science.html#anchor_68
By the middle of the 19th century, the theory of biogenesis had accumulated so much evidential support, due to the work of Pasteur and others, that the alternative theory of spontaneous generation had been effectively dropped from popularity among the scientific community. Pasteur himself remarked, after a definitive finding in 1864, "Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow struck by this simple experiment."[1.] The collapse of spontaneous generation, however, left a vacuum of scientific thought on the question of how life had first arisen.
When one theory is dashed and since even science hates a theory-vacuum, Abiogenesis was born (so to speak). Abiogenesis is the theory that life can arise spontaneously from non-life molecules under proper conditions. However t is an extremely fine and almost invisible line between this and biogenesis. Evidence for a large number of transitional forms to bridge the stages of this process is critical to prove the abiogenesis theory, especially during the early stages of the process, which desribes how life originally developed from non-life to an organism capable of independent life and reproduction.
Scientists not only have been unable to find a single undisputed link that clearly connects two of the hundreds of major family groups, but they have not even been able to produce a plausible starting point for their hypothetical evolutionary chain [2.]. The first links— actually the first hundreds of thousands or more links that are required to produce life—still are missing [3.]! Horgan concluded that if he were a creationist today he would focus on the origin of life because “this is by far the weakest strut of the chassis of modern biology. The origin of life is a science writer’s dream. It abounds with exotic scientists and exotic theories, which are never entirely abandoned or accepted, but merely go in and out of fashion” [3].
Abiogenesis is only one area of research which illustrates that the naturalistic origin of life hypothesis has become less and less probable as molecular biology has progressed, and is now at the point that its plausibility appears outside the realm of probability. Numerous origin-of-life researchers, have lamented the fact that molecular biology during the past half-a-century has not been very kind to any naturalistic origin-of-life theory. Perhaps this explains why researchers now are speculating that other events such as panspermia or an undiscovered “life law” are more probable than all existing terrestrial abiogenesis theories, and can better deal with the many seemingly insurmountable problems of abiogenesis.
An estimated 100,000 different proteins are used to construct humans beings. Using an unrealistically low estimate of 1,000 steps required to “evolve” the average protein (which is not possible) implies that many trillions of links were needed to evolve the proteins that once existed or that exist today. And not one clear transitional protein that is morphologically and chemically in between the ancient and modern form of the protein has been convincingly demonstrated. The same problem exists with fats, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and the other compounds that are produced by, and necessary for, life. Scientists have yet to discover a single molecule that has “learned to make copies of itself” [4.]. And many scientists seem to be oblivious of this fact.
Now if naturalistic sponges-to-mankind evolution were true, multibillions of links would have been required to bridge modern humans with the chemicals that once existed in the hypothetical “primitive soup”. This putative soup, assumed by many scientists to have given birth to life over 3.5 billion years ago, was located in the ocean or mud puddles. Others argue that the origin of life could not have been in the sea but rather must have occurred in clay on dry land. Still others conclude that abiogenesis was more likely to have occurred in hot vents. It is widely recognized that major scientific problems exist with all naturalistic origin of life scenarios. This is made clear in the conclusions of many leading origin-of-life researchers. A major aspect of the abiogenesis question is “What is the minimum number of parts necessary for an autotrophic free living organism to live, and could these parts assemble by naturalistic means?” Research shows that at the lowest level this number is in the multimillions, producing an irreducible level of complexity that cannot be bridged by any known natural means.
The String Theory, now falling out of favor among scientists and well after the Big Bang Theory went bust, they are now down to Biogenesis to explain the origin of matter and life. What it does not explain is the origin of matter to be able to produce any life forms they theorize might have came from Biogenesis. Nor from it’s kissing-cousin, Abiogenesis (molecules-to-man).
Abiogenesis deals with the origin of life, is the study of how life on Earth emerged from inanimate organic and inorganic molecules. Scientific research theorizes that abiogenesis occurred sometime betwee4.4 and 3.5 billion years ago. By 2.4 billion years ago the ratio of stable isotopes of carbon (12C and 13C), iron (56Fe, 57Fe, and 58Fe) and sulfur (32S, 33S, 34S, and 36S) points to a biogenic origin of minerals and sediments and molecular biomarkers indicate photosynthesis. Abiogenesis is a limited field of research despite its profound impact on biology and human understanding of the natural world. Progress in this field is generally slow and sporadic and depends upon spontaneous generation.
Biogenesis: Is the process of life forms producing other lifeforms, e.g. a spiderlays eggs, which develop into spiders. The term is also used for the assertion that living matter can only be generated by other living matter, in contrast to the hypotheses of abiogenesis which hold that life can arise from non-life under suitable circumstances, although these circumstances still remain unknown.
