Devoted

What Just Happened?

2017-04-29T22:10:00.000-04:00

Congratulations! You’ve just made the single most important decision of your life! Your choice to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior is something that has absolutely changed everything - everything in your life now and everything in your eternal future! This one moment in your life has changed so much, it’s easy to miss some of it. So grab your Bible and take some time to walk with me through what has just happened to you.

(I encourage you to look the Bible references up in your own Bible. This will help you learn to navigate this precious book - and once you see these references in your own Bible, you can highlight them if you’d like)

Because You’ve Made Jesus Your Lord

#1 - You’ve been delivered from Hell

Matthew 25:46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Without Jesus, every person on earth is going to Hell. That’s simply how it is.

It’s not that God wants them to go to Hell. On the contrary, God didn’t make Hell for humans - He made it for Satan and his fallen angels. (Matthew 25:41) No, God has done everything He could to save people from Hell! And He has saved you out of there!

Look at Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death (this isn’t about your body dying, it’s referring to Hell itself), but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Glory to God!

You’ve been saved from eternal death and have been given eternal life!

In fact, you may have already heard a verse that says this same thing - John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him (the Son - Jesus) will not perish but have everlasting life.

You don’t have to be afraid of leaving this life anymore. Once you check out of this life, you go instantly to be with Jesus! This wasn’t true before salvation - your sin wouldn’t allow it. But now Jesus has wiped out everything that was separating you from Him!

#2 - Your past sins have been completely washed away

This is why you came to Him, right? You knew you were a dirty, rotten sinner. David said it this way in Psalm 51, “My sin is always right in front of me…” And this is why you came to Jesus for help.

Well I’ve got good news for you - He has helped you!

Every single sin, every single bad decision, every time you hurt someone, every time you knew right but chose wrong...all of it has been washed away! You now stand before God as someone with no trace of sin...completely righteous!

2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God “made Him who had no sin (Jesus) to become sin for us so that we may become the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus took all that filthiness and sin to the cross. In return, He gave you His own righteousness! As far as God is concerned, you are just as righteous as Jesus Himself.

He carried your sin, so that you can carry His sinlessness (1 Peter 2:24).

Now, God says that He won’t even remember those things that you did wrong (Hebrews 10:17).

And what’s more...this forgiveness doesn’t just extend to what you did before your salvation. 1 John 1:9 says very clearly that if you sin from this point forward, you need only to confess it to Him and He will once again wash away all of it!

You, my friend, are permanently righteous! Hallelujah! (That means “Praise the Lord!”)

#3 - You’ve been made into a brand new creature

Now, obviously you still look the same. You still have the same hair, the same scars, and even the same tastes. You still enjoy the same things (although as you grow in faith, some of these desires will be curbed by your righteousness). If you liked football before you were saved, you’ll still like it after salvation. If your thing was comic books - you’ll still have that interest afterwards. If this is the case, then how can we say that you’re a brand new creature? Doesn’t all of this prove that you’re still just the same person?

Not at all!

You were created with three parts. They are your spirit, your soul, and your body. (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

What other people see as the real you - what they see and hear and touch - is your body. That is the “suit” that you live in - a temporary “tent” that functions as your home here on earth. One day, you’ll take that tent down and move to your new home. 2 Corinthians 5:1 NLT “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in Heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands.” So you are living in the same body as you were before you were saved.

You have also been given a soul. This is what you use to connect with other people. Your soul is made up of three things; what you think (your mind), what you’ve always wanted to do (your will), and the things you feel (your emotions). Just like you have the same body, you still have the same soul now as you did before you got saved.

The fact that you still have the same soul is sometimes a good thing - all the things you’ve learned, all the memories you have, and even the skills you’ve honed in your lifetime...these are all housed in your soul. So you wouldn’t want God to wipe that all out upon salvation.

But you’re going to discover that these things in your soul are going to start giving you problems. All the sins you enjoyed, can still cause pleasure (Hebrews 11:25). The ungodly entertainment that you fed yourself with can still entertain you. And all the wrong kinds of relationships that you were a part of still feel binding on you. Thankfully, God has provided a way to overcome these conflicts, and we’ll talk about that in point #7. Don’t give up my friend!

The real you is your spirit. God is a spirit (John 4:24), and you were made in His image (Genesis 1:27). This means that you are a spirit. So the correct way of thinking is this; you are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live inside a body.

Before you were saved, you were dead in your spirit. Ephesians 2:1 says this, “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.” With your spirit dead, you were left to live by your natural soul and fleshly desires - like a brute beast. But when God called you out of that mess, and you gave your life over to Him, look at what happened! Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.”

Your spirit, the real you, was just re-created when you were saved. This is what it means to be “born again” (John 3:3). God has become your Father (1 John 5:4) and you are a brand new creature. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:17 and know this means you! “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

#4 - You were separated from the world you’re living in

As we’ve already said, the world is going to Hell without Jesus. We were all a part of the fray. We were by nature “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). But when you got saved, you were separated from all of it.

True, we still live here - we have a job to do here now - but we don’t belong to this world any longer. In John 17:16, Jesus had this to say about you and I: “They are not of the world just like I am not of the world.”

Jesus came down from Heaven to earth to live here and fulfill God’s plan. He was here in the world, but He didn’t come from it. That’s the way it is with you and I now. Our new spirit was made by God in Heaven and sent to the earth with a plan. We live here, but we’re not from here.

1 Peter 2:11 tells us “Dear friends, I warn you as "temporary residents and foreigners" to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.” You’re a foreigner here. This means you’re never going to blend in with them any longer. You’re different now - in the same way an ambassador from another country is different from the country he lives in.

This is where your responsibility now lies - you are now called to live out your separation from the world. 1 Corinthians 7:31 tells us that we should be using the things of this world, but 1 John 2:15 says that we should not love the things of this world. This is major - if you’re going to live in God’s system, you’re going to learn to depend on Him and not the things of the world that you used to look to.

You’ve been brought out of the kingdom of darkness and have been brought into a new kingdom - a kingdom of light. (Colossians 1:13). You are now as different from your old worldly buddies and the culture you were raised in as light is different from darkness.

#5 - You’ve been given the same measure of faith as every other believer

Romans 12:3 “...as God has dealt to each one the measure of faith.”

You probably think that you made the choice to believe in God, right? But the truth is, God gave you that faith! And He didn’t give any one of us more than another. We have all received the same measure of faith, it’s the faith that you used to believe what you heard about the Gospel and what Jesus had done for you.

Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing. That’s how it worked with you, my friend. You heard someone talk about God and how good He was, and hearing that brought faith. This is how we all received the faith that we have.

As you grow in the Lord and go one in your Christian walk, you’re going to notice people that seem to have no problems believing God in every situation. It will seem like their faith can move mountains and change bad situations around in an instant. When you see these people walking in faith like this, you may even end up saying something like, “I wish I had that kind of faith!”

But look back up to Romans 12:3...we all received the same measure of faith! How is then that some people have more faith than others? That’s simple, they have grown and strengthened their faith over time.

The Bible compares faith to a seed (Matthew 17:20). Like any seed, it can be grown into something bigger and stronger than it was at the beginning. God gave you the same faith as everyone else...now, what you do with it is up to you! Are you going to keep it as a seed in your pocket, or are you going to grow it and become “strengthened in the faith?” (Romans 4:20)

How do you grow your faith into something more, something stronger? It’s simple; faith comes by hearing! You continue to grow your faith by continuing to hear God’s Word (another term for the Bible). This is why getting into the pages of the Bible is so important. It will feed and strengthen your faith as you read it and keep it on your mind each and every day!

#6 - Every promise that you see in the Bible has been freely given to you

There are some amazing promises that God has given to his people! This is one reason you need to spend daily time reading the Bible, you will never have faith in a promise that you don’t know.

Think about this, if you never heard that God would save you from your sin, would you believe it? No you wouldn’t. You didn’t receive that promise of salvation until you knew about it!

There are more promises in the pages of the Bible that also are received by faith. This is why reading that book each day is so important. It’s similar to a legal contract or a will - studying it will reveal the new entitlements (or blessings) that you have access to!

There are so many promises of God in the His word! Peace instead of fear, joy instead of sorrow, triumph in the face of trouble, healing from sickness, prosperity and provision...all of these are now available to you! As you read these promises in the Bible, keep your faith out there!

Just like salvation came by faith, each of these promises are received by faith! (Hebrews 6:12) You my friend, have so much more at your disposal than you know right now...but as you grow in the Lord, you will begin to stretch out faith and see these promises be kept in your life.

Lastly, whenever you see a promise from God in the Bible and you wonder “does this apply to me?” - remember 2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT “For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding ‘Yes!’”

#7 - You’ve been given the grace to completely obey God

God’s grace saved you. Ephesians 2:8 says that you were “saved by grace through faith.” That grace invaded your life, washed away your past sins (Ephesians 1:7), and pointed your life in the right direction. But that wasn’t the end of it! He didn’t leave you to walk alone!

So many people think of Christianity as an attempt to reform your life. But that couldn’t be any further from the truth. The reality is, you have been given a grace that will completely transform your life! His grace will empower you to follow His directions. You couldn’t obey God before salvation - your fallen nature wouldn’t allow it. But now, by grace you are completely free to do whatever He says to you!

Hebrews 12:28 says that we serve God by grace. 1 Corinthians 15:10 tells us that His grace will actually work through us. This is complete freedom from sin!

So yes, your soul still likes to do things its own way. Yes, you still have all the habits and hangups that you had before salvation. But the great news is you now have all the grace you need to completely annihilate all of that old mess!

If you fall back into sin, God’s grace will catch you. Just turn back to Him again and allow His grace to start working in you all over again. Sin’s grip has been broken off of our lives...praise God!

#8 - You’ve been made a part of Jesus’ body on Earth

Ah yes...now we come to what you were expecting. Now let’s talk about church. Do you really need to attend a church? Absolutely! But there’s more to it than that. It isn’t that you are now required to go to church. You have been made a part of Jesus’ church!

Ephesians 1:23 tells us that the church is also called the Body of Christ. This is exactly how it functions. Jesus is the head, He’s in charge. Like the body working with the head, we go where He sends us and do what He tells us. And now you have been made a part of this body.

You need to gather together with other believers. You grow from them and work with them. There are gifts that Jesus gave to the church (Ephesians 4), men and women who teach us and help us grow in the faith. The church is where the truth is made known and Satan’s lies are exposed. You need a church to connect with!

Hebrews 10:25 “...not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but encouraging one another, and so much the more as you see the day [of Jesus’ return] approaching.” God makes it clear to us in this verse, gathering together with other believers isn’t optional - it’s absolutely necessary for us.

But this isn’t about the rules, it’s about who you are now. 1 Timothy 3:15 calls the church “the house of God.” It’s where we come together to meet with Him together. Now look at 1 Peter 2:5, “...you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…” Do you see that? We are compared to spiritual stones that together make up a house for God.

God has a church for you, and He’ll lead you to it. Once you get there, make this decision; “I am not moving from this spot - this is where God placed me, and this is where I’ll grow!”

So welcome to the family brother/sister! Thank God for your decision to follow Him, and He is faithful to finish the good work He started in you!

I want to leave you with one final thought. Luke 15:7 “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” That moment you prayed and confessed Jesus as your Lord, Heaven erupted in shouts of joy over you! Right now, my friend, angels are celebrating your salvation!

Where Truth is Grounded

2017-01-14T12:10:00.000-05:00

1 Timothy 3:15 “...but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

Satan’s main weapon against believers (indeed, his only weapon against us) is lies and deception. He is a master of propaganda, half-truths, and delusion. These are his fiery darts that Ephesians 6:16 speaks of. He shoots them from every direction. The world is monotonously pumping lies into our ears from social media, schools, TV, and the industries of news and music. Worldly friends unknowingly pick up those lies and continue to bombard us with them. And as if that weren’t enough, our own thoughts and emotions will betray us and amplify those lies…until...we just...accept them...as true.

But just because something is believed - either by you or the majority of people - does not make it the truth. What is truth? Jesus makes the answer clear in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth.” It’s so simple, many believers have missed it - God’s Word is the truth! Psalm 119:160 further clarifies this point by saying, “The entirety of Your word is truth.” The Bible, in its completion, is the one and only truth. Your thoughts, conversations, entertainment, and education are only true to the extent that they agree with the Word.

If your enemy is going to get you to buy into a lie, he must first separate you from the truth of the Word. Here’s how his tactics generally work:

First, he’ll do everything he can to keep you out of the Word. He’ll make you too busy, give you more entertaining options for your time, or simply try to make you believe that it’s not that important to you. If he can keep you out of the Word, you'll have no defense when the lie is introduced.

Next, he’ll introduce a lie using one of his myriads of spokesmen. It may sound something like this, “It’s that time of year again; everywhere you go, people are getting sick.”

He’ll then try to influence your surroundings to get you focused on a circumstance that seems to support his lie. A simple tickle in the throat could lead to thoughts like “Oh no, I can’t get sick now! I just knew someone was going to give me their germs!”

And then, he’ll even use someone close to you to confirm his lie. “Hey, are you ok? You don’t look so good!”

What’s his end-game? His ultimate goal is to get his lie to come out of your mouth. If he can accomplish that - then he’s got you. Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

Is there an answer to these lies? Yes! Speak the Word of God!

The lie is “You must be coming down with something.”
The truth is “By His stripes, I am healed.”
The lie is “Those people don’t even like you!”
The truth is “Jesus has broken down the wall of division, and made me accepted.”
The lie is “The Bible is just a book written by religious men, it doesn’t really apply to you.”
The truth is “All Scripture was breathed from the mouth of God.”
The lie is “That woman can offer me more than my wife can.”
The truth is “Rejoice in the wife of your youth, and always get caught up in her love!”

Now imagine this: Satan has just finished crafting one of his masterpieces. He then delivers this lie to his minions, who begin to introduce it into a believers life. They spend weeks keeping it in his ears, in front of his eyes, and in the back of his mind. They know if that believer buys into it, it could destroy him and everyone around him.

But one Sunday morning, when that believer sits down in church, the preacher delivers the truth from the pulpit and exposes the lie for what it is. Then as John 8:32 puts it, that truth makes him free. How frustrating that must be for the Father of Lies! And yet this happens, thousands of times over, every week! This is what your church should be, a pedestal (which is the actual term for word “pillar” in 1 Timothy 3:15) that the truth is set upon. Your church is where God intended to put His truth on display.

Now think carefully about the doctrine of “I don’t have to go to church - I’m saved and that’s enough.” Who benefits from a believer accepting that idea? Does that strengthen the Truth in your life, or separate you from it? Do the pages of Scripture support that teaching? Or is it possible that this idea is one more weapon in your enemy's arsenal?

The Promise of Grace

2016-06-04T10:03:00.001-04:00

“Without grace, even the New Testament becomes the Law.” -Pastor Tracy Harris

Everyone knows about the ten commandments – these make up the foundation of what is called “The Law.” If you're not sure what they are, let's take a quick look:

#1 – No other God's before Him

#2 – No graven images

#3 – Don't take God's name in vain

#4 – Remember the Sabbath Day

#5 – Honor your father and mother

#6 – Don't murder

#7 – Don't commit adultery

#8 – Don't steal

#9 – Don't bear false witness

#10 – Don't covet what belongs tosomeone else.

Following these commandments bring righteousness and blessing on someone's life – disobeying them will bring condemnation and judgment. But we have already established this fact; no one can keep these commands. Ten simple rules to follow, and we've all failed miserably.

At least we're living in the New Testament, right? On this side of Calvary, God's grace has freely forgiven us for breaking His original commandments. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace...” (Ephesians 1:7). Now that we've been freely forgiven of all sin, there's no more commands for us to follow, right?

Actually, would you care to guess how many commands are in the New Testament? Ten? Twenty? One hundred? Would you believe that there are one thousand and fifty new commands for the Christian to follow? If we were lost with only ten to keep track of, we must be completely hopeless with more than a thousand! There's no way we could even remember all of those – let alone keep them! Doesn't this put a believer in a worse place than they were before?

That would certainly be true if we had to keep these commands by ourselves. But we don't have to do this alone; we've been given something that makes it all possible – grace! Let's look again at Hebrews 12:28, “...let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably...” We can only serve God by grace, not by trying.

When we try to obey God, we're depending on our flesh to do what's right. This is what Paul calls “the weakness of the Law” in Romans 8:3. The reason the trying to keep the law never works is because your depending on your weak flesh to follow God's commands. But if you read the end of Romans 7, you'll discover that the flesh will never be able to follow God's commands.

This is why we need grace, to empower us to serve God and obey his commands. Look at what Paul says about grace in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Where the flesh is weak, God's grace brings power. The result of this empowering grace can be seen in Psalm 119:32 “I will run the course of Your commands, for You shall enlarge my heart.”

When you try to obey God, you'll fail. But when you step into the spirit and have faith in God, you'll find sin losing it's grip on you! Let's take another look at Romans 8, this time at verses 2-9:

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit...”

The only way to keep the righteous requirements of the law is to stay in the Spirit – by fully trusting in God's grace.

And what is it we trust in? Put your hope completely in this one truth: God has never given a command without also giving the power to keep it! Let's take a quick tour through scripture and illustrate this point:

When God commanded Moses to move forward – He gave the power to split the sea.

When God commanded Joshua to capture the Promise Land – He gave the power for victory.

When Jesus commanded the man with the withered hand to stretch it out – He gave the power to be healed.

When Jesus called Peter out on the sea – He gave the power to walk on the water.

Now look at Lazarus. If there was any man that was weak in the flesh, it was this one! He had been dead for four days – and Jesus commanded him to come out of the grave! Lazarus didn't have the strength to get up...he was dead! But what happened? The command carried the power to obey it! This is what grace does for us, it empowers us to obey the commands of God – any command.

This is the power of grace – Grace turns any command in scripture into the power to obey! As you read the words of scripture, remember this; any command you read is actually a promise to empower you to obey. Put your faith in God, and He will enlarge your heart to obey every word He says...This is the Promise of Grace!

The Freedom of Grace

2016-05-31T16:41:00.001-04:00

Galatians 3:3 “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect in the flesh?”

The book of Galatians was written to a church that was being misled. Paul started this church himself. He taught them the Gospel, brought them into the faith, and raised up leadership in their congregation. These were people who understood salvation by grace through faith – they were genuinely born-again.

But after Paul left, new teachers (false teachers) came in that began to teach different doctrines – things that sounded good and even made sense. They declared that Paul's gospel of grace was a good start – but now that the Galatians were a part of God's covenant people, they had to conform to the law. In other words, they were being taught, “God did save you by grace, through faith. But now that you're saved, He expects you to get to work and keep His laws.” This makes sense, right? Shouldn't someone obey God's commands after they've been saved?