Until the 19th century, it was commonly believed that life frequently arose from non-life under certain circumstances, a process known as spontaneous generation. This belief was due to the common observation that maggots or mold appeared to arise spontaneously when organic matter was left exposed. It was later discovered that under all these circumstances commonly observed, life only arises from the replication of other living organisms.
A second meaning of biogenesis was given by the French Jesuitpriest, scientist and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to mean the origin of life itself due to an inherent drive of matter towards higher consciousness, an extension of the now disproven orthogenesis hypothesis.
"La génération spontanée est une chimère" ("Spontaneous generation is a dream") said Louis Pasteur. Pasteur's (and others) empirical results were summarized in the phrase, Omne vivum ex vivo or Omne vivum ex ovo), which is Latin for “all of life [is] from an egg”. This begs the question, who laid the egg in the first place. It must have took a life form already living to do this! Eggs don’t lay themselves. This is sometimes called the "law of biogenesis" and shows that modern organisms do not spontaneously arise in nature from non-life. *
The law of biogenesis is not to be confused with Ernst Haeckel's Biogenetic Law.
No cellular life has ever been observed to arise from non-living matter. The construction of viable viruses capable of infection and evolution from abiotic material has been reported; however, considerable debate still exists regarding if viruses are actually alive. Various other experiments into the possibility and potential mechanisms of abiogenesis have also been reported but remain unproven.
In a letter to Joseph Dalton Hooker on February 1, 1871, Charles Darwin made the suggestion that the original spark of life may have begun in a "warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, lights, heat, electricity, etc. present, so that a protein compound was chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes". He went on to explain that "at the present day such matter would be instantly devoured or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed." In other words, the presence of life itself makes the search for the origin of life dependent on the sterile conditions of the laboratory.
Biogenesis, Abiogenesis, the String Theory or even the Big Bang Theory can not answer where the universe and all matter originated, and thus enabling life to be possible. Theories should never be confused with laws, since they lack complete, legitimate evidence, else wise they would not be called theories. Especially one’s that are not humanly possible to prove. If it is said that life must have came from outside of the earth, this just pushes the question back to “Where did that life originate?” And there is a strange, relatively new energy force in the universe, called Dark Matter.
Dark Matter. What is it? Does it serve a purpose? Why be left “in the dark about Dark Matter?“ In December of 2008, new discoveries have challenged the notion that dark matter hangs out in halos around large galaxies. Instead, it has been found within the galaxies, which means it also affects solar systems, like ours.
Dark matter acts as gravitational glue, holding millions or billions of stars together in galactic globs or disks. Without it, "our own galaxy should have fallen apart by now," said Frederic Bournaud, an astrophysicist with the French Atomic Energy Commission. "So dark matter — this unseen force — is somewhere keeping it glued together." Dark Energy is the same thing, except it is unseen and undetected energy that joins with the Dark Matter in acting as a cohesive force in galaxies. It is not Star War’s “dark side” but the truth of it is stranger than fiction.
Scientists have no firm idea what dark matter actually is. They haven't even agreed on a single definition for the mysterious stuff, because they can only guess as to what it's made of. While dark matter is a source of gravity and reacts with regular matter on large scales, it has no measurable effect on small scales (for instance, within our solar system), there is no picture of it and there's no known way to detect it directly. But the effects are clearly seen.
A scientific theory is a statement that must contain a setting of real evidence. A theory would be right only if it has been submitted to a rigorous testing, and it only will be true if it is in concordance with facts. A theory could be reworked, as new evidence is accumulated, but unfortunately evolution can not be tested, observed, measured or made repeatable. This leaves it without concrete evidence and in a permanent state of have inconclusive proof. Humans just don’t know. They can only hypothesize, make assumptions, and formulate theories. The fact that evolution can not even pass the Scientific Method* should make us consider that there must be something more that’s holding together the universe beyond Dark Matter [5.]. Just as our life had a beginning, it will have an ending. Cause and effect. Science can only placate theories about the origin of life and it’s starting point, but there are other alternatives [6.].
1. Oparin, Aleksandr I. (1953). Origins of Life. Dover Publications, New York. p.
196.
2. Shapiro, Robert. 1986. Origins; A skeptics guide to the creation of life on
earth. Summit Books, New York. p.254
3. Behe, Michael. 1996. Darwin’s black box. Basic Books, New York. pp. 154–156, 138.
4. Simpson, Sarah. 1999. Life’s first scalding steps. Science News, 155(2):24–26.
5. Hebrews 1:2-3, Colossians 1:16-17.
6. Rom 1:20, John 1:3, 10.
* http://www.biocab.org/Science.html#anchor_68
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