These Galatian brothers and sisters truly did have a heart for God. So when they heard that they needed to do more, they dug in and tried their hardest to make God happy. Unfortunately, there were disastrous consequences to their attempted obedience. Let's read Galatians 5, verses 19-21:

“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

Remember who Paul was talking to? This wasn't a wild group of sinners – it was a church that was doing their best, trying to obey God's commands! But no matter how hard they tried, these works of the flesh became more and more common. The false teachers used these manifestations of the flesh to prove their point: "See what you're doing? There needs to be some law and order here! Here's the rules - follow them!"

And right here is where we see truth that has plagued mankind since Eden: The more you try to obey, the more disobedience creeps in. Paul explains this paradox further in Romans 7 – a well-known passage to anyone who has struggled with sin.

Romans 7:15-21 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I want to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I don't want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for the want is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I want to do, I do not do; but the evil I don't want to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I don't want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

Can anyone relate to this struggle? How often have you been trapped in a sin – knowing that's it's wrong, hating it with every ounce of your spirit, and yet constantly going back to it? Does it ever seem like the harder you try to keep away from sin, the quicker you fall right back into it? If so, then I have amazing news for you – God never intended to leave you in this struggle!

You see, what the false teachers were telling the Galatian church – and what many believers are misled to think today – is that God saved them by grace, forgave their sin, and then said “Go try again. Good luck!” Too many Christians believe that Grace is about forgiveness and being let off the hook when you sin. It's like they believe that God knows that you're only human and there's no way for you to really be free from sin - so He gives grace to cover you when you inevitably mess up. But that is not what grace is about!

Colossians 2:6 tells us “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him...” Friend, how did you receive Jesus? It was by grace, through faith! So how are you supposed to walk in Him? By grace through faith! You weren't meant to be saved by grace, and then perfected by trying to do what's right. You see, God's grace isn't only the forgiveness of sins – it's the freedom from sin! Let me show you what I mean:

Hebrews 12:28 “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.”

Do you see? When you have faith in the grace of God, it will empower you to serve Him in an acceptable way! Grace isn't about what you can get away with - grace is the power to do what you can't do on your own! This is living by faith. This is walking in the spirit! And when you walk in the spirit (that is, when you put your faith in the grace of God, knowing that grace will empower you to do what's right), you WILL NOT fulfill the lusts of the flesh!

Galatians 5:16 “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

There is a way out of the sin that you're trapped in. There is a way to live a righteous life like you've always wanted. And that way isn't by trying to do what's right. When you try to obey God, you'll fail - we've proven that time and time again. No matter how hard you work at keeping God's commands, the result will always be the works of the flesh. But when you place your faith in God's empowering, glorious, amazing grace – it will break every trace of sin's power off of your life!

Of Daughters and Wolves

2016-03-22T22:17:00.002-04:00

Acts 20:29 "For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock."

In the symbolism of the Scriptures, wolves are worldly people that attack God's sheep. Many of them are worldly people attack the church from the outside. These are the ones that Jesus refers to when He told His disciples "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves." This kind of wolf is all around us, and they are blatantly obvious in their attacks on us.

Other wolves, though, are more subtle in their approach. Matthew 7:15 tells us that some wolves like to dress up in sheep clothes and infiltrate our flocks. These are the ones that Paul warns us about in Acts 20:29; they are wolves among us.

I go into great detail explaining these wolves in another post. I wanted to write this post to expose one particular breed of wolf - one that every parent and spiritual leader should be aware of. To get our first glimpse of this creature, let's look at Genesis 49.

Jacob was nearing the end of his life. Before he died, he gathered his twelve sons around him and prophesied over them about things to come. As he spoke about each young man, he pinpointed events in their future and the future of the tribes that would come from them. For example, Jacob declared that "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes..." This was a prophecy concerning the kings that would come from his son Judah, eventually leading to THE King Himself!

However, when he turned his attention to Benjamin, Jacob's words were less majestic...less promising. Look at what Genesis 49:27 says, "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil." Yikes! Jacob was prophesying of a time when Benjamin would lie in wait for his prey like a wolf. Do we see such a time in Scripture?

Fast forward to the last chapter of the book of Judges.

Judges chapter 21 is the ending of a tragic story; a story that results in the death of all but 500 men from the entire tribe of Benjamin! Because of their wickedness, all other men, women and children were wiped out. To make matters worse, the rest of Israel angrily vowed to keep their daughters from marrying anyone in the tribe of Benjamin. This vow would've made those five hundred men the last of the entire tribe. When they died out, so would one-twelfth of the nation of Israel.

The other Israelites realized extinction wasn't the best option. In spite of the tribe of Benjamin's sin - it was decided that they should still survive. However, there was no way around the vow they made. No Israelite father was allowed to let their daughter marry an Benjamite - and for a Benjamite to get a wife that wasn't an Israelite was strictly forbidden by God. What could they do? Finally, someone came up with a shrewd way around this oath.

Here was the plan: There was going to be a holy festival at the Tabernacle of God in Shiloh. One of the festivities was a dance procession for all the young, unmarried ladies, where they would leave the city in a large dance of celebration. The elders of Israel told the Benjamites, "Go, lie in wait in the vineyards, and watch; and just when the daughters of Shiloh come out to perform their dances, then come out from the vineyards, and every man catch a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh; then go to the land of Benjamin." If any father objected to this kidnapping, the elders would calm them down. This way the tribe of Benjamin would survive, even though no father willingly gave their daughters away in marriage.

Notice three words from what the elders said: "lie in wait". These Benjamites hid in the celebration at God's house, waiting to pounce on the innocent girls there. Tell me, what does this sound like to you? A "wolf in sheep's clothing" perhaps

Among the different types of spiritual wolves, I believe there is one in particular that follow the Benjamite pattern. These men (yes, this is almost always a man who preys on a young woman) work to infiltrate the house of God. They learn the right words. They play the part of godly men. But inwardly, they're panting after our girls. These guys are smooth when they speak to their prey, leading them away and isolating them. And when the time is right they pounce - either taking what they want from them and leaving, or leading these girls away from the flock to follow after themselves.

The end result is destruction. Some girls are hurt when they give part of themselves to someone who seemed to be a righteous man, but who simply ended up using them. Other girls are pulled out of the church and end up following these men into a life that's far less than what God wanted for them.

So how do we stop these spiritual predators? Is there a way to prevent, rather than repair, the damage these wolves cause?

First, to these young sheep: Get to know the voice of your Shepherd. In John 10:4-5, Jesus tells us this,
"And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." You see, once a sheep learns to recognize the voice of her Shepherd, she won't be so vulnerable to the sweet, silky-smooth voices of these strangers. So, it's crucial for you to learn what Jesus sounds like when He speaks to you. Get in the Word! Spend time in prayer. Get close to Him and follow Him only.

Second, to the shepherds: Guard your flock! Listen to the words of Paul to the Ephesian elders.
Acts 20:28-31 "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch... "

Paul laid the responsibility of guarding the flock on the leaders. Sheep don't fight off wolves...shepherds do. Let me tell you one thing I've learned about these wolves: In every case I've seen, the leaders in the girl's life (either her pastor, her father, or both) usually suspect something's wrong ahead of time. Every time, the leaders are left scratching their head wondering, "I knew something was wrong! Why didn't I do something?" Leaders, pay attention to the voice of the Holy Spirit! Don't wait to clean up the pieces - take action before the attack!

When we read Paul's words of warning, we can see a few things we can do to protect our sheep:
#1 - Take heed. In other words, pay attention to your flock. Keep your spiritual sense of discernment sharp and listen to what the Chief Shepherd is telling you.
#2 - Feed your sheep. Jeremiah 3:15 tells us that God appoints shepherds to feed the sheep with knowledge and understanding. Acts 20:30 tells us that the wolf's main weapon is twisted words. Put these together and you can see that a shepherd is responsible to feed their sheep the Truth - and that Truth will counteract any lies wolves may tell.
#3 - Watch. This term carries more meaning than simply "pay attention". This term implies "watching to defend." According to John 10:11-13, a good shepherd is one that is willing to confront a wolf to protect the flock if necessary. Hirelings (that is, those who care for the flock without ever really caring about them)won't bother to confront the wolf, being afraid for his own "reputation" and well-being. But listen to me, leader - this can't be us! When we (as fathers or as pastors) see a man leading one of our sheep away, separating her from the flock and isolating her, then we must confront him!

Jesus trusted us with part of His flock. Let's not take this responsibility lightly. Now that this breed of spiritual predator has been exposed, don't close your eyes to the threat!

Identity - Part 3

2015-01-12T19:34:00.002-05:00

“I AM”

When we read through the Old Testament, we see the word “LORD” in all capital letters hundreds of times. When we see this, we need to understand that we're not merely talking about “the Lord” here. “LORD” is actually the respectful way to write God's sovereign name – without actually using it carelessly or casually. The actual word that we read “LORD” is “Yahweh”...sometimes said as “Jehovah.” This is the eternal, awe-inspiring name of almighty God – It is “I AM THAT I AM”! It's the name that God revealed to Moses from the burning bush, it's the name that Jewish people still refuse to write for respect – it's the name of the Great I AM!

Of course we already know that the name of Jesus has this name hidden inside of it – Jesus means “Yahweh Saves”. But did Jesus ever claim the name of Yahweh for Himself? Let's look and find out.
In Mark 14, we see the account of Jesus' trial before the Jewish leaders. Unable to find a single wrongdoing, they brought several false witnesses before the council. These men made some off-the-wall accusations against Him. The problem was, not one of these witnesses agreed with another. By law, the priests needed two witnesses to testify to the same accusation before they could condemn Jesus as guilty. Desperate for any grounds of conviction, the high priest then attempted to goad Jesus into condemning Himself.

In verse 60, the High Priest demanded, “Do You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against you?” In response to that question, Jesus said nothing. This must have outraged the High Priest even more! Who does this Man think He is to ignore the question? Finally, the priest asked a much more direct question - seen in verse 61 - “Are You the Christ (the Messiah) the Son of the Blessed?”

To be sure, this was a loaded question – but there was no answer that would've made Jesus guilty. There were two parts to this question: One, are You the Messiah? Two, are You the Son of God? Saying yes to either of these questions wouldn't be wrong for any man to say

Everyone believed that the Messiah was going to be a man. Claiming to be the Messiah may have made a man crazy, but it wouldn't have been a crime. As far as being the Son of God; and any Jew could claim to be a son of God. In fact, the Pharisees themselves made this claim in John 8:41. If the high priest knew these claims weren't crimes in themselves, why ask the question? I believe he was fishing for something more substantial, something serious to accuse Jesus of...and he got that in Jesus' response.

In verse 62, we read Jesus' answer to the priest's question: “I Am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” When Jesus said those two words - “I Am” - He wasn't merely giving a “yes” answer to the High Priest's question. He was claiming God's eternal, sacred name for Himself! He was calling Himself THE I AM! We know this is true based on the response of the council. Verse 63 tells us, “Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, 'What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?' And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death.” Claiming to be the Messiah was not blasphemy. Yet these highly religious men heard blasphemy in Jesus' response...why? Because they knew what Jesus was actually saying! He wasn't saying "I am the Messiah." or "I am the Son of God." Jesus was clearly saying "I AM"!

This was not the only time Jesus made this claim about Himself. To see more, we need to move into the book of John. In John 8:24, we read these words from His own mouth, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Notice that the word “He” is italicized. This means it was added by the translators, but it wasn't actually what Jesus said. What He said was “You have to believe that I AM, or you will die in your sins! What a statement to make about Himself!

But He wasn't done there...He claims this name for Himself two more times in the same dialogue! Verse 28 says, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.” Verse 58 profoundly says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” We can clearly see that Jesus wasn't confused about Who He was, and He didn't shy away from saying so.

Perhaps the most powerful of Jesus' “I AM” claims came in the Garden of Gethsemane. As the Jewish soldiers arrived to arrest Him, they announced that they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth. In response, Jesus declared those two simple, earth-shaking words - “I AM” When He pronounced that powerful name, it dropped these men flat on their backs. Can you see this picture? Jesus, after stating Who He was, had to wait for the guards to get back up so that they could arrest Him! Even in His arrest, His power could not be hidden!

The Savior

Recently, the world spent a month (as they do every year) celebrating the birth of Jesus. During this time we talk about “the night of our dear Savior's birth” and the fact that “Jesus Christ our Savior was born to us this day”. Through the month of December, you'll hear Luke 2:11 quoted often. In this verse, we read the words of an angel to a group of shepherds, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior...” But what Americans hear in that verse is drastically different from what those shepherds heard!

Being Jews, these shepherds knew the scriptures. When they heard the word “Savior” they must have remembered the words of God in Isaiah 43:11, “I, even I, am Yahweh, and besides me there is no Savior.” Knowing this, these shepherds must have been overwhelmed by the angel's next statement, “Who is Christ the Lord.” Those words - “the Lord” - had to have resonated with these simple, God-fearing men. After all, Jews referred to God as “the Lord", since His name was too sacred to use. This angel just announced to these men that “the Lord” was just born to be their Savior!

In agreement with what the angel said, Paul also declares that our Savior is no one less than God Himself! In Titus 2:11-12 we read, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ...” Our God and our Savior are one and the same – Jesus Christ! This is also why Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:47, “The first man (Adam) was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man (Jesus) is the Lord from heaven.” This Lord from Heaven, the one who came to be our Savior, is the same one that the angel called "Christ the Lord."

After the angel announced the birth of the Savior to the shepherds, we read that a multitude of heavenly hosts joined that angel in the sky and praised God, saying “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Just how many angels were in the sky that night? Hebrews 1 :6 tells us: “But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: 'Let all the angels of God worship Him.'” That night every angel in Heaven appeared in the sky over Bethlehem to praise God. It's amazing to me that only the shepherds saw this! And how did this multitude of angels praise God? By worshiping the Son!

The Incarnate Word

John chapter one tells us more about what happened that night in Bethlehem. Let's take a close look, starting in verses 1 and 2
In the beginning was the Word... – So God's Word was already there in the beginning. The Word had no beginning, there was never a time when the Word wasn't!

...and the Word was with God.. - The literal meaning is that the Word was face-to-face with God. Now we see that the Word wasn't merely a thing, but it had a face (It's own face) and was together with God.
...and the Word was God. - Uh oh, this is where Christians are separated from every other world religion. The Word - Who was a person that was face-to-face with God – was also God Himself!
He was in the beginning with God. - Another look at the person-hood of the Word. The Word was a “He”.

Now let's move on and read verse 10, “He was in the world...” - Now we see that this Word/Person who was God, was personally in the world.

...and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. – If the world was made through the Word, then why didn't it know Him when He was in it? Why didn't they know their Creator?

The answer is found in verse 14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us...” - Now we see why they didn't know Him, because He became flesh. This Word/Person Who was God became a flesh and blood man! What an amazing concept, God became a man!

Lastly, let's look at verse 17 so find the identity of the Word, “For the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The Word made flesh is Jesus Christ! This is the incredible meaning of what happened in Bethlehem - God humbled Himself to be born as a baby!

The Form of God, The Appearance of a Man

In our last look at Jesus' incarnation, let's go to Philippians 2:6-7. This passage of Scripture should be added to our list of Christmas time traditions – this is, after all, the true meaning of what we celebrate.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God... - Jesus knew that calling Himself God wasn't taking anything away from the Father. He and the Father were one, so to exalt the Son is to exalt God – we don't rob our Heavenly Father when we put the Son on equal footing. Why? Because there is only one God, and He is Jesus!

...but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. - Do you see this? Jesus was God first and then became a man. This runs contrary to the cult of Mormonism, which says that He was a man first and then became a god. Jesus was the Word that was God and took on the form of a flesh-and-blood servant.

We'll look at the rest of this passage later on, because there is so much more to Jesus' divinity in the next few verses. Let's end this section with one last quotation by Paul, from 1 Timothy 3:16. “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.” Jesus, the Man Who was born in Bethlehem, was the direct manifestation of the eternal God. He was the flesh-and-blood expression of God's own nature!

"I Wish I Had A Testimony!"

2015-01-03T16:36:00.001-05:00

Revelation 12:11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony...”

Let me be clear about this...I believe that every person must be born again. No matter what walk of life you come from, no matter what religion you follow, no matter how hard you try to be a good person; you must be born again. Even if you were born into a Christian house and to godly parents – you were still born into a sin nature that will drag you to Hell. The only answer to the life we're all born into is to confess Jesus as Lord and be born into His new life. So whatever I'm about to say in the next paragraphs, don't think that I'm diminishing the importance of a genuine encounter with Jesus.

I was one of those kids who was raised in a believing home. I learned at an early age, along with my brothers and sisters, to love God and follow His leading. And while there have been many (many, many, many....) times that I fell into sin and did the wrong things, I always knew Who to turn to in repentance.

There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus is Lord. He is my Savior Who gave His life to set me free. He died to pay my debt of sin and then He rose again, breaking the power that sin had over me. According to Romans 10:9-10, this confession of faith is what ushers people into this new life in Christ. So, regardless of what you're about to read, you'll never be able to convince me that I'm not born again because my experience is different than yours. As you read this, I hope you'll see that, while the process of salvation must be the same, the experiences of salvation will be as different as one person is from another.

Why do I say this? Because there's always been something bothering me, like a cloud over my head. You see, there have been many times I've declared Jesus as Lord of my life...you've just read one of them. Many times I've considered how amazing it is that Jesus gave His life for me and then rose from the dead by the power of God. But if you were to ask me, I couldn't tell you when I did this for the first time.

Like so many kids who were raised in church, I listened to many different speakers telling their amazing testimonies of salvation. I was fascinated by the incredible stories of dramatic and miraculous rescues from lives of sin. Inevitably, one of them would say something like, “I wonder about people who can't tell me when they gave their life to Jesus.” Later on, after hearing something like that, I would wonder why I didn't have a “spiritual birthday” like those speakers. Sometimes I would say a prayer and confess Him as Lord...just to be safe. But I wouldn't really consider that a testimony, right?

Are there any other “church kids” who can relate to this? How many people are there who have a genuine relationship with Jesus – a relationship that formed while they were still very young – and couldn't tell you exactly when this relationship started? If we overcome our enemy by the “word of our testimony” - shouldn't we have a testimony to tell?

This really bothered me up until a few weeks ago. But then God ever so sweetly revealed something to me. And it all started with a verse that we all know – Psalm 118:24 “This is the day that the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” This verse has been well known to American Christians. It's been used often for inspiration during rough days– as if it meant “today is the day that the LORD has made”. But a closer look at this verse shows us that it means so much more that what we've been using it for. Let's look at this verse in context and find out what it's really saying:
Psalm 118: 22-24 “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes, this is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

There you see it. The day we rejoice in is the day that the stone was rejected. According to Acts 4:10-11, that day was the day that the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus and had Him crucified. We don't rejoice in just any day – we don't even rejoice in the day we first confessed Him as Lord! We rejoice in the day He gave His life to save ours!

You and I don't have different “spiritual birthdays”. We rejoice in the same day, the day Jesus saved us! According to 2 Corinthians 6:2, we are living in the “day of salvation” that began when Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. When we confessed Jesus as our Lord and believed that He rose from the dead, we entered (or were born) into our common salvation. And we all have this one testimony, “Jesus saved me from my life of sin and my future in Hell!”

This salvation experience can happen in a dramatic, night-to-day event – like Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus. Or it could take place at an incredibly young age and unfold throughout a lifetime – like it did in Paul's disciple, Timothy. Timothy had a testimony like many “church kids” have today. His faith was instilled in him by previous generations. His grandmother and his mother together raised him to serve God, and He never left it while growing up. Scripturally speaking, Timothy still must have been born again. But there was no mention of his conversion anywhere in scripture. It's possible that Timothy may not have even remembered life before his salvation, or the moment when he received Jesus as Lord!

In spite of the differences between Paul and Timothy's salvation experiences, they had the same testimony...Jesus saved them both on the day He died for their sins! This is the same testimony you and I have too. This is the testimony that overcomes every enemy. This is the testimony of our salvation. It's the testimony of the day that we were saved...the day that Jesus rescued us from the cross! Let's stop comparing the story of our entrance into this salvation with other peoples'! If you have confessed Jesus as Lord and have entered into this new life with me – then let's celebrate the day we were all born again!

Identity - Part 2

2014-12-15T20:04:00.002-05:00

As we have already seen, the very first two chapters of the New Testament are clear about Jesus' true nature. He is God – no question about it! That's what the angel told Joseph, that's what Micah prophesied about the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem, and that's why the Magi fell down and worshiped him. But there's so much more support for this. The incredible truth that God became a man is the central theme – not just of the New Testament, but of the entire Bible!

The Messenger

Before Jesus began His ministry here on earth, someone had to come first. We know that man as John the Baptist. “Baptist” of course is a description of what he did – baptizing the people into repentance. His job was to turn the people's heart to God's way of doing things...and he did this by preaching repentance.

Jesus had this to say about Jon in Matthew 11:10 “For this is he of whom it is written; 'Behold I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.'” Jesus tells us that John was a fulfillment of a prophecy made hundreds of years earlier – by a man named Malachi.

For further clarification, let's read Malachi's prophecy in Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I send My messenger and he will prepare the way before Me. When Jesus quotes this in Matthew, He tells us that God sent a messenger to prepare “Your way before You” - meaning this applied to the Messiah. And yet, when we read the original prophecy, Yahweh is sending the messenger before Himself. So just who was John preparing the world for? The next sentence in Malachi 3:1 tells us...”And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple.” John came to prepare the way of Jesus – but then Malachi says that the one coming after the messenger is the One that the temple was built for! Just Who was this One to come?

Mark gives us a little more information on the messenger, John. Let's read Mark 1:2-3 - As it is written in the prophets: “Behold I send My messenger before your face, who will prepare Your way before You.” - “The voice of one crying in the wilderness; 'Prepare the way of Yahweh; make His paths straight.'” Now we see that there was more than one prophet that spoke of John. Mark's first quotation was what we just read from Malachi – but His second was from the prophet Isaiah. Like Malachi, Isaiah is clear that the messenger would be preparing the way for God Himself.

This is the complete passage from Isaiah 40:3-5 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of Yahweh; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” Now we see that John came to prepare the way of God, and after his ministry ran its course, the glory of God Himself would be revealed to humanity. Let me ask you a question, what happened as John's ministry was winding down? Jesus began His ministry and the glory of God was revealed!

What am I saying here? That John was the messenger that was sent to prepare the way of God Himself. We learned already that Jesus was God Himself in the body of human. After John fulfilled his calling – Jesus began to reveal His glory – the glory of Yahweh – to “all flesh”.

To Clarify the Confusion

We see then that John knew who he was – the messenger of Yahweh. This also means he knew Who Jesus really was – after all, it was John who pointed Jesus out first!

Later on though, John began to have doubts. While he was in Herod's prison, it seems as if John began to feel sorry for Himself. He knew what his calling was, but now it appeared as if nothing he expected to see from Jesus was happening. So a downcast John sent two of his remaining disciples to ask Jesus point blank: “Are you the one we are expecting, or should we start our search all over again?”

In response to John's question, Jesus didn't spend any time explaining Himself or trying to reassure John's doubts. Instead, Jesus simply told the messengers to watch for a while. Later we read in Matthew 11:4-6 “Jesus answered and said to them, 'Go and tell John the things which you hear and see; the blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.'” Jesus' reply to John was to focus his attention on the signs that He was working.

But there was more to Jesus' signs that merely observing the miraculous. Jesus was referring John to what the Jews called “the signs of the Messiah” in Isaiah 35:5-6. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing..” This list of miracles were known to be the signs of the Messiah's coming...and Jesus referred to it as a reminder of what John already knew.

But there is so much more to Isaiah's prophecy than this. Isaiah wasn't just telling us how we would recognize the Messiah, He told us the Messiah's true identity. Look at verse 4, the the previous verse, “Say to those who are fearful-hearted, 'Be strong, do not fear! Behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you.'” You see? Jesus – the one named “Yahweh saves” - is called God in this verse! This is what Jesus was reminding John of!

On Who's Authority?

In Jeremiah 23, God calls out a group of false prophets – those who were prophesying without being sent by God. Using no uncertain terms, He declares in verse 16 that these false prophets were making God's people worthless! What made these prophets false? The answer is in verse 21, “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.” These preachers were false prophets because God didn't send them.
In fact, throughout the book of Jeremiah, God alone had the authority to send prophets. Just look at these passages:
Jeremiah 7:25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.
Jeremiah 25:4 And Yahweh has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them...
Jeremiah 26:5 ...to heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I sent to you...
Jeremiah 29:19 ...because they have not heeded My words, says Yahweh, which I sent to them by My servants the prophet.
In the Old Testament, if anyone took it upon themselves to prophesy in God's name – without being sent by God – they were considered a false prophet and executed for their lies. The point is simple, Yahweh alone had the authority to send a prophet!
And yet, look at what Jesus claimed for Himself in Matthew 23:34: “Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes...” In light of what His listeners knew about prophets, they must have been wondering “Who does this Man think He is?” Because He is God, Jesus does have the authority to send out prophets – and apostles, and evangelists, and pastor/teachers. (As a side note – even in the New Covenant, no one should dare to assume a ministry gift for himself. It is still true that God alone has the authority to send out minsters on His behalf!)
God is the ultimate authority. When He says anything, that's the end of the discussion. His Word is true, and will remain true forever. In Isaiah 40:8 we read, “ The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” His Word is the only eternal and unchangeable word – no one else's word even comes close! And yet we read twice (once in Matthew 24:35 and again in Luke 21:33) that Jesus made this claim - “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”
What gave Jesus – a man – the right to take on Himself the same authority that God alone possesses? The claim to have an unchanging word, the authority to send out prophets - no mere human teacher would be right to take this on Himself. Jesus knew Who He was! What's more, He made it clear to us...Jesus is God!

Identity - Part 1

2014-12-06T09:59:00.000-05:00

Some time ago, I wrote a post about Jesus' true nature and divine identity. My goal was to point out the simple fact that Jesus is God. He was not just a good man. He wasn't some revolutionary teacher from the past. He wasn't even just the “son of God” (in the same way that you and I are sons and daughters of God). Bethlehem wasn't the beginning of His story, because His story has no beginning. As part of the God-head, Jesus isn't simply a man who was “the son of God” - He is “God, the Son” who made Himself a man!

I thought I covered most of what scripture has to say about this in my post. But recently, the Holy Spirit walked me through the New Testament again and pointed out each reference to Who Jesus really is. I found that I didn't even scratch the surface last time.

Most believers would agree with me on this – Jesus is God. But if they were ever challenged on this point, I'm not sure they could biblically defend this faith of theirs. Why do we believe that Jesus is God? Do we believe this because it's what the church has always believed, or do we know this from Scripture? Let's walk together through the New Testament and find out why we believe what we believe.

What's in a Name?

I want to start at the beginning, the first two chapters of Matthew. Here we see the story of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, as seen from the eyes of Joseph. When Joseph learned that His fiance was pregnant – with someone else's child – he decided to do what any man would, break the whole thing off. But before he could do anything about his decision, God sent a messenger to inform him of what was really happening. Let's look at what this angel told Joseph:

Matthew 1:20-21 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

The angel told Joseph to name the boy “Jesus”, which means “Yahweh saves”. Why was Joseph told to name him “Yahweh saves”? Because this little boy would save His people from their sins. So He was going to be called “Yahweh saves”...because He was going to save! Who was this angel declaring that unborn child to be? Yahweh! And if that isn't clear enough, look at the very next verse:

Matthew 1:22-23 So all this was done that in might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Behold the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

Now we have another name for this yet-to-be-born child, “Immanuel”. This a powerful name in and of itself, but it also tells us why the name of Jesus is so powerful. Immanuel means “God with us”! So everything that God is, everything that He revealed Himself to be as Yahweh, is all wrapped up in the name “Yahweh saves”! Jesus is God!

Wow! Scripture doesn't hold back on this point. At the very start of the New Testament – Matthew chapter one – the Bible makes Jesus' identity clear.

Since Matthew quoted from the book of Isaiah already, I would also like to point out a passage in that book:

Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a Child is born,unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder.” We hear this verse quoted every year about this time. It's usually used to show what we're celebrating on Christmas, that God sent us the gift of His only Son to save us. That's certainly true...but it's not the whole truth of this verse. Let's finish verse six:

“And His name shall be called Wonderful...: This is not simply saying that Jesus is a good name. The Hebrew word for “wonderful” means “beyond understanding”. That is to say, you'll never be able to wrap your mind around the meaning of the name of Jesus - that He is actually Yahweh Himself, come to save His people from their sins!

“...Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” this child that was both born (speaking of the human nature He would be born into) and given (speaking of His adoption as part of the human race) is called “Mighty God” and “Everlasting Father”! Who was Isaiah claiming this child was? He is God!

Without a Beginning

Matthew's account of Jesus birth goes on, and we find a group of rich and powerful men traveling to see the newborn Ruler of God's people. When they arrived in Israel, they went to the place where you would expect to find a king – the capital. As they traveled through the streets of Jerusalem, they announced that they were there to see the young king. Understandably, the people were alarmed. King Herod didn't have a baby, yet these men seemed to be informed by God Himself that there was a new king. That could only mean one thing, that the long-awaited Messiah had been born! He was the one who was to bring deliverance and freedom to Israel.

Herod, being appointed as king by the Roman empire, did not want the kind of deliverance that the people thought the Messiah was bringing. So he called the scribes together to try and locate the newborn Messiah. When King Herod demanded to know where the Messiah was supposed to be born, the scribes of Jerusalem said this:

Matthew 2:5-6 So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.”

Now let me show you where these scribes were quoting from:

Micah 5:2 But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.

Do you see that? Micah just told us that the birth in Bethlehem wasn't the beginning of this child's story. This young Ruler – the one who would shepherd God's people – came from the everlasting! He may have been born in Bethlehem, but He had no beginning! Now Who does that sound like to you?

The Object of Worship

When the wise men found the boy's house, they came in and saw Him with his family. Then they did something that must have been shocking to Mary and Joseph:

Matthew 2:11 And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him...

These rich and powerful men dropped to their knees and worshiped a little boy!

In Acts 8:25, we see Cornelius mistakenly worshiping the apostle Peter, as if he were more than just a man. In response, Peter corrects the commander's misguided reverence. In Acts 14, the Lycaonians began to worship Paul and Barnabas. Again we see these two men begging the crowd of worshippers to stop. Twice in Revelation (19:10 and 22:8), the apostle John was rebuked for falling down to worship an angel.

This correction is only right. We find in Deuteronomy 6:13 that Yahweh alone must be the focus of our worship. And yet, here we see a group of men that worshiped young Jesus, and were never corrected for it. But this one incident isn't the only time this happened:

Matthew 8:2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him...

Matthew 9:18 While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him...

Matthew 28:17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him...

Mark 5:6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him...

Luke 24:52 And they worshiped Him...

John 9:38 Then he said, “Lord I believe!” And he worshiped Him...

Jesus knew what Deuteronomy 6:13 said – He quoted it Himself in Matthew 4. But not one time did Jesus ever stand these people up and correct them for worshiping Him. Not once do we ever see that their worship was misguided. In fact, in a few of these stories it was their worship that moved Jesus into action! Who did Jesus think He was to allow people to worship Him like that?

Worshiping Jesus is only right if He is God. The worship of any man – no matter how great he was – is idolatry; and to teach the worship of a man is heresy. But look at what the Father Himself commands in Hebrews:

Hebrews 1:6 But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “Let all the angels of God worship Him.”

The heavenly hosts of angels are commanded to worship the Son – the One that was born in Bethlehem, the One who was called “God with us” and “Yahweh saves”, the One that never had a beginning, and the One Who is referred to as “Mighty God”!

There is so much more in the New Testament that we haven't gotten to yet. We've only looked at the first two chapters of Matthew! And yet we see very clearly that Jesus was not just a prophet, not some revolutionary leader, and not simply a good teacher. He was, is and always has been – God Himself!

You Work Your Whole Life, Have Something To Show For It!

2014-10-18T14:37:00.001-04:00

I started working in full-time ministry when I was 16 years old. For twelve years, I didn't know anything else except for working to make our church better. Then things happened and I had to begin work out in the secular world. I eventually found employment in an aluminum press as a Quality Assistant. It was a drastic change from what I was used to!

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a shock for me to have to do “real” work. I have never had problems with manual labor, and the work load here was not what I had a problem with. My problem was simply an issue of significance. You see, I often found myself thinking things like, “My work used to change lives – now I just inspect parts for office furniture!” I had lost my sense of purpose...and I needed to understand why I was where I was.

For the next few months, God dealt with me about a believer's role in their secular workplace. He took me through Scripture and pointed out why He had me there and what my goals should really be. As I learned from Him, I began to realize that not many Christians in the workplace knew these things or had the right attitude about their employment.

Why should we as believers work for someone else – someone who is probably not a believer, and who may not even be a decent person? When we ask this, it's a question of motive. We're not really asking about how we should work; that's something that will be taken care of when we learn about why we're working. At the risk of giving away the ending...money is the least of your reasons!

So what are we in the workplace for?

#1 - Proverbs 25:13 “Trustworthy messengers refresh like snow in summer. They revive the spirit of their employer.” Bosses throughout this country are having a drought of trustworthy employees. They can't seem to find anyone who understands that they're being paid to work. They're being burned out by workers that don't work, or who work half-heartedly, or who constantly complain about the work they have to do. Christian, don't be that person! Work to refresh your employer!

Your primary goal at your job is to benefit your boss and your company. Of all their employees, you should be the one who has their best interests in mind. You should want your boss to succeed! You should want your company to prosper! You should be praying for the peace of your employers. You need to have the same attitude towards your place of work that God told His people to have in Jeremiah 29:7 - “And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.” When you work – your first priority is to help your company succeed!

#2 – Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses...” Another goal to have in your workplace is to “do the work of an evangelist.” (2 Timothy 4:5) If we're called to preach the Gospel to the world, why would you complain about being around worldly people all day? Use your place of work and your relationships with your coworkers as springboards to reach the lost!

Keep in mind, this should never be at the expense of your own workload. If you can talk about Jesus while you're working – go for it. But if it's going to affect your quality of work, then wait for lunch time! We already said this once, but your primary goal there is to refresh the spirit of your boss by being faithful to your responsibilities. If you should get a reputation of ignoring what you're supposed to be doing to talk about Jesus, then people will simply shut you off.

One thing I made sure of when I started my job was to get a reputation as a worker first – before I told anyone that I was a believer. Do you know what happened? As people saw me working – before I had told anyone about who I was – I had people coming to me to ask things like “where do you go to church?” If you live the life you're supposed to live at work, you won't surprise people when you tell them about your faith!

#3 – Proverbs 27:2 “Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth...” I used to shy away from praise for a job well done. Not anymore! I have gotten to the place where I welcome it! Why? Is it to feed my ego or inflate my self-esteem? Not at all!

I know why I have always worked harder than I need to. I know why I've always been motivated to improve my workplace. And I know why I've caught the attention of my bosses...and it's not my fault! It's God's grace that gives the power and ability that produces things from my work! 1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” It's not me that's gaining this praise, it's the grace of God working in me!

I work to get praised. Does that sound conceited to you? Let me explain myself then. Anytime someone tells me how impressed they are by what I do, anytime someone says “good job!”, and anytime I catch my bosses eye – I have more praise to give My Heavenly Father! I take that praise, that acclamation, that promotion, and that recognition and lay it down at His feet. As I do this, I proclaim “Look at what Your grace has done!” This is what Ephesians 1:6 calls “the praise of the glory of His grace.”

#4 – Colossians 3:22-24 “Bondservants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. 23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.” We may have an earthly boss – but that's not the one that we're working for! True, we're there to minister to them and refresh them – but we do this because our real Boss told us to! We work to serve Jesus, and our real reward will come from Him!

Ephesians 6:5-8 “Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.”

We will stand before the throne of Jesus to receive rewards for what we do here on earth...including how we handled our employment. In light of this, does it really matter how much they're paying you to do your job? In light of eternal rewards, what does the difference between $10 and $20 per hour matter? Jesus will one day look at how I do my job and hand out His reward...that's the payday that I'm working for!

#5 – Ephesians 4:28 “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.”

Speaking of payday – we do have a responsibility with our money! It's the least of our motives, but we do work for money. But it's not about earning money to store up for ourselves. We work for money in the same way we work for praise – so that we have it to give! Pay raises come naturally as a reward for diligent work. But that money comes in so you can give it out.

Our goal with our paycheck is to earn more so we can give more. Whether it's in the form of the tithe to your church, supporting a ministry that's doing a great work, or helping families in need – God blesses generous people!

Our goals in the workplace are simple:
#1 – We are there to refresh our employer
#2 – We are there to be a witness to a captive audience
#3 – We are there to earn praise that we turn back to God's grace
#4 – We work to obtain an eternal reward from our real boss – Jesus!
#5 – We earn a paycheck so we can have something to give

As believers, let's not get caught up in the attitude of the world concerning our job. You're there because God picked you to be there. Let's keep our eyes on what really matters!

Dear Jenn...

2014-09-10T17:52:00.000-04:00

Dear Jennifer,

I wish I could spend more time with you than we have together right now...just the two of us. If you would let me, I would spend each moment telling you what I love and admire about you. I know you would just stop me (and that's actually one of the things I love about you, you're selfless!), so I thought I'd spend what time I have today telling you what it is about you that keeps me head over heels in love!

Let me start with the smallest reason I love you....because you're absolutely beautiful! Every part of you amazes me. To steal Solomon's expression, you're "altogether lovely." Your eyes hold me prisoner. Your smile brightens my entire day and gives me the strength to push through anything that may happen. Your hair frames your face better than the finest gold or silver. Your skin is like a magnet for my hands! Your body is put together so perfectly that I just find myself staring sometimes...The rest of this very personal paragraph has been edited for family reading. :)

Whew! You see how fast that heated up? That's what a minor thing like your physical appearance does to me! But that's just the beginning...

I love the way your sense of humor works. True, we may not always laugh at the same things or at the same time - usually because your humor is a little more sophisticated than mine. But when what we think is funny overlaps, and we start laughing together, it's priceless! I love those time when we can't stop laughing. I love it when we finally gain control over ourselves...only to lose it all over again when we look at each other! There isn't another person in the world that I laugh like that with!

I love how you care for me. It's obvious to me that there's no one else you'd rather be around more than me. You always say the right things. You always have what I need taken care of. In fact, as I'm writing this, I can't think of the last time I had to ask you for anything! You always seem to know what I need and have it done before I know I need it!

That's not just true for me. The way you constantly care for our kids is yet one more reason I love you. You watch over them, love on them, teach them, and provide for them. True, the money may come from my paycheck, but if it were left to me....I wouldn't have a clue what to get for them or what they needed. You keep them in nice outfits, feed them the best meals, and give them the best stuff! These kids are so blessed to have a mom like you! More than anything I want for our kids...I want them to become just like you!

I love your voice! When you sing, I forget about everything else... all I want to do is stop and listen. As awesome as it is to hear you leading praise and worship at church, it's just as good to hear you beside me. And it's not just singing! No other voice on earth moves me like yours! When you're talking to me, you never lose my attention. When you're excited about something, I can't help but be happy with you. When you're feeling down, your voice breaks my heart. No one else can affect me like this - with something as simple as the sound of your voice!

These are just a few of the many things that I love about you. There has never been a time that you didn’t deserve every ounce of love I could give you – and I don’t anticipate any time in the future! However, I don’t love you just because you’re so loveable. If (and this is a huge IF!) you stopped every one of these things today…I would still love you. Do you know why? Because I’m following a model of unconditional love – Jesus Himself! He loves us whether we’ve done anything to deserve it or not. And that is exactly the kind of love I want to show you, Sweetie.

You're perfect for me, Jennifer. I know it was God Who brought you to me. And I always pay that I would be the husband you've always deserved. All I want to do is love you like Jesus loves us - to be so totally devoted to you that I lose track of my own life!

I know you've heard all this before. I wish I could come up with new things to say. But words just don't do justice to how you make me feel! Maybe fifty years from now, when I'm older and smarter, I'll have something more to say about how much I love you. Then again, that's fifty more years to come to love you more - so I'm probably going to be in this same predicament!

I love you Jennifer...now and always!
Your husband

Loving God Because...

2014-04-06T14:51:00.001-04:00

John 21:16 “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”

Churchgoers are always so quick to acclaim their love for Jesus. It’s the subject of countless of their songs. It makes up the content of millions of their prayers. And it is the sole focus of many (many) sermons all over the country on any given Sunday. We’ve made it into a creed in Christendom – an almost mindless repetition during our worship services; “I love You, Jesus!” But do these people who claim love for their Savior really understand what they’re saying?

Our love for God isn’t all that spectacular. It was never the focus of either the Old or New Testament. True, we are commanded to love our God with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength – but this is far from being the theme of the Bible! The Bible doesn’t focus on our love for God, instead it focuses on His love for us!

(As a side note: loving God is not a feeling! It’s not a fondness toward Him or an emotional high during a church service. Jesus was very clear what it meant to love Him – “If you love Me, you will obey My commands.” You cannot claim to love Jesus and ignore what He has told you in His Word!)

Like I said, our love for Him isn’t all that amazing. Take a look at 1 John 4:10 – “In this is (real) love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Do you see that? Our love for God isn’t a big deal! It’s not worth all the songs, sermons and repetitions that it’s been made into. It’s God’s love for us that should be understood!

The man who wrote this verse, John, had an excellent understanding of love. He is often referred to as the “apostle of love.” He’s the one who penned these amazing passages:

“Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”

“Perfect love has cast out fear…”

“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

“God is love…”

And yet, for all his focus on love, John never once spoke of his own love for Jesus! Instead, he referred to himself simply as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” When it came to how much John loved Jesus – he never thought it was worth mentioning! John understood that his love for Jesus was nothing compared to Jesus’ love for Him!

And herein lies a truth that many Christian misunderstand. On several occasions I have heard well-meaning believers claim to love Jesus “no matter what!” As if there was ever going to be a time when Jesus didn’t deserve their love? Our love for God is not unconditional! He deserves every ounce of love that we can give Him (and so much more!) There has never been a moment in history when He didn’t deserve the love of mankind! Drawing again from the apostle of love – let’s look at the first phrase of 1 John 4:19 “We love Him because…” There you have it – we love Jesus because! We only love Him because we have a good reason to!

And what is this reason? Let’s finish verse 19 – “We love Him because He first loved us.” Our love for God may not be unconditional (He deserves every bit of it), but His love for us is completely unconditional and undeserved. It is because of His unconditional love towards us that he deserves our love! Verse 9 of the same chapter elaborates on the amazing, unconditional love of God: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

We were sinners – He was righteous. We were worthless – He was worthy! We deserved nothing, but He gave us everything! Can you see how we’ve missed it by insisting on our love for Him while essentially ignoring His love for us? We need to keep a firm focus on how much God loves us. With this understanding - knowing just how much He loves us - it becomes almost effortless for our heart to respond “I love You, Jesus!”

In The Beginning, Chapter Ten - Day Six, Part Three

2014-02-24T21:04:00.001-05:00

The Garden Of Eden

Genesis 2:8-15 “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush.14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.”

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”

As we continue to read on in Genesis chapter two, we see a continuation of what happened on day 6. The next thing we see is a garden - Eden.

Planted, Not Created

Genesis 2:8 “The Lord God planted a garden…”

Read this account (from Genesis 1:11-12) of what happened on day three: “Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

Do you see the difference? On day three, God created the plants - they just sprang up from the earth. But here, on day six, God planted the trees and plants in the garden! This means that God took the seeds from the trees and plants that He created, buried them in the ground, and then brought them up to maturity. Why would God take the time to do it this way? Why didn’t He just pull the trees up out of nothing - like He did on day three? The answer, I believe, is in the timing of events on day 6.

Remember what’s happened so far on this day. First, God created all the different kinds of land animals. After that, He formed the first man out of the dust and breathed His own nature into him. And then, He planted a garden. Now that we can see the order of things, we can infer that Adam was standing right there as God started the process of seedtime and harvest.

Here was God demonstrating to Adam the most powerful law in the earth - the law of sowing and reaping. This principle is found throughout the scripture! It is impartial and unchangeable. But what’s more, this natural law is an illustration for a more powerful spiritual law!

The law of sowing and reaping is the reason that Abraham was blessed with descendants as numerous as the stars - because he gave up his natural family when he and Sarah left them behind. This law is the reason Abraham’s descendants still have possession of the promise land today - because he let go of his own homeland.

This law is the reason that millions are still faithful to King David, considering him to be the best king Israel has ever had - because he sowed faithfulness into King Saul.

This law is the reason Israel was punished in Babylon - because they sowed the seeds of rebellion.

This law is what opened the way for Jesus to come and die for us - because Abraham was willing to offer his own son, Isaac. And this law is the very reason for the believer’s new nature - because Jesus sowed His life to replicate it in ours!

And this process all started when God stood beside Adam and planted a garden!

It is interesting to notice that God would not break His own law, once it was in place. God created every plant with “its seed in itself” - each of them designed to reproduce after itself. So when God was ready to plant the Garden, He didn’t violate this process by creating anything new. Instead, He operated within His own law by taking seeds from the plants that He had already created and planting them. This is how important seedtime and harvest is in God’s eyes!

Where Was (Is) It?

There has been a lot of discussion and controversy over the location of the Garden of Eden. It’s been the object of countless searches throughout history. This is primarily because many believe that the Tree of Life is still there, and so finding the garden would be the key to immortality. Many people - even well-versed Christians - believe that the garden must still exist somewhere in the Middle East, because we still have rivers named Hiddekel (that is the Tigris) and Euphrates. It is sad to think that the second chapter of God’s Word has become nothing more than a treasure map for many believers!

To their credit, most Christians who believe that the Garden still exists somewhere haven’t wasted their time searching for it or supporting those who are. Most Christians believe that the Garden is still in the Middle East somewhere, but that we could never find it. They take Genesis 3:24 (“So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”) to explain why something like the Garden of Eden could exist in the most well-known area of the globe without being discovered. They claim that the cherubim are still there, guarding the way into the Garden.

Personally, I don’t believe that the Garden of Eden still exists on earth.You see, seekers of the Garden forget one important detail: The entire world was destroyed by Noah’s flood! Everything, including the Garden of Eden, was wiped out and buried by the flood waters. Not only does the Garden not exist today - but there is no Biblical way for us to know where it was!

At this point, some people would be quick to point out that the Hiddekel (or Tigris) and Euphrates rivers mentioned in Genesis 2 still exist in the Middle East. From what verses 10-14, you can see that the Garden was located at the place where the Tigris, Euphrates and two other rivers meet. So if you could find the place where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet, you’ll find the Garden of Eden, right?

Not exactly. A simple look at a map of the Middle East will show you a problem with this idea - the two rivers never meet! The only time they ever come within 20 miles of each other is near Baghdad, Iraq. At their sources - where they should meet, according to Genesis 2 - The Tigris and Euphrates are nearly 50 miles apart! And don’t forget, there are two other rivers that are mentioned in this passage that don’t even exist in our current world!

Does this mean that the Bible is giving us faulty geography? Not at all! Remember, the whole face of the earth was ripped up and destroyed by water during Noah’s day! We wouldn’t expect to see anything left of the pre-flood world - including these four rivers!

Someone may ask,”then why do the Tigris and Euphrates still exist?” I would suggest that they aren’t the same rivers as what flowed through the Garden. As Noah and his family entered the post-flood world, they would have carried the old names of the pre-flood landmarks with them. I believe that the Tigris and Euphrates in the Middle East were named after the original rivers that flowed out of Eden, but that’s where the relation stops!

We see the same thing in America – New England, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire – All of these places were named after locations in the Old World. The old names were brought to the New World by European explorers. This undoubtedly happened as Noah and his family began to explore the new and strange world after the flood.

So does the Bible say where the Garden was? I’m not so sure. Genesis 2:8 does say, “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden…” That’s it. That’s all the information we have about where this Garden was. In this flood-scarred world, it’s impossible to know where the land of Eden was...and really, it doesn’t matter! All we need to know was that it was in the land of Eden!

It’s possible though, that this phrase may not be referring to a geographic location at all!

In Hebrew, the word that we read as “eastward” is qedem. It’s the adverb that describes God planting this Garden. It’s true that qedem can mean “eastward” - as in “going east” or “doing something in the east”. But qedem can also mean “of old” or “anciently” - as in something that was done in ancient times. It is very possible that this is the meaning of qedem in Genesis 2:8 - after all, you would be hard-pressed to find an event more ancient than this!

The word Eden itself may not even be a location. It’s the Hebrew word for pleasure! So what has traditionally been translated as “planted a garden eastward in Eden”, may actually be saying, “In an ancient time, the Lord God planted a garden of pleasure.” That’s a little different meaning, isn’t it?

Now though, Eden has come to refer to the Garden of Eden - an actual place. This was the case in Ezekiel 28, 31, and 36 - all of which are referring to the actual Garden. In fact, every time there is a place called Eden in the Bible, it’s the Garden in Genesis. Other than this, there is no “land of Eden” ever mentioned.

What about the Tree of Life?

If the Garden was destroyed by the water of Noah’s flood, what happened to the tree of life? Was it destroyed too, buried in some unknown rock layer? Actually, no. The Bible tells us where it is. Believe it or not, the Tree of Life is not on earth anymore. After Genesis 3, we don’t see it again until the book of Revelation.

Revelation 2:7 shows us where the tree is now - “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” That’s as clear as could be! The tree of life isn’t somewhere on earth - it’s in Heaven!

One day though, the tree will be brought down to the new earth with the New Jerusalem. That’s what Revelation 22:2 tells us, “In the middle of its [the New Jerusalem’s] street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.” Apparently, there is more than one now! This makes sense...it’s had 6,000 years to reproduce!

A Mountaintop Meeting Place

Eden was on a mountain - this is certain. First of all, we can see four rivers flowing out of Eden, but none coming in. Since water flows downhill, Eden was most certainly elevated. Even today, all of our rivers originate in the mountain ranges around the world. Where else could you have a river flowing out, but none flowing in?

But the strongest case for a mountain-top garden is found in Ezekiel 28:13-14. In this passage, we see Lucifer (Satan, before he fell) was “in Eden, the Garden of God . . . the Holy Mountain of God.” So Eden wasn’t just any mountain...it was the Holy Mountain.

Eden was so much more than just a Garden as we know them today. Certainly, it would’ve been the site of some beautiful greenery and amazing sights. But there was more to this place than simply having some natural beauty. This was the place that God chose to meet with his favorite creation!

This statement may rub some religious hair the wrong way: But I challenge you to try and find out where the scriptures say that Adam and Eve lived in the Garden! You won’t find it! Certainly, they had responsibilities in the garden. Certainly they spent a considerable amount of time there. But nowhere does the Scripture say that this was their home! In fact, the language and wording of Genesis 2:15 hint at the idea that they only visited the Garden!

Genesis 2:15 “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” The Hebrew word for the phrase “and put him” is yanach. This word is a verb that means “to rest.” It doesn’t implicitly carry the idea of permanence. It simply means “to give rest to, to cause to rest, or to make quiet.” This is what God did with the man He had just made - He gave him rest in the Garden. Connect this to verses two and three of the same chapter, where God instituted the seventh day as a day of rest. Now you’re starting to see a whole new picture, aren’t you?

As long as we’re challenging sacred dogma, here’s another challenge: Try finding where the Bible says that the serpent was in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil when he was talking to Eve. You won’t see it anywhere in Genesis chapter three. In fact, if you look at the way that the serpent and Eve are both referring to the “all of the trees in the Garden”, you can see that this conversation probably took place outside of Eden!

We have been so tied into a certain story, that we haven’t been able to see anything else going on in Genesis chapters two and three. We’ve assumed that Adam and Eve lived in this natural paradise called Eden, and that God would come to their garden home from time to time to visit with them. We’ve seen Eve having a conversation with a snake that’s hanging out in the Tree of Knowledge. And we’ve seen them kicked out of their garden home when they sinned. But what if this wasn’t what happened?

We know that God has always had a meeting place with His people. With Jacob it was Bethel. With the Israelites, it was the Tabernacle. After the Tabernacle, it was the Tabernacle of David. After the Tabernacle of David, it was the Temple. And when His people were in exile, they still prayed facing the place where they used to meet with God

Even in the New Testament, we see that God has houses where He meets with His gathered people - just look at 1 Timothy 3:14-15. “These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

Even in the future, God will never abandon this concept of a meeting place. In the Millennial Reign of Jesus, the nations will be coming to Jerusalem once a year to meet with God. In the New Earth, the nations will be flowing into and out of the New Jerusalem, worshipping and bringing offerings.

God always had - and always will have - a place to come and meet with His people. I believe that this is what happened in the Garden of Eden. God, in all His glory and majesty, stepped out of Heaven into the Garden to meet with Adam and Eve. At the same time, Adam and Eve left the place where they lived to meet with Him in the Garden!

We’ll see this in much more detail in a later chapter, but I hope you’re seeing this Garden as more than a natural beauty! This was the place where Heaven met Earth! It has even been suggested that the river that flowed through the Garden was water flowing down from Heaven itself! The water that formed four rivers may have been coming out the the throne of God - as described in Revelation 22:1 - “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

Absolutely amazing! The Garden of Eden - mankind’s first meeting place with God!

In The Beginning, Chapter Nine - Day Six, Part Two

2014-02-05T17:12:00.000-05:00

The First Man

Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Forming The First Man

After God was done creating and filling the world, he was ready to put his most precious creation in it! Creation was ready to meet its new master. Now let’s look at Genesis 2 - the story of day 6 in much more detail:

Genesis 2:4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,”

Genesis 2:1-3 tell us about the seventh day (we’ll see this later), but from verse 4 through to verse 25 is the detailed story of the sixth day. God jumped back a day to give us more details about the most important part of the creation week. This is how we know that Genesis 2 is telling the story of day six: Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2 both tell the story of the creation of man and they both end with the creation of the woman.

But while Genesis 1:26-27 give us the summarized, headline version of God’s creation of man, we can see a more detailed version of this same story in Genesis 2:4-7. In the creation of man, God took a much more personal, much more intimate approach. But first, He did some prep-work!

Genesis 2:5-6 “before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

First of all, let’s not hold onto dogma that isn’t based in scripture. Some teachers have used these verses to teach that it never rained before Noah’s flood. They have tried to make the claim that the mist that’s mentioned in verse 6 was how the whole earth was watered before the flood. But let’s keep the text in context! When we read verse 6, we can see that the phrase, “For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth…” is referring to the same time period as the next phrase: “...and there was no man to till the ground...” This is not speaking about the environment over a long period of time, but was making mention of the time just before man was created.

These verses were the beginning of the story of man’s creation. The reason that God caused a mist to come up out of the ground was because it hadn’t rained yet - and God needed wet dirt for what He was about to do!

After watering the dirt, God did something that must have shocked all of creation...

Genesis 2:7a And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground...

God stepped out of His heavenly throne-room and into the earth. Stooping down into the damp dirt, God began to shape it into a body. It was similar in some ways to the animals. It was made from the dirt, like theirs. It had some features in common with theirs; such as bilateral symmetry, four limbs, and all of the same internal and external organs. But after forming this body, God did something that made this creature very different from the animals!

A “Living Soul”

Like we’ve just seen, the difference between the man and animals wasn’t in his body - that was similar in many respects to animals. Every living creature that God made had a body.

But, hear me carefully, there is something else that every living creature has. Every animal that God made - as well as the mankind - has a soul. The soul is attached to the brain. It includes the mind and thoughts, the will and desires, and the emotions.

While some animals have a higher intelligence than others, every animal has some degree of thought and reason. Every animal has its own desires and wants - though they mostly surround feeding and reproduction. Every animal has its own emotions - albeit some have much deeper emotions than others (elephants, for example are even known to feel sorrow over the death of a herd member).

The soul (in Hebrew, “nephesh”) is a natural part of every living creature, including man. (As a side note, this is why a lot of Christian seem to be stuck in their old nature. Before we were saved, our lives were ruled by our souls. And as long as a believer operates out of his intelligence, his desires, or his emotions...he is no different from the animals. Yikes!) Although humans have a much higher soul than other creatures, it is still just as natural as theirs. It wasn’t the soul that made this new creature different from the other creatures. There was something else in this man; something that separated him from the rest of creation.

Genesis 2:7b “...and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

As this lifeless body laid on the ground, God breathed into him the breath of life. Then, this man became a “living being.” The Hebrew term for living being is “Nephesh Hayah” – literally “a living soul.” This term is actually referring to the spirit of man. With this impartation of the spirit, the man became three parts - spirit, soul, and body.

The literal term for spirit is “living soul” - I believe this means that our spirit is a higher form of our soul. What do I mean by this? Well, just like our soul has thoughts, our spirit has thoughts. Just like our soul wants things, our spirit has desires. Just like our soul feels things, our spirit has emotions and feelings. But our spirit is made to exist in a higher form than our soul! What makes it higher?

God is a spirit...more specifically, He is THE spirit. John 4:24 tells us this: “God is Spirit.” So when God breathed into the man, He was imparting His own nature into him - he became like God! Notice that this verse doesn’t say that man had a living soul - it says that he became a living soul. This means that, unlike any other creature that God had made, man became a spirit that had a soul and lived inside of a body.

Angels are spirits without bodies. Animals are souls and bodies without spirits. But here was a creature that was capable of operating in the natural world and the spiritual! Imagine the angels’ surprise at the amount of attention that God gave to this lump of dirt! Imagine their shock as God laid Himself on top of this earthly body.

In 2 Kings 4, there is a beautiful picture of what God did when He breathed life into the man. It’s the story of Elisha and a little dead boy:
“When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet’s bed. He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the Lord. Then he lay down on the child’s body, placing his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, and his hands on the child’s hands. And as he stretched out on him, the child’s body began to grow warm again! Elisha got up, walked back and forth across the room once, and then stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!

I believe that this is what happened in Genesis 2. You see, with all of His new creations watching, God laid down on this body He had just made, putting His hands on the man’s hands, His feet on the man’s feet, His mouth on the man’s mouth, His eyes on the man’s eyes. Then God breathed part of His own Spirit into the man – and He became a spirit like God! If this is how the man came to life, then imagine his first sight when he opened his eyes! God wanted the first thing that the man saw to be His own face!

So now, earth had a creature that was just like God. God named him Adam - which means “red.” Some speculate that he got this name because he was made out of red dirt. Others believe that he may have been redheaded. Another possibility was that his name was a reference to his lifeblood, something that no other spirit had.

A Whole New Perspective

When you read through the Biblical account of mankind’s origins, you can’t help but notice how much difference there is between this and what is taught inside most college classrooms! We’ve seen the amazing amount of care that God took when He created the first man. Is it any wonder, then, that the demonic fairy tale of evolution is trying to reduce mankind into just an intelligent animal? I wonder if Satan gets amusement when he watches humans - the ones who should have dominion and control over all creation - lowering themselves by saying “we’re no different from any other animal.”

We could literally spend pages pointing out why the theory of evolution is wrong on the topic of human origins. We could point out (again) the credibility issues with evolutionary timelines. We could focus on each link of the evolutionary chain from apes to humans - and how each individual is either fully ape or fully human. We could pinpoint the hoaxes (such as Piltdown man) and the shoddy science (like Nebraska man) that occasionally pop up in the paleo-anthropology field. We could even demonstrate the absurd fact that nearly every fossilized ape that has been dug up has been branded as the missing link in human evolution at some point! But debunking human evolution isn’t the goal of this writing.

The goal in this chapter is to give a fresh perspective on where we came from. Every believer needs to understand this one point...that we have been truly made in God’s own image! We are not just another part in the animal kingdom.

With the forming of Adam, creation was nearing an end. But God still wasn’t done with His work yet!

In The Beginning, Chapter 8 - Day Six, Part One

2014-02-04T13:12:00.000-05:00

Genesis 1:24-25 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

The beginning of day six brought the creation of every ground-living animal. Every kind of insect, every kind of amphibian, every kind of worm, every kind of mammal - every kind of land animal was created on the first part of day six!

Notice what verse 24 says though: “Let the earth bring forth the living creature…” This was the exact same phrase that was used in verse 11, “Let the earth bring forth grass…” You see, God didn’t just create these creatures out of nothing, like He did with the sea and flying animals on day 5. The earth brought forth these animals! In other words…all of these creatures sprouted out of the dirt at God’s command!

Why is this important? We’ll see it in more detail in the next chapter...but for now, understand that mankind and the land animals were both made from the dirt.

Every Land Animal!

Now, you must realize this...every creature means every creature. Get rid of the secular idea that all of the kinds of living and extinct animals were separated into different ages of time!
    “The Paleozoic Era” - the age of ancient reptiles and giant amphibians
    “The Mesozoic Era” - the world ruled by dinosaurs
    “The Cenozoic Era” - the rise and rule of mammals
Christian, these terms mean nothing to you! Don’t compromise what the Bible clearly says to accommodate the ideas and opinions of fallen man!

When you start from the Bible, you can see that each and every kind (take note of that term) of land animal was created on day 6. This means that dinosaurs, giant insects, elephants, and horses were walking around together by the afternoon of the sixth day. If you believe the Bible, how else could it be?

So many believers get confused, especially concerning dinosaurs! But it’s not complicated. God created land animals on day 6. Dinosaurs were land animals. So the Bible does clearly tell us when God made dinosaurs, doesn’t it?

Let’s read these verse one more time: Genesis 1:24-25 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

From these two verses, we can see three categories of land creatures that were created by God on the beginning of day 6:

Cattle

This would include most of the animals that have been domesticated as livestock. Almost certainly, the entire family of bovidae would be included in this category - considering it includes all oxen, sheep and goats. These are the “clean” types of livestock.

It is also possible that other livestock may have been included in the “cattle” category. Horses seem to be especially designed for human use. Camels and llamas also play a vital role in many cultures around the world. Even hogs are a valuable livestock animal and may have been included in this category.

Every creeping thing

The term “creeping thing” encompasses every creature that worms, crawls, or scurries along the ground. Several verses in Leviticus chapter 11 gives us a little more insight into what was included as a creeping thing:

Leviticus 11:20-23 All flying insects that creep on all fours shall be an abomination to you. yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on all fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth. These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind. But all other flying insects which have four feet shall be an abomination to you.

Leviticus 11:29-30 These also shall be unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth: the mole, the mouse, and the large lizard after its kind; the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.

Verses 20-23 tell us that all insects are creeping things. I know a lot of people accuse the Bible of claiming that insects have four legs when they actually have six. But it does no such thing! The Bible simply counts the first two pairs of legs as being the same, and then adds in the last pairs as different from the other four. Scientifically speaking...this is accurate. The back set of legs are very different from the first two sets. This difference is obvious in insects like grasshoppers and katydids, but it also exists in other insects like ants and honeybees.

Verse 29 tells us that some mammals were also categorized as creeping things. Moles are specifically mentioned, so other insectivores such as shrews and hedgehogs would also be considered creeping things. Mice and mouse-like animals are also mentioned - bringing the majority of rodents into this category as well. That these two types of animals are mentioned gives us a general idea of what other mammals would be in this category, anything that scurries along the ground would be considered a creeping thing. This would include weasels, all of the smaller rodents, and many other small mammals (bandicoots, squirrels, badgers, etc).

The ending of verse 29, along with verse 30, speaks of reptiles - specifically several types of lizards. It appears that any type of lizard, large or small, is considered a creeping thing.

Finally, verses 41 and 42 show us the general definition of a creeping thing: “And every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be an abomination. It shall not be eaten. Whatever crawls on its belly, whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet among all creeping things that creep on the earth...”

So any animal that crawls along the ground is a creeping thing. This includes animals that crawl on their belly (such as snakes and caecilians), animals that crawl on four legs (such as lizards, frogs and rodents), and animals that have multiple legs (such as insects, spiders, and millipedes). This is the definition of a creeping thing - and they were all made from the dirt on day 6!

Beasts Of The Earth

Essentially, this category includes every other land animal. Generally speaking, this includes all of the larger land animals that hold themselves up off the ground. Mammals like rhinos, kangaroos, apes, bears, cats and entelodonts are all beasts of the earth. Other beasts of the earth include larger reptiles, such as dinosaurs and the bigger types of dicynodont, and even the large flightless birds known as ratites.

All of these fall into the broader category of “beasts of the earth.”

Species Vs. Biblical Kind

In these two verses, we see the phrase “according to its kind” five different times. Understand that the animal kinds that were created on day 6 weren’t necessarily what we consider “species”.

Today we have almost nine million species of living animals classified. But the boundaries of Biblical kinds are much broader. What defines an animal kind? Simply put...any animals that can breed together and produce offspring are members of the same Biblical kind of animal. This means that donkeys, horses and zebras are all the same kind of animal. Lions, tigers and leopards are the same kind of cat - even though they’re different species. All eight species of bear are members of the same kind.

How does this apply to the creation week? God created each kind of animal with an enormous amount of genetic information written on their DNA. This amount of information would result in a number of variations from individual to individual. Elephants, for example, would have individuals with longer hair, others with shorter hair, and still others with hardly any hair at all. Some wolves may have had lighter colored hair, some may have had very dark hair, and most would have had a variety of colors at the same time. All of these variations - as well as others that affected size and shape - were confined within each kind of animal.

As the animals began to gradually lose some of this information, the various kinds of creatures began to separate even further, into species within the kind. (This wouldn’t have happened much before the flood – so the creatures in the ark were probably good representatives of the original kinds. But in the new environments that formed after the flood, this “speciation” really took off.)

To illustrate how this happened, lets take a look at the wolf kind:

As we have already said, the original kind that was created had the information for both long and short hair. As members of this kind began to populate the cold arctic areas (after the flood), those that were born with shorter hair had no defense against the cold weather. Because of this, the short-haired varieties froze to death and failed to pass that information on to the next generation. So within a few generations, the arctic population became strictly long-haired wolves.

At the same time, a similar change occurred in the color of the wolves’ hair. The animals with darker hair would have been easily spotted by their prey against the snow-covered ground of the Arctic. They would have had a much harder time hunting down their food; while the light-haired individuals would’ve had a much easier time. After several generations, the light coloration would become the dominant trait among this wolf population.

Put these two adaptations together and - voila! - you get the Arctic Wolf! These types of changes were occurring all over the world after the flood, as the highly adaptable kinds began to change into the various species inside their new habitats. The original big cat kind descended into both lions and leopards. The original elephant kind radiated into huge and hairy mammoths as well as small and naked dwarf elephants.

Don’t get confused, though! This adaptation is not evolution! The theory of evolution requires massive amounts of added information, but this speciation occurs because of the loss of genetic information! Many times, so much of the original information is lost that the resulting species no longer retains the ability to interbreed with other members of its kind...meaning that they no longer have any way to regain the information that was lost! If these new species were then placed in a different environment, they would no longer have the means to adapt and would quickly go extinct.

The theory of evolution has tried for over a hundred years to eliminate the boundaries between animal kinds. Every animal that has ever existed, evolutionists say, must have evolved from another type of animal. Bats evolved from shrew-like creatures. Birds evolved from reptiles. Whales evolved from hoofed land-animals. This is what is taught in modern biology classes - in spite of the fact that none of this has ever been observed!

What we see is entirely different from this evolutionary “ad hoc” story! We do see many types of animals changing - sometimes it’s in size, sometimes it’s in color, sometimes it’s in habits. But what we never see, is one kind of animal changing into another kind. Although we’ve seen many different changes inside the horse kind, we’ve never seen anything other than horses! We’ve seen many changes in the finch kind - but we’ve never seen a finch change into something other than a finch! There are definite boundaries within the genetics of every animal - and these boundaries were there from the beginning. These are the boundaries of the created kind.

What We See Now Isn’t How It Was Then

When you’re picturing the creation of the land animals, it’s easy to imagine lions, tigers, zebras, giraffes, and polar bears walking around. But this is not at all what it would’ve been like!

God didn’t directly create lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards and snow leopards on day six. Instead, He created the big-cat kind. This original kind had all the genetic information that was necessary to produce each of these different species, but it wouldn’t have looked very much like any of them!

Zebras, giraffes, and polar bears wouldn’t have been there either. Each of them is a member of a much larger kind that was created on day 6. Instead of zebras, you would’ve seen the original horse kind (the ancestor to horses, zebras and donkeys). Instead of giraffes (as we know them today) you would have seen the ancestor to the giraffe and okapi. Polar bears have descended from the original bear kind (what would’ve been seen on day 6) through the same process that brought about the Arctic Wolf - the loss of information for short or dark hair.

In the very last sentence of Genesis 1:25, we can see another way that creatures back then differed from creatures now, “And God saw that it was good.” Things were good. This wasn’t an animal kingdom that was filled with violence and bloodshed - like we see now. You see, there were no predators. There were no parasites. There was no hunting. Everything in the animal world was at peace.

So, what about the animals that are predators now? What were they eating then? At the risk of jumping too far ahead, let’s take a look at Genesis 1:29-30 to find the answer: “And God said [to Adam], “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.”

The animals were vegetarians! Every one of them lived on fruits, seeds, and leaves. That means every animal that we call a predator now - from snakes, to weasels, to the mighty T-rex - was originally a plant-eater. Everything was good!

A World That Was Ready

By the end of the sixth morning, the world was ready for God’s final creation. The seas were filled with aquatic plants and animals. The skies were lit up by the sun, moon and stars and were filled with all kinds of flying creatures. Dry land was beautifully decorated by plants and supplied with fruits and vegetables; while each and every kind of animal was roaming about freely, feasting on the fresh vegetation. Now it was time for world to know what...or rather, who...it was created for!

In The Beginning, Chapter Seven - Day Five

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Genesis 1:20-23 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the face of the firmament of the heavens.” So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded (or “teemed”), according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”

On day five, God continued His work of filling the earth that He had just formed. He began the process of creating living, breathing, moving creatures. He created two categories of animals - swimming and flying. All of the swimming animals - whales, sharks, fish, crustaceans, corals, jellyfish - anything that glides through the water or lives on the ocean floor was created ex nihilo (out of nothing) on day five. Also every creature that flies through the air...every flying bird, every bat, and every flying insect.

There are some birds like ostriches and kiwis that aren’t primarily fliers, spending most of their lives on the ground. The large, flightless ratites and weak-flying game birds were probably created on day 6, not day 5. Other flightless birds, like the flightless parrots of New Zealand, were probably strong fliers when their kind was originally made. Over the years, and through several degenerative mutations, an entire population of this kind of bird lost their ability to fly. Still, they would’ve been created on day 5 with the other fliers. The same is true of many insects which were strong fliers at one time, but are now restricted to the ground - all of which were created on day 5.

Remember, we’re starting with what the Bible says. When you form your worldview based on scripture, you would never get the idea of extinct groups of animals living long before humans existed. The Bible clearly says that all sea and air creatures were created on day five. When this is your only defining worldview, then we can see that even the giant marine reptiles (commonly, but erroneously called dinosaurs) and enormous flying pterosaurs were created on day 5 as well. All of the marine fossils we see around the world must’ve had their beginning on day 5. When we start with what the Bible says (i.e. “God created the different kinds of flying animals on day 5 and the fossilized pterosaurs were flying animals. Therefore that kind must’ve been created on day 5.) we can clearly see that something happened since creation to cause the fossilization and extinction of thousands of kinds of creatures! We’ll look a little more at that in part four!

So on day 5, God created every kind of swimming animal and every kind of flying creature. This point is drastically different than evolutionists believe. Evolutionist put land animals first then flying animals! Yet God had animals filling the skies before he ever had creatures walking around on land.

Actually, it’s the evolutionist that has real problems with flying animals. As we’ve already found out, there have been no fewer than four different types of animals flying through our sky (insects, reptiles, mammals, and birds). According to the current theory of evolution, insects were the first to evolve flight. After them, a group of flying reptiles, known as pterosaurs, evolved. Next, some feathered dinosaurs began to fly from tree to tree - becoming what we know as birds. Then, finally, the mammals took to the air as bats. Flight, they say, evolved independently four different times.

Each of these creatures flies in a drastically different way. Insects have wings attached to their back. Pterosaur wings were attached to an extremely long pinky-finger. Birds have wings that are mostly made of their arms and feathers - with a small part attached to their specially-designed fingers. Four of the bats’ fingers are elongated and covered in skin to make their wings. Still, every time we find these four types of fliers in the fossil record, they have perfectly formed and developed wings! We have never seen a partially formed wing in a fossil - not of birds, bats, bugs or pterosaurs!

But it’s not just the flying animals that the evolutionists have issues with. While the evolutionary view is that all life began in the oceans; they have no choice but to claim that some groups have left the water, evolved on land, and then returned to the sea. Plesiosaurs, Ichthyosaurs, Mosasaurs, marine crocodiles, and sea turtles are different groups of reptiles that are said to evolved an aquatic lifestyle independently from each other. This is also said to be the case with at least two types of birds (Hesperornis and penguins) and at least three different types of mammals (whales, seals, and sea cows).The evolutionary story of each of these marine families has the same problems as the the flying creatures - namely, the extreme specialization of their body designs and the lack of transitional fossils.

Believing what the Bible says about these creatures leads to a structured, clearly defined system of naming and classifying these animals. The founder of modern taxonomy, Carolus Linnaeus, was a firm believer in God’s Word. This belief led to the most structured and organized classification system the world had ever seen. Why should this be the case? Because it’s clear to us that some creatures are closely related to each other and others are more distant. Creationist believe that there are clear boundaries between different created kinds - and that there are family lines that are never crossed.

But the evolutionary belief system leads to a confused, blurry understanding of which animals are related to which.They now classify animals not by how they appear, but on how they supposedly evolved. Never before in the history of zoology have animals been grouped into families and orders based on nothing more than a story! Look at these examples of confusing relationships that evolution teaches:

Birds are considered to be living dinosaurs. As such they are classified as reptiles! Despite the fact that birds are warm-blooded, lightly-built, and feather-covered; evolutionary scientists consider crocodiles to be their closest relatives!

Mammals are said to be descended from reptiles as well. As a result, a whole group of fossilized reptiles are called “mammal-like reptiles.” Even though these creatures have obvious reptilian characteristics - their so-called mammal-like features are emphasized...confusing their placement among the other reptiles.

Whales are grouped with hoofed animals like deer and cattle because they supposedly evolved from them.

Indeed, scientist have unearthed a fossil of a land-living, wolf-like creature with hooves on its feet. When they saw this creature, they named it Pakicetus (“whale from Pakistan)! This animal may never have swam a moment in its life - yet it’s called a whale! Why? Because it’s considered the earliest ancestor of every whale and dolphin in the ocean.

Can you see how basing your science on an imagined story can lead to poor science? Sadly, as the story continues to change, so does the science.

By contrast, we believe that God created the different kinds of animals individually. No kind of animal has ever given rise to another kind! Therefore, we group animals together based on how they are similar to each other. This leads to an easier understanding and a more consistent science.

So, after God created the flying and swimming creatures, He pronounced His first blessing. He blessed these animals and commanded them to fill the oceans and the skies...something they still do today!

In The Beginning, Chapter Six - Day Four

2013-09-18T13:20:00.000-04:00

Genesis 1:14-19 "Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth'; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day."

On day four, God filled the canvas of empty space with lights. Not only were these lights amazing works of art, but they were created on a scale so large that it's almost unthinkable!

Lights That Fill The Sky

The Two Great Lights

Genesis 1:16 "Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night."

We know these two lights as the sun and moon, respectively. But it's worth noting that God never names them. Why? Because in ancient cultures the names for the sun and the moon were also names for the false deities that were associated with them. God's reason for calling them "lights" was to emphasize the Creator - not the creation.

It’s also interesting that God calls them both “great lights” - although He goes on to say that one was the greater of the great lights and one was the lesser. Think about this; the sun is exactly 400 times wider than the moon. It is also exactly 400 times further away. What does this mean? This means that from where we are on earth, the sun and the moon appear to be the same size! That’s a nice touch!

Not only was the sun and moon personally created by God, the ingenious way that the moon reflects the sun's light is an idea straight from His mind!

"He Made The Stars Also."

Every extraterrestrial light in the sky is included in this one sentence. This includes the stars, their planets, their planet’s moons, the nebulae, the globular clusters - every object in the expanse of the natural heaven! Also included is our own solar system's planets and their moons. Essentially everything that gives or reflects light in space came from this single sentence, “Let there be lights…”!

This couldn’t be any more different from the secular theory of the origin of stars! Evolutionary astronomers have been guessing for years at how stars could form. What is the biggest problem they have? Simply this: while we’ve seen hundreds of stars burn out or explode, we’ve never seen a single star form! There are literally hundreds of billions of stars that we can observe from earth, this is the reason that we’ve seen so many die out. And yet, for all of this, no astronomer has witnessed the formation of a single new star!

The current evolutionary theory is that when several stars turn supernova near each other - that would produce enough energy to form a new star. But any amount of reasonable thought would destroy this theory completely. First of all...these older stars had to come from somewhere! Secondly, how could the universe still be filled with hundreds of trillions of stars when several older stars are lost to make a single new one? Not only are evolutionary astronomers faced with this problem - they still have no answer for why a star birth has never been observed.

When an atheist looks at the nighttime sky, he sees a puzzle - an enigma. How did the stars form? Where did the planets come from? What are the moons made of? Sadly, The more questions they ask, the more problems they find. For believers, it’s simple...we believe that each and every star was created by God Himself! They were all made at the same time, on the fourth day of creation!

Just How Big Is This Thing?

From his lecture called “Creation Astronomy”, Dr. Jason Lisle brings the size of the universe to an understandable scale.

In his lecture, Lisle spoke about an imaginary road traveling from the earth to the sun. If someone was to travel down that road at 60 miles per hour, it would take them over 150 years to reach the edge of the sun! This distance (93 million miles) is known as one Astronomical Unit (AU). This same distance is traveled by sunlight in about eight minutes!

Now, Lisle goes on to say, if you were to extend this road in the opposite direction, away from the sun - how long would you need to travel at 60 miles per hour to reach the edge of the solar system? It turns out that Adam might almost be there by now! It would take about 6,000 years to reach the orbit of our outer planets when traveling at that speed!

As massive as that is, it's only the solar system that orbits a single star - our sun. The universe is so much bigger! Let's pretend that the entire solar system can fit in your hand, with the sun at the center. Using this scale (the sun would be smaller than a period on this page), the nearest star in our galaxy would still be over a quarter-mile away! In fact, using this same scale, our Milky Way galaxy would be much, much larger than the United States! Only a few years ago, the Milky Way was estimated to contain up to one hundred billion stars. Today, however, that number has quadrupled! It is now estimated to contain well over four hundred billion stars. This is just an educated guess...no one can even come close to having an accurate number.

Let me give you another illustration of the sheer size of the Milky Way galaxy:

There have been five different Star Trek series - with a total of 31 seasons, 12 full-length movies, and 703 episodes. Since I’m not a Trekkie, I’ll assume that each episode contained a different planet orbiting a different star….meaning all thirty years of Star Trek episodes could have been set around 700 stars.

At the same time, there are around 460 planets named or mentioned in the six Star Wars films. Assuming, once again, that each planet orbited it’s own star - the entire Star Wars story could have been set around less than 500 stars.

As you’ve already read before, according to current estimates, the Milky Way Galaxy contains up to 400 billion stars. This means both fictional storylines (Star Wars and Star Trek) could have occurred within the Milky Way Galaxy…and still have left 399 billion, 999 million, 998 thousand, 840 stars untouched!

But this is just our galaxy. Scientist estimate that there are up to 100 billion other galaxies in the universe, each of them containing 100 billion to 1 trillion stars. This means that every person that has ever lived on Earth could personally own trillions of stars for themselves, with plenty left over!

Still, in spite of the incredible size of this universe, God's power keeps in all in balance and under His control. Indeed, the same God that is intimately acquainted with each and every cell of our body also maintains and upholds every star in every galaxy! The creation of every celestial object in space - including every star, planet, moon, nebula, and galaxy - is summed up in Genesis 1:16, "and He made the stars also."

God has always been in complete control of the natural Heaven. Despite there being millions upon billions of stars in the sky, Psalm 147 shows us God's sovereignty over them - "He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name." We don't even have a million words in our language, and yet God gave a unique name to each of the hundreds of trillions of stars! Incredible!

Why Did God Make All Of This?

In light of the sheer size and extravagance of the universe we see, many people have asked the question, "Why?" Why did God create stars that will never be seen, planets that will never be walked on, galaxies that will always be unknown? The apparent lack of answers has had some people (yes, even believers) speculating about extraterrestrial life and alien races. But don't allow yourself to get caught up in the hype! There are no Biblical arguments for life on other planets! Actually, I believe that the Bible presents a very strong case against their existence.

But let's get back to the real question; why did God create such a massive universe? I believe that there are four main reasons for such an amazing creation.

The first reasons are found in Genesis 1:14 and 15 - "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth." The most obvious purpose of these lights in the sky is to light up the earth. Anyone who's ever been outside on a clear night can appreciate the light that the moon and the stars give.

We can also see a second purpose in these verses - to keep track of time! The earth's rotation gives us our days. The moon's dark and light phases help us keep track of months. The earth's revolution around the sun gives us our years, as well as our four seasons. The stars are also constantly changing throughout the year - to help us track the seasons better.

I believe that God also made the stars to navigate by. There are certain stars (such as the North Star) that guide us on our journeys. The different constellations in the nighttime sky can still be used by the informed person to determine their exact location on earth.

But the most important reason for God's creation of the universe can be read in Psalm 19:1. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork." I believe God created the universe to showcase His glory in the natural world. Reasonable minds everywhere have always concluded that the glory of the stars had to be created by Someone with even more glory! Millenia of study and the deepest views into space have only increased this sense of wonder. I believe that the incredible size and beauty of the universe is simply God showing off!

All For Us!

The arguments and debates that rage on about where the earth is in the universe is a moot point. What’s important to understand is this: Out of all the stars in the universe, out of all the potential planets out there, ours is the center of God’s attention! God spent two days on the natural heaven - first forming it, then filling it. But for six days, God was developing and fine-tuning one little ball of rock...earth. Even the creation of the stars in space was for our benefit! It’s clear where God’s heart lies, here on our planet - with us.

Is There A Problem With Distant Starlight?

This is one common objection to what has been named young-earth creation: “If the universe is only 6,000 years old, how can we see light from stars that are millions of light years away? Doesn’t that mean that the light we’re seeing is millions of years old?”

Some Christians, not knowing what else to say, have responded by saying “God just made it that way.” They explain that trees, animals, and mankind were all made with an appearance of age from the beginning - why not starlight? Saying “the appearance of age” is a little bit of a misnomer, though. God made Adam mature, but with none of the wear and tear that you would expect to see with age. Adam wasn’t scarred, wrinkled, or wore down like normal thirty-year-olds. He may have been mature, but he didn’t look like he had lived for any length of time!

This isn’t what we see in the stars though. We definitely see signs of age out there. Galaxies colliding, stars dying out, massive explosions - we are seeing the effects of the curse, even in the stars! How is it possible that we’re seeing these events that are millions of lightyears away if the earth is only six thousand years old?

Before we answer this question, it’s important to understand something. A lightyear is not a measurement of time! It is a measurement of distance. A lightyear is the distance that light travels in a year when it is moving at 186,000 miles per second - the speed we know it travels today. If light ever traveled slower, a lightyear would not be any longer. If light traveled faster, a lightyear wouldn’t be any shorter. It is simply a measure of distance, similar to a foot or a mile.

There many well-thought-out answers to the distant starlight problem. Some of them are extremely technical (such as the concept that time passes slower or faster, relative to gravity), others are easier to understand (such as “God just made it that way.”)

What I believe may be a possible answer to the problem of distant starlight is very simple. It is possible that God sped up the speed of light during the fourth day. Think about this, on the day before - on day 3 - God sped up the process of nature. He brought the trees up out of the ground into maturity in a matter of moments! Could He not have done the same thing with the speed of light on day 4? I believe that God “planted” the stars in their distant places and then “grew” the light from them to the earth in mere moments. Since then, we’ve been seeing what’s going on out there in real-time! This is most likely why the stars were immediately visible from earth.

So, by the end of day 4 things were coming into shape. Earth had a single, large sea and a large area of dry land. Land was covered in beautiful vegetation, all hand-planted by God Himself. And now, the expanse of the sky - indeed, the entire universe - was filled with brilliant and beautiful stars! Everything was ready for God’s next step.

In The Beginning, Chapter Five - Day Three

2013-09-11T08:14:00.000-04:00

Genesis 1:9-13 "Then God said, 'Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear'; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

"Then God said,'Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth'; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day."

Day three was all about the earth. It was divided into two parts, bringing out the land from the water and then filling both with an amazing array of plants.

The Dry Land And The Seas

Genesis 1:9 "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let dry land appear."

God's first act on day three was to confine the water that covered the earth and bring out the dry land. Psalm 95:5 says that this one creative act is what gives God ownership of the oceans. "The sea is His, for He made it; and His hands formed the dry land." Proverbs 8:29 also describes this incredible event, "I [wisdom] was there when He set the limits of the seas, so they would not spread beyond their boundaries."

In His amazing power, God drew back the water into one place and brought up the dry land. Psalm 33:7 appears to make reference to this, "He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap..." Did you know that there are heaps of water, literally hills and valleys, on the surface of the oceans? Did you know that there are places where the sea itself is above sea level? Today these "heaps" of water are held up and moved about by the gravity of the moon. But just like God produced light without the sun for the first three days, it also appears that He personally drew and held up these hills of water until He created the moon on day four. This shouldn’t be surprising, after all, Isaiah 40:12 tells us that He “measures the oceans in the hollow of His hand.”

So God gathered the waters together into one place. This strongly suggests that earth had a single ocean on the sunset of the third day. If there was one ocean, with the water gathered into one spot - then it's logical to assume that all of the dry land was also in one spot. The idea of a single supercontinent (now called Pangea) is not original with old-earth evolution. Here we can see a reference to this concept in the very first chapter of God's Word!

So what happened to this single continent? Why is the dry land separated into seven continents today? We'll find out later why the world broke up, but here's a clue: At some point in earth's 6,000 year history, there was a global disaster that changed everything! We're no longer living in the original world; our world today is scarred by death and disaster. Still, remnants of its original beauty remain. If a corrupted and death-riddled world still retains enough beauty to point to the Creator, what an amazing place the world must have been before sin!

From Barrenness To Beauty

Genesis 1:11 "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth..."

Maybe God doesn’t like the sight of bare rock...because after God brought up the dry land, He began to fill it with plants of every kind. This marks the end of one phase of creation and the beginning of another. Up until now, God had been creating empty canvases. The earth, the expanse of space, the oceans, the dry land - all of these were just empty spaces on the afternoon of the third day. Now, God began His work of filling these spaces with beautiful and incredible creations.

Plants of all shapes, sizes, smells, and colors were created by God and filled every acre of dry land - and much of the seas too! Grasses, flowers, and trees covered the ground. Other plant life such as fungi, algae and phytoplankton were also created with specific purposes (such as the production of oxygen, a food source for myriads of animals yet to be created, and the production of fresh soil). Plants were God's first biologic creation and they filled the earth with life!

Many of these plants have since gone extinct and are only known to us by fossils. We can only guess at what tastes, smells, and colors these other plants added to the world, but we do know that each of them were personally designed by God Himself! What an amazing sight this new, flowering world must've been!

Even the seas had an abundance of plant life! Kelp, sea grasses, and various algaes grew up from the ocean floor and filled the otherwise barren water. There's even evidence that suggests the existence of giant floating forests. These were island-sized masses of lightweight trees whose roots intertwined to hold them together. These giant masses of vegetation even had their own soil (made from their own leaves). We see a similar phenomenon today called "quaking bogs" - but these floating islands dwarfed anything that exists now and must have been an amazing sight to see!

Some of the most beautiful plants that can be seen today exist in gardens, where gardeners personally control the nutrients and water that the plants get. Good gardeners put time and effort to produce the most beautiful plants and the most delicious fruit. This is a reflection of God's own creative nature - but what must the world have been like when God Himself was the Gardener? We see the descendants of the plants that He created today - but this was the only time in history that each and every plant was put in place by God's own hand! Not a single blade of grass escaped the Creator's notice!

Day Three

Genesis 1:13 "So the evening and the morning were the third day."

Once again, for the third time, we see the formula - evening+morning+a number. Once again, God emphasized that this was still an actual day.

Think about this; God still hadn't created the sun yet...and yet the earth was full of plant life! The third day couldn't have been thousands or millions of years (like the day-age theorists state) - plants need sunlight to survive!

Not only do plants need sunlight, they also need insects to pollinate them. When you view these days of creation as ordinary days, the lack of insects doesn't matter - they're only lacking for two more days. But if you believe that the days of creation were long ages of time, you have to explain how plants pollinated without insects to help!

At the close of the third day, the newly-created earth was already drastically different. The water was contained and dry land appeared for the first time. Beautiful vegetation filled both the land and the sea. Now, on the morning of the fourth day, God was going to turn His attention to heaven once again...

In The Beginning, Chapter Four - Day Two

2013-09-04T14:10:00.000-04:00

Day 2

Genesis 1:6-8 "Then God said, 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.' Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day."

The second and third heavens were created at the very beginning - on day one. But day two saw the creation of the first heaven, the natural heaven. At first it was simply called the firmament, or expanse. But after its creation, God renamed it "Heaven."

Dividing Waters From Waters

We're told that the firmament was created between two bodies of water. One was called the waters under the firmament, the other was called the waters above the firmament. The waters under the firmament are the oceans - this is made clear in Genesis 1:9-10. In those verses, God gathered "the waters under the heavens" into one place and called them "sea". The waters above the firmament are still a mystery though. There are a couple of theories that try to explain the waters above the firmament of Heaven.

The first theory (we'll call it the cloud theory) says that the firmament is simply what we call the sky. When the Bible talks about the waters above firmament, it is only a reference to the water in the clouds. So this theory suggests that God established the water cycle on the second day.

The second theory is that the firmament is the earth's atmosphere. The waters above the firmament are explained as a layer of water or ice that surrounded the outside atmosphere of earth. Known as the "canopy theory" - this idea is said to explain the larger plant and animal life that existed at the beginning. This bubble of water or ice is said to have functioned like a greenhouse - increasing sunlight, warming the earth and producing much higher oxygen levels. This canopy is then said to have collapsed during Noah's flood.

While it is true that the earth had an amazing climate for the first 1,500 years of its history, inventing a canopy of water to explain this climate produces a problem. This canopy would amplify the sun's rays like a magnifying glass, producing much more heat. At the same time, the water would function as a barricade - holding in the heat that normally escapes into space. This would make the temperature of earth unbearably hot!

Another problem with the canopy theory is found in Psalm 148:4 - "Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters above the heavens!" While the canopy theory claims that the waters above the firmament collapsed in Noah's flood, this verse is telling us that the waters above the heavens still exist today!

Actually, both explanations of the waters above the firmament (the canopy theory and the cloud theory) have a major biblical problem, and it's found in Genesis 1:14. "Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven...'" God placed the sun, moon and stars inside the firmament! This means that the waters above the firmament are out beyond the farthest stars - and not at the edge of our atmosphere. So these waters couldn't be clouds (which are inside our atmosphere) or a canopy.

So what are the waters above the firmament? When read straightforward, it appears that there is water somewhere beyond the stars! What this means exactly, though, we can't be sure. Someday, we'll be able to ask the Creator Himself!

An Enormous Creation

When you think of the firmament as only the earth's atmosphere, you get the feeling that day two was an "off day" for God. Seriously....God took a whole day to create air? It doesn't seem like much, does it? But when you realize what the firmament really is - you can see the magnitude of what God did on the second day!

Yes, it's true that the earth's atmosphere was formed on the second day. This means that each of earth's four atmosphere levels were created and positioned to protect us. It also means that God mixed the perfect blend of gases in the air that we would be breathing. But there's so much more to God's creative act on the second day!

The firmament of the first heaven begins at ground level and extends to the edge of the universe. We're talking about distances so vast that you couldn't travel across them within a million lifetimes - even if you were traveling at the speed of light! All of this space was included in the creation of the firmament!

Although this empty space was going to be filled with incredible sights and breathtaking artistry; at the close of day two, it was still empty. It was a blank canvas, ready for the Master's touch!

Touching the Heavens

In Genesis 1:14 we read, “Then God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens...’” - so the expanse of the heavens appears to be connected to the other heavens. Now let’s look in verse 20, “...let birds fly above the earth across the face of the heavens.” In the same way that earth has a “face” - i.e. the surface - the spirit world and Heaven itself have a face. The firmament apparently touches all three faces.

We see that the expanse of the natural heaven is the face of the other two! In other words, the expanse of the firmament not only touches the face of the earth, but it also touches the face of the spirit realm and even the face of Heaven itself! They are connected to each other!

The Second Day

Genesis 1:8 "So the evening and the morning were the second day."

For a second time, we see the biblical rule of interpreting the Hebrew word "yom". Whenever there is a time of day used in the same sentence as "yom" - then this word always means a 24-hour period of time. Also, if you ever see a number attached to "yom", it is always a literal day. Here in verse 8 we have both. Two times of day ("evening and morning") and a number ("the second day") clearly indicate, even insist, that day two was an actual day.

Think about this, in the same amount of time that we call a day, our Creator prepared the atmosphere of the earth, spread out the entire expanse of space, and then networked this natural expanse together with His Heavenly home and the spiritual climate of this world!

In The Beginning, Chapter Three - Day One

2013-08-29T08:13:00.001-04:00

Now, let’s leave all compromise behind, start forming our worldview based on God’s Word, and look at how God told us He created the universe. Let’s take God at His Word. It may be helpful to follow the instructions of Martin Luther: “But, if you cannot understand how this could have been done in six days, then grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being more learned than you are.”

First, let’s remember a few things:

1 - Before Genesis 1:1, there was nothing

Nothing means nothing. There was no Heaven, there were no angels, there was no time, there was no matter or molecules, and there was no space for any matter or molecules to exist in! There was nothing. Only the Godhead existed before the beginning - God the Father, God the Son (God the Word), and God the Holy Spirit.

2 - God began creation for a purpose

Isaiah 45:18 tells us: “For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited...”

God made everything with an end-goal in mind; to be handed over to mankind. His plan all along was to give the authority of the earth and all it’s creatures to humanity. Psalm 115:16 reinforces this idea: “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; but the earth He has given to the children of men.” We were made to rule and have dominion over this earth.

As Christians, let’s separate ourselves from the pagan ideas of “mother nature” and radical environmentalism. This Godless mentality has begun to creep into the church, using codewords such as “conservation” and “green innovations.” The simple reality is this: the earth was made for us, we weren’t made for it (or by it)!

3 - Before the very first verse, God had everything planned out

Hebrews 4:3 “...although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

Ephesians 1:4 “...just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”

Revelation 13:8 “...the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

The foundation of the world was laid at the very beginning. We see this in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Obviously, the earth wasn’t completed yet; God took the rest of the week to form it and fill it. So, what happened on Day One was the creation of the world’s foundation - that is, the creation of what God was going to build on later.

In the previous verses, we see that God had things worked out from the foundation of the world. He had already set in motion and accomplished everything that He was going to do throughout history (Hebrews 4:3), He had already chosen and justified us (Ephesians 1:4), and He had already committed Himself to sacrifice (Revelation 13:8). Sin didn’t take God by surprise. God knew that Adam would abuse the free will that He gave him. Still, out of love for us - God planned everything out! Before there was anything, God knew everything that was going to happen!

It’s important to understand that our wise and powerful Creator knew the end from the beginning. He is omniscient (all-knowing)! He knew every sin, every cruelty, every injustice and every offense to His nature that mankind would develop throughout the millennia. In spite of the evil we would bring into the earth, out of love for us God began to create...

Day 1

Genesis 1:1-5 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”

“In the beginning...” - The Creation Of Time

In order for a beginning to be possible, time itself had to be created.

Incidentally, the very first three words of the Bible are in total agreement with science. Science itself teaches us that anything that can be measured has a definite beginning and end. Since we can measure time (using seconds, minutes and hours), we know that it had a definite beginning. What science can’t explain is how time began. For the answer to that question, we need to look at the first phrase in God’s Word - “In the beginning, God created...” Time is a created thing - created by God at the very beginning!

“...God created the heavens...”

Notice that the word heavens is plural. Apparently, there is more than one heaven - and more than one heaven was created at the beginning of Day One. Paul clarifies this to us, and is specific about the number of heavens in existence. 2 Corinthians 12:2 says, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago - whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows - such a one was caught up to the third heaven.” Nowhere in the Bible do we see mention of a fourth heaven, fifth heaven or seventh heaven. Apparently, three is the number.

So there are three heavens - what are they? The Bible isn’t silent about this, but clarifies what each heaven is made of.

The third heaven is where God is enthroned. It is the place that we commonly call Heaven. Psalm 11:4 is referring to the third heaven: “The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in Heaven.” Isaiah also speaks of the third heaven in Isaiah 66:1: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool.” So we can see that God is enthroned in the third Heaven.

The second heaven is the spiritual climate of this world. It’s the very real spiritual realm where we encounter spiritual forces such as angels and demons. Ephesians 6:12 speaks about these spiritual forces in the second heaven (which Paul calls “heavenly places”) - “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 2:2 refers to Satan as the “prince of the power of the air” - a reference to the authority that Satan believes he has over the second heaven. The second heaven is where God’s people receive angelic help and engage in spiritual warfare.

The first heaven is the natural heaven. It was created in Genesis 1:6. Originally, it was known as the “firmament” (or expanse), but in verse 8 it was renamed “heaven”. We see from verse 20 that the birds fly in the expanse of heaven. We also see in verse 14 that all of the stars are also inside the expanse of heaven. So the first heaven starts just above the ground - with the earth’s atmosphere - and extends out as far as the furthest star.

Remember, we saw in Genesis 1:1 that God created the “heavens.” This means that at least two heavens were created on Day One. Were all three created at the beginning? If not, which ones were? Genesis 1:6-8 shows us the answer - the natural heaven was created on Day Two! So on Day One, we see the creation of the second and third heavens. So after the creation of time itself, God created His heavenly dwelling place and the spirit realm.

Presumably, the creation of the second and third heavens also included every angelic being that inhabited them. We see support for this idea in Job 38:6-7 “To what were [the earth’s] foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” We’ve already discovered that the foundation of the earth was laid on the first day. But the physical stars weren’t created until the fourth day. So the stars in Job 38 are not literal stars - but symbolic of angels. The creation of the second and third heavens at the beginning included the creation of every angel in them!

Another interesting fact can be seen in Job 38:7 - we can actually find the time of day that the angels were created! In this verse, angels are actually referred to as morning stars - indicating that they were created on the morning of the very first day! All of the angels, including Lucifer himself, were made on day one - before anything else had been created. They watched in wonder as God continued to create, singing His praise all the while!

"...and the earth."

After the creation of the heavens (Heaven itself and the spirit world) and the angels that filled them, God turned His attention to the natural realm. He created the earth.

This was a very different earth than we know today. We can see the initial state of the earth in verse 2, "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." At its beginning, on the first day of its existence, the earth was a dark, formless and water-covered mass. Once again, this condition wasn't a result of some kind of judgement. The earth was unformed because God hadn't formed it yet! It wasn't filled because He hadn't filled it yet! This water-covered earth was what the Bible calls the "foundations of the world." This wasn't a destroyed world - it was the foundation of the world to come!

Here we can see a distinct difference between the biblical and secular worldviews. The secular worldview states that the original earth was a ball of molten rock that had to cool down for 500,000,000 years before the oceans could form. This view is in direct opposition to what the Bible says - that the earth was covered in water from the very beginning. These worldviews are complete opposites from the very beginning; they can't be reconciled!

Light

Genesis 1:3 "Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light."

As we read this passage carefully, paying attention to every detail, we can see that there is something missing - the sun! In fact, there is no sun, no moon, no stars; no light of any kind. You see, God doesn't need a natural light source - He is light! 1 John 1:5 says "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all." So on the first day, God created light without a light source. Earth was being illuminated by God Himself!

One day, there will be a new heaven and a new earth - crowned by the New Jerusalem. We don't know if the earth itself will be sunless, but we do know that the city will have no need of a natural light source. Revelation 21:23 shows us why, "The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light." God Himself will be the light of the New Jerusalem!

This was the state of the earth for the first three days of its history!

Day and Night

Genesis 1:4-5 "...and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night."

There were two parts to this creative act:

First, God had to contain the light that He created and make it shine from a particular direction. When God said, "Let there be light" - you better believe there was light! There was light everywhere! Every rock, every crevice, every inch of the earth was illuminated by God's glory! The only way to divide the light from the darkness was to isolate and direct the light. When He did this, one side of the earth was lit up while the other side was dark.

Second, God had to begin the rotation of the earth. Think about this; the idea of a rotating earth is ingenious! Without a spinning earth, one side would be perpetually light and the other side perpetually dark. Rotating the earth allows every side of it to experience day and night.

The First Day

Genesis 1:5 "So the evening and the morning were the first day."

This was Day One. It began with the creation of time itself ("in the beginning"). It included the creation of the heavens (the place we call "Heaven" and the spiritual world), the creation of the angels (the "morning stars" - the inhabitants of the heavens), the creation of earth (the water-covered foundation of what was to come), and the creation of light. The day ended with the division of light and darkness and the creation of daytime and night.

Once again, remember this rule: the Hebrew word for day (yom) always means a 24-hour period if there is a number or a time of day attached to it. In Genesis 1:5 we see two times of day ("evening and morning") and a definite number ("the first day"). You see, God has insisted three times in this verse that Day One was an actual, literal day. How much clearer could He be?

This was the very first day - the very beginning of the Creation Week!

In The Beginning, Chapter Two - What Believers Should Believe

2013-08-25T17:26:00.000-04:00

What Believers Should Believe About Creation

There are certain things that believers should believe about the creation of the world.

Let me illustrate why this is important. Is it necessary for someone to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin to become born again? Not at all! Why? Because someone may not have heard that doctrine before or understood what it meant. But - let me be clear - once this new believer learns what the Bible says about the virgin birth, then his only option is to believe it!

Although the belief of a young earth and a literal creation isn't necessary as a prerequisite for salvation; once a believer learns what the Bible says about this topic, it then requires their faith. Not knowing what the Bible says may be excusable, but knowing it and choosing not to believe it is not!

We Believe The Bible

The Bible is the inerrant, infallible, unchanging Word of the God Who cannot lie. Everything it says is truth, from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation. In it, God's character is revealed and His acts are made known. Every believer should have complete faith in it's trustworthiness - after all, it is this very Word that brings their salvation!

Sadly, instead letting God speak for Himself on the topic of creation, too many believers are taking outside ideas and reading them into the Bible. Whenever these compromising Christians see a contradiction between the secular interpretation of the natural world and what the Bible says - they feel free to butcher the plain reading of the Bible to preserve the integrity of fallen man's opinion. What audacity! It's simple; is God's Word true or isn't it? If it is, then it's completely true - there is no gray area here!

As believers, we have the responsibility to start with the Bible and line up our world view with what it teaches. This is true of the Old Testament as well as the New. We cannot embrace the spiritual concepts of the New Testament without first accepting the natural concepts of the Old. Jesus (God in the flesh) believed in a literal Genesis and a young earth, as did Paul. Peter wrote about an actual global flood, and Jude wrote of a real person named Enoch. Can you see that a historical Genesis was a major part of what the New Testament writers believed?

It is vital to know that, when we are forming our worldview, we must start from the Word of God. When someone’s interpretation of evidence disagrees with the Bible, we as believers don't get a choice in what to believe!

Later on, we will see that no scientific evidence by itself disagrees with the the Bible - only a person's interpretation of that evidence. For example, the rock layers themselves do not disagree with the Bible, only the interpretation that those rock layers are millions of years. We, as Christians, don't deny the evidence of science - we simply have a different interpretation of that evidence!

When we start from God's Word, we can see that we won't have any problems with the real science - and this is true from the Bible's very first verse.

We Believe In God At The Very Beginning

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning, God..."

The Bible never tries to explain God's existence, it simply asserts that He is. He always has been. There has never been a time when He hasn't existed - in fact, He was the one who started the clock of time!

Genesis 21:33 "Then Abraham...called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God."

Psalm 90:2 "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God."

God doesn’t need a reason to exist. He doesn’t need a cause. He is the cause of every effect. He is the eternal, pre-existent One! God was. God is. God will always be. It's just that simple!

Werner Gitt and the Law of Information

A German engineer (and a young-earth creationist) named Werner Gitt developed a scientific law known as the Law of Information. Simply put, this law states that information in general can only come from an intelligent source. When you think about it, this is a very simple concept. This law is the reason we can see the difference between an arrowhead and a pebble. It's the reason we appreciate a fine sculpture and not wind-eroded boulders. We understand and recognize when intelligent effort is used.

The law of information is seen in every part of our world. Think about this:

The earth is exactly the right distance from the sun; not too far, not too close.

It spins at the precise speed necessary.

Its atmosphere is the perfect balance of elements needed to support life

The moon is at exactly the right distance from the earth to control the tides

Of all the planets we've seen, the earth is the only one known to have water - vital to our survival.

Earth is truly a masterpiece of engineering!

But even the life on earth is wonderfully complex and intricately designed. Life's simplest building blocks are the cells. But, as simple as these structures seem - they are incredibly complex and organized! The simplest single cell is easily as complex as any one of our major cities. They each have hundreds of systems working together in complete harmony and precise order. As if that weren't enough, each cell works together with other cells to form the intricate organs, bones, muscles and tissues of every plant and animal species - as well as our own bodies. Each of us is made from 60 trillion of these complicated structures!

The center of each cell holds something even more amazing - DNA. DNA is like the program of the body. Each strand is capable of holding massive amounts of information. Amazingly, this information is coded, written in its own language! For decades, scientists have been working to understand our own DNA, but they are still far from being able to read what is written on it.

Just how much information does our DNA hold? If you were collect a single tablespoon of DNA, that tablespoon could hold enough information to fill 15 trillion CDs! That's 1.2 quadrillion (the number after trillion) megabytes of coded information - on a spoon! Even more amazing is the fact that the very code that is needed to read the information, is also written on the DNA! Without that one code, all of the rest would just be gibberish!

So who wrote all of this? This is a major issue with the theory of evolution. According to the law of information, the complex genetic code had to come from an intelligent source. Coding like this cannot write itself, just ask any one of the thousands of programmers we hire to write our computer codes. And yet we have something vastly more complex written on every part of our bodies! Someone had to write it!

“All information comes from an intelligent source.” As believers, we have no problem with this - because we believe, "In the beginning, God.."

We Believe That Creation Was Accomplished in Six Actual Days

Whether you simply read through the creation account in Genesis 1 or you study every word of it in depth - you would always get the impression of literal, 24-hour days. You would never develop some other theory if the Bible is your only starting point. Sadly, there is a theory inside the church that isn't an interpretation of God's Word, but an attempt to harmonize the secular theory of millions of years and the biblical account of creation. This theory is known as the day-age theory.

Let's briefly examine again what the day-age theory proposes. In an attempt to make the Bible agree with the secular idea that the rock layers have recorded extremely long ages of time, a geologist named Arnold Guyot formed this theory. His taught that each day of creation wasn’t actually a 24-hour day, but a different “epoch in time.”

2 Peter 3:8 “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Day-age theorists base their theory on this verse - claiming that this could mean that the creation week was actually six different ages of creation. They also bring out the fact that the Hebrew word for day (yom) doesn’t always apply to a 24-hour period of time. These two Biblical truths (the Hebrew word for day and 2 Peter 3:8), combine with a secular interpretation of the rock layers to form the pillars of the Day-Age Theory.

So What's Wrong With The Day-Age Theory?

We've already established that believers should always start from the Bible, and use what the Bible says to form their worldview. However, let's be clear about this - the very foundation of the Day-Age Theory (i.e. the idea that millions of years can be seen in the rock layers) is fundamentally flawed to begin with! When you see large fossils such as trees, whales, and others that are buried in several different rock layers - it's obvious that those layers could not have formed over millions of years. In fact, the very existence of a fossil implies a rapid, watery burial - covering the creature before it could decompose and decay.

It's obvious, then, that the supposed scientific argument for the Day-Age theory is unnecessary. But what about the Biblical arguments? It is true that 2 Peter 3:8 tells us that with God "one day is as a thousand years." Does this mean that the creation week was actually several long periods of time? Not at all! This verse has absolutely nothing to do with creation! Whatever ground they could have taken with the first phrase, is lost with the second: "...and a thousand years as one day." The point of this verse is that God doesn't see time same way we do - that's all!

It's also true that the Hebrew word "yom" doesn't always apply to a literal, 24-hour day. Sometimes it can mean an indeterminate amount of time. But, the Bible is always clear when it means a true day and when it means a period of time. If there is a number attached to the day ("the fourteenth day of the month" or "the spies searched the land for forty days") it is always talking about a real, 24-hour day. So when you look at Genesis 1 and see:

"the first day"

"the second day"

"the third day"

"the fourth day"

"the fifth day"

"the sixth day"

You don't have to wonder if they were real days! Using this law of interpreting "yom" we can see that these were simply "days."

But God makes this fact even more clear in Genesis chapter 1. A second rule for interpreting "yom" can also be seen in the scriptures. Any time this word is used with a time of day or a time of night - the word always carries the meaning of a 24-hour period of time. Look at these verses for example:

Exodus 18:13 "And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening."

Judges 20:26 "They sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening."

1 Samuel 30:17 "Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day."

When we see a time of day in each of these verses, we can be sure that the word "yom" is referring to an actual day and not a period of time.

Now, there are times when the word "yom" does mean a indefinite period of time. Phrases like "the day of judges" and "the day of trouble" are not talking about literal days. How do we know? Because there is no number attached to "yom" - and there is no time of day used in connection. There is no excuse for confusion on this issue, the Bible is always clear about what definition of "yom" is being used.

So what about Genesis 1? In addition to the six specific numbers that are attached to the days, there is always a time of day connected as well!

"There was evening and morning, the first day"

"There was evening and morning, the second day"

"There was evening and morning, the third day"

Every one of the six days of creation have a number and two times of day attached to them. So there are three times in each day that God made a point to show us that they were real days! How much clearer could He have been?

Let's use a little bit of common sense. If each of these days were actually long amounts of time - hundreds of millions of years - why would God make plants on day three, the sun on day four, and pollinating insects on day five? How long was this period of that the plants had to exist without the sun? And then, did they have to wait another long period of time before they had insects to pollinate them?

We Believe That The Beginning Was Around 6,000 Years Ago

Do you remember what every believer's starting point should be? The Bible! You see, the Bible isn't vague about when creation happened. There are strings of dates and lifespans that stretch from the beginning of the Bible to the end. It is extremely simple to find out the approximate date for creation - if you take the Bible for what it clearly says!

First of all, you take the first event that we have a solid, historical date for. This happens to be the construction of the first Temple. We know from extra-biblical sources that construction began in 970 BC. Working from there, we move backwards through the Bible:

We know that the Temple was begun 480 years after the exodus

We know that the exodus occurred 430 years after Abram left Haran

We know that Abram left Haran 429 years after the flood

We know that the flood occurred 969 years after Methuselah was born

And we know that Methuselah was born 687 years after creation

When we work the numbers, we can see that the flood of Noah’s day occurred about 4,500 years ago. We can also see that creation occurred no later than around 4,000 BC, or 6,000 years ago.

This is extremely simple. It is based on a straight-forward reading of what the Bible says, and is not in any way contradicted by a deeper study of God’s Word. The only times this has ever been confused is when simple-minded believers try to reconcile the ideas of fallen man with the truth of God’s Word. As a believer, we must start from the Bible - not a theory, opinion, or idea. As the scripture says, “Let God be true, and every man a liar.”

What about the Gap Theory?

Genesis 1:1,2 "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters."

We've seen that the Gap Theory has tried to force millions of years between these two verses. Their claim that God never makes anything formless and void has led them to invent an entire mythology. A world that existed before the creation week was inhabited by, a pre-adamite race of beings. These beings were ruled by Lucifer himself for eons of time. When he got puffed up with pride, he led a rebellion from earth to Heaven to fight against God. In response, God kicked Lucifer from heaven and sent a global flood to judge the world. This, they say, accounts for Satan's fall, demons (the disembodied souls of the pre-adamite beings), and the water-covered world of Genesis 1:2. They also claim that “Lucifer’s flood” accounts for the fossil record.

Many preachers and well-meaning Christians hold to this view of creation. It's taught in Bible colleges around the world. But very few believers know that its founder (Thomas Chalmers) developed it as a compromise with Charles Lyell's godless theory of an extremely old earth. The Gap Theory is not based on the Bible, but on a secular interpretation of the earth's rock layers. One well-known theologian said this after promoting the theory, "Let the rocks say what they may." In other words, "let's interpret the Bible so that it doesn't disagree with the secular idea of millions of years."

There are two major arguments that Gap Theorists use to promote their theory:

1. "God never makes anything formless and void; therefore, something had to happen to cause it to be that way. The only other time the world was covered in water was when God judged the world in Noah's day. So the water-covered world could have been the result of judgement."

2. "God told Adam and Eve to 'replenish' the earth - meaning to fill it again. This means that the world was populated before Adam. This race of beings was probably wiped out by the flood of Genesis 1:2"

These arguments can sound convincing, but a closer look shows their flaws.

First, the state of the earth had nothing to do with judgement. The earth was formless because God hadn't formed it yet! All He did in verse one was lay its foundation! It was void (or empty) because He hadn't filled it yet!

Where I live, there was a running joke about a particular restaurant. The owner of this particular restaurant wanted to build at a new location - but do it all debt-free. So, he only built as much as he had money for. For months, the foundation and framework sat, unformed and unfilled...waiting for the next step of the project. While this attracted a lot of ridicule, it serves as a perfect example of what we see in Genesis 1:2. This verse is not talking about a judged earth, it's talking about an unfinished earth - there's a huge difference!

Secondly, God never told Adam and Eve to "refill" the earth! The King James translated the Hebrew word "male" (mal-ay) as "replenish." But this is a poor translation of "male" - this word simply means to fill! In the Hebrew, there is absolutely no indication of mankind populating the earth again! They were simply told to fill the earth and bring it under their control.

There are actually much stronger arguments against the Gap Theory than for it.

For the first argument, look at what Ezekiel 28:13 says about Lucifer: "You were in Eden, the Garden of God..." Before he fell, Lucifer had been in the Garden of Eden. This means that he couldn't have fallen between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, because God created the Garden in Genesis 2 - on day six!

Second, look at Jesus' own words in Matthew 19:4 - "And He answered and said to them, 'Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female?'" Jesus, quoting from Genesis 1, said that the creation of Adam and Eve was "at the beginning." This is easily understood if the creation of mankind occurred on day 6. But if Adam and Eve were created at the end of a long age of time (as the Gap Theory states) or during the final era of creation (as the Day-Age Theory states), then this statement doesn't make sense. Clearly, Jesus believed in a straightforward reading of Genesis, with Adam and Eve created at the beginning of the world.

Blind Dating

Too many Christians are easily swayed by the so-called "dating methods" used by secular scientists. They seem to under the impression that these dates are literally stamped on the rocks and are indisputable. The fact is, every radiometric dating method is fallible and riddled with assumptions

In simple terms, radiometric dating measures how quickly a unstable radioisotope (like carbon-14, potassium-40 and uranium 238) decays into its daughter element (nitrogen-14, argon 40, and lead 206 respectively). The theory is this; if this radioactive decay occurs at a consistent pace (and it does), we can look at how much of the daughter element is left in a rock and calculate backwards to find out when it first formed.

Think of it this way: Someone walks into a room and finds a candle already burning. At the time he entered the room it was three inches tall. After studying it for an hour, the burning candle was two inches tall - thus he determines that this candle burns at a speed of one inch-per-hour. He then uses this data to determine how long ago the candle was lit.

Can you see a problem here?

The problem is, the scientist only knows two parts to a four-part equation:

1 - How much of the daughter element (lead-206 for example) is present in the rock? [Or how tall is the candle right now?) This is one of the factors that scientists know, as it can be easily observed in the laboratory.

2 - What is the present speed that the radioisotope (uranium-238) decays into the daughter element (lead-206)? [Or how fast does the candle burn down?] Again, this is easily observable and testable; it’s the second part of the equation that scientists know for sure.

3 - Has the speed of decay been constant in the past? [Or has this candle always burned at one inch-per-hour?] Scientist can’t know this for sure. Has there been an environmental shift that caused the decay speed to slow down or speed up? Could more of the radioisotope or the daughter element have been added to the rock at some point in the past? Both of these factors could give a completely wrong date!

4 - How much of the daughter element was present to begin with? [How tall was that candle before it was lit?] This is a very important factor in this equation. Two different assumptions about how much lead-206, for example, was originally in a rock could bring two dramatically different dates for formation!

Because of these unknown factors, no scientist just sends the rock into a laboratory to be dated. They also send additional information to help “aim” the dating process. Information like what layer of rock it was found in and what fossils were around it are also sent with the fossil to the lab. This gives the technicians a minimum and maximum range of possible dates. For example, if a T-rex fossil was found in the same layer of rock, then the laboratory will already assume that the rock “must be” 67-65 million years old. Fossils like these that help with the dating process are called “index fossils.” Because their age is known (supposedly), they can help to date the different rock layers. You see, radiometric dating (supposed “proof” of the theory of evolution and an incredibly old earth) is based on their already-formed assumptions on the age of a particular fossil.

Simply put, the evolutionist’s “silver bullet” of radiometric dating doesn’t hold up to simple scientific scrutiny. So why in the world would Christians feel the need to compromise the perfect word of God to agree with it?

The Biggest Problem Of Old-Earth Compromises

Do you believe that God calls suffering and pain good?

Do you believe that He thinks diseases like arthritis and cancer are good?

Did God call predation, bloodshed and natural cruelty good?

Not at all! In fact 1 Corinthians 15:26 calls death an enemy that is going to be destroyed. God hates death because He is life! The God of life couldn't look on the world as it is today and call it "very good."

And yet, this is exactly what every old-earth compromiser is saying when they try place the formation of fossils before Adam's sin. In the fossil record, there is evidence of death, diseases, widespread violence and predation. Romans 5:12 tells us that these things entered the world through one man's (Adam) sin. As believers, we cannot have death before sin...not if we are starting from God's Word!

Not only was there no death in the world when God called it "very good" - there was no devil yet either! Look closely at Genesis 1:31 "And God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good." Everything means everything. Lucifer was made by God - logically, this means that he was still good on day six of creation. The fall of Satan had to occur after mankind was created. We'll find out later that this order of events actually makes perfect sense and provides a stronger motive for Lucifer's pride and rebellion. For now, we can clearly see that it was six days from the first verse of Genesis 1 to the last. There just isn’t any room for us to believe something else!

Now that we see what believers should believe, let’s take a look at what happened during the first week of the world!

Between Wickedness And Godliness

2013-08-21T15:16:00.001-04:00

1 Chronicles 3:17-18 "The sons of Jeconiah who was taken prisoner by the Babylonians, were Shealtiel, Malkiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah."

Matthew 1:12 NLT "After the Babylonian exile: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel."

We don't really know much about Shealtiel. He is mentioned eleven times in the Bible - but there are precious few details about his life. What we know about him only comes from two geneologies; 1 Chronicles 3 and Matthew 1. In fact, there are only three facts about Shealtiel that we can glean from scriptures:
One: He was the son of Jeconiah.
Two: He was born in Babylon.
Three: He was the father of Zerubbabel.

That's it. His whole life; what he did, who he married, how he served God...none of that is known to us! If it weren't for the family lists in scripture, we wouldn't have even known that Shealtiel ever existed! How depressing for him, right? However, when we take a deep look at Shealtiel's surroundings, we can see more clearly what kind of man he must have been.

First, let's look at Shealtiel's father, Jeconiah:

Jeconiah was the son of King Jehoiakim and grandson of King Josiah. Although Josiah was a righteous man, Jehoiakim was anything but. While denying the very God that made King Josiah powerful, Jehoiakim also rebelled against the most powerful empire in the world - Babylon. This was an extremely foolish move!

When Jeconiah was only eight years old, Jehoiakim made him an "associate king". He co-ruled the nation of Judah at his father's side for ten years. No doubt, during this time, Jeconiah learned the wicked ways and practices of his father and even began to follow them. 2 Chronicles 36:9 has this testimony about Jeconiah, "He did evil in the sight of the LORD." After Babylon-supported raiders killed Jehoiakim, Jeconiah became king of Judah at the age of eighteen. He never turned from his wicked ways or repented. After three short months as king, Jeconiah was captured and taken to Babylon as a prisoner.

While he was in Babylon, his uncle Zedekiah was instated as king by the Babylonian emperor. Most Jews still regarded Jeconiah as king though, and erroneously believed that God would bring him back to the throne. This led Jeremiah to announce by the Holy Spirit that none of Jeconiah's descendants would ever sit on David's throne. Jeconiah destroyed the destiny of his children by his own wickedness. Still, it wasn't all bad for him. After several years of captivity, the next Babylonian emperor had pity on this one-time king. He let Jonah out of prison and gave him a life in Babylon. It was during this time that Shealtiel was born.

Now let's look at Shealtiel's son, Zerubbabel:

We don't know much about Zerubbabel's early life. His name is actually Assyrian, not Hebrew. It means "the one conceived in Babylon." Zerubbabel never knew anything but life in captivity. He never experienced any other culture other than that of Babylon and then Persia. But somehow, this was the man that Cyrus picked to lead the first wave of returning exiles. Zerubbabel led over 40,000 Jewish people back to Jerusalem to repopulate and rebuild.

In Jerusalem, Zerubbabel was instated as governor by Cyrus and he laid the foundation of the new temple. This was a man that feared God and worked closely with Joshua the high priest. God responded to Zerubbabel's trust in Him and declared through Haggai, "On that day, says the Lord of Hosts, I will take you Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, my servant, and wear you like a signet ring; for it is you whom I have chosen."

God rejected Jeconiah and his descendants as kings because of his wickedness. But when Zerubbabel embraced Him, God worked around His own curse and brought a blessing on this family once again. Now the question is, who taught Zerubbabel to fear God? It certainly wasn't a common thing in his culture. Babylon and Persia were both god-less, immoral, and idolatrous empires. So where did this man who was "conceived in Babylon" learn about the ways of God?

From his father.

This is where Shealtiel comes in. He saw the wickedness of his father. He knew the stories of what God did to Judah because of the evil that his people were practicing. And he knew the prophecies of repentance and restoration for the Jewish people. So Shealtiel bridged the gap between a wicked generation and a restored generation. He was a member of a repentant generation.

Daniel was a member of that same generation. He was only a child when he was ripped out of Jerusalem. He was forced to grow up in a pagan and ungodly culture. But listen to his prayer in Daniel 8:4-11:

"Lord, you are a great and wonderful God. You keep the covenant you made with all those who love you and obey your commands. You show them your love. We have sinned and done what is wrong. We have been evil. We have refused to obey you. We have turned away from your commands and laws. We haven’t listened to your servants the prophets. They spoke in your name to our kings and princes. They also brought your message to all of our people in the land.

“Lord, you always do what is right. But we are covered with shame today. We are the people of Judah and Jerusalem. All of us are Israelites, no matter where we live. We are now living in many countries. You scattered us among the nations because we weren’t faithful to you.Lord, we and our kings and princes and people are covered with shame. We have sinned against you.

“You are the Lord our God. You show us your tender love. You forgive us. But we have turned against you. You are the Lord our God. But we haven’t obeyed you. We haven’t kept the laws you gave us through your servants the prophets. All of the people of Israel have broken your law and turned away from it. They have refused to obey you."

It was a wicked generation that brought sorrow to Israel. Shealtiel's generation was raised in that sorrow and became repentant, seeking God's forgiveness for the sins that their fathers had committed. They knew that they were to be exiled for seventy years - per God's decree. So Shealtiel knew that he wouldn't see Jerusalem or the promised restoration of God's people. So what did he do? He prepared his son.

Now we can see a few powerful truths from the life of Shealtiel.

First, we can see the divine order of things. No one can move straight from wickedness to restoration. The proper order is to move through repentance. God will not restore if you won't repent. Whine about grace all you want to...but grace does not cover an immoral lifestyle! This was the message that John preached, the message that Jesus preached - this is the gospel of the Kingdom - "Repent for the Kindom of Heaven is at hand!"

Secondly, I can see a profound truth in my own life. I grew up in a generation that has been alienated from God. Our fathers sowed the seed, and now we're reaping the horrible harvest. Violence. Laziness. Perversion. Immorality. Despair. My generation seems to have no hope, and we're still only digging ourselves deeper. We've been born into captivity.

As much as I try to shield them from it...my own kids have been born into this culture too. Like Zerubbabel, they have been "conceived in Babylon." But I have learned my part from Shealtiel; I have two major responsibilities:

1 - I must push into a changed lifestyle. If you're a believer that happens to be in the Millennial generation, listen to me. We cannot afford to be passive in our Christian walk! We can't afford to lose track of where our Bibles are, go days without seeking God's face, or allow ourselves to be disconnected from our spiritual leaders. We must repent of the wickedness that infiltrated our father's generation and now runs rampant in our own. We must change!

2 - I must prepare my kids for role. My kids are going to see God's glory! My kids are going to operate in the kingdom of God, not this world's system! My kids are going to lay, once again, the right foundation in the church! They're not going to "play church"! They're not going to treat God's house like a social gathering or country club! My kids are going to lead the way back to the Kingdom of God!

In The Begining - Chapter 1 "Introduction Of Compromise In The Church"

2013-08-19T13:41:00.002-04:00

Introduction Of Compromise In The Church

2 Corinthians 10:4-6 "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience."

Since its inception in Acts chapter 2, the church has had to confront many different compromises to true doctrine. Even before the close of the New Testament, we can see two of these destructive heresies exposed - the Judaizers and the Nicolaitans. Throughout history other compromising doctrines have come and gone. Some have denied Jesus' humanity, others have denied His deity. Some have promoted legalism and tried to bring the church under bondage to the law. Others have promoted lawlessness and try to use the grace of God as an excuse for immorality. Every time, the true church has withstood these heresies and remained strong in the faith.

Recently though, one particularly dangerous compromise has snuck into the church. Within the last 300 years, a subtle attack on the very foundation of God’s Word has been underway. I'm talking about the attack on the first book of the Bible - Genesis. No other book in the Bible is believed to be as open for interpretation as the book of Genesis. No chapter in Revelation has ever been met with as much confusion as Genesis 1. No word from Jesus’ mouth in the Gospels has ever been ridiculed in our culture as much as “In the beginning, God...” Why is that? Secular views and man-made theories have been slowly infiltrating the church and corrupting the minds of simple believers. (I'm speaking of those who don't study to show themselves approved concerning God's Word.)

Lyell, Darwin, and the Church

In 1830, a geologist named Charles Lyell published a book called Principles of Geology. This book promoted His theory of an extremely old earth and the idea of long ages of time before mankind ever existed. He suggested that the different rock layers that we see around the world were formed by natural forces over vast amounts of time. This idea of an ancient world without man was clearly and completely opposed to what the Bible teaches, that the world was around 6,000 years old and that the first man and woman were made during its first week. When faced with this clear contradiction to the Word of God, how did the church respond?

To understand the reaction of the church to Lyell's book, you have to understand the climate that the book was published in. The 19th century was the golden age of science. New disciplines were founded and new discoveries were being published every year. New inventions were becoming commonplace.

In just the previous 50 years, many major scientific advances were made:

The known solar system was made much larger with the discovery of the planet Uranus.

Antoine Lavoisier discovered the law of conservation of mass and founded modern chemistry.

Georges Cuvier astonished the world by announcing his discovery that animals have gone extinct in the past. (This discovery really threw the church for a loop. For centuries, they had been teaching that God created the animals that existed then exactly as they were - no more and no less. So they had no response when it was claimed that the Bible was proven wrong by science.)

John Dalton formulated the Atomic Theory - that is, all matter was made up of atoms.

Both electromagnets and batteries began to be produced

Medicine was advancing in leaps and bounds, resulting in longer life spans

All-in-all, it seemed as if science was giving mankind a greater understanding and mastery of the natural world around him. Labeling any idea as scientific was quickly becoming the highest form of argument. (You can still see this today - just think about how often products are advertised as “scientific”!)

This is the atmosphere in which the church was faced with Lyell's heresy. Not wanting to appear backwards and ignorant, the church backed away from its stand on Genesis. Instead of holding to what God's Word says, the church compromised with the old-earth ideas of Lyell. Leading this compromise was a Scottish minister named Thomas Chalmers. His compromise is still prevalent in the church today - it is known as the Gap Theory (also called the ruin/reconstruction theory). We'll discuss this theory in more detail later, but it's important to understand that this theory began as a compromise with secular, man-made ideas.

After Lyell's book was published, another attack on Genesis began to gain ground. In 1859, a close friend of Lyell's - a man named Charles Darwin - published a book promoting an even further separation from the Biblical doctrine of creation. Darwin used Lyell's ideas as a springboard into another idea: If the earth itself could slowly evolve and exist without a Creator, why couldn't the life on it do the same?

Darwin didn't actually create the idea of evolution, but his book was probably the most responsible for summarizing and promoting it. His book was entitled On The Origin Of Species By Means Of Natural Selection, Or The Preservation Of Favoured Races In The Struggle For Life. Even today, this book is considered to be one of the authorities on biological evolution and the role of natural selection. He theorized that, given enough time, the little changes in plants and animals could amount to much larger changes - even to the point of changing one kind of animal into another.

Like Lyell's Theory, Darwin's book clearly opposed the plain reading of Genesis. Having already compromised on the age of the earth, how would the church respond to this new attack on the Bible? Sadly, the church compromised once again. They were more concerned about appearing ignorant to the world than they were about holding to the authority of God's Word. But this time the 19th century church compromised even further than simply accepting secular ideas. Many preachers began to promote the idea of theistic evolution - the claim that Genesis was an allegory and that God simply used evolution during the process of creation.

This reality that is far removed from society's memory today. The majority of people believe that Darwin was embraced by the scientists while being oppressed and opposed by the church. If only this were true! In actuality, the religious and scientific reception of On The Origin Of Species was completely different from what is commonly believed today.

Far from being embraced by the scientific community, Darwin's work was rejected and criticized by scientists throughout the world.

Louis Pasteur, called the greatest scientist of the 19th century, was forcefully opposed to the theory of evolution.

Sir Richard Owen - the founder of modern paleontology and the man who coined the term "dinosaur" - also opposed Darwin and wrote him letter after letter to present scientific objections to Darwin's theory.

Even Darwin's own geology professor Adam Sedgewick wrote to him; "I have read your book with more pain than pleasure. Parts of it I admired greatly, parts I laughed at till by sides were almost sore; other parts I read with absolute sorrow, because I think them utterly false and grievously mischievous."

Sir John Herschel, a famous mathematician and astronomer, called Darwin's theory "the law of higgledy-pigglety."

So you see, the scientists of Darwin's day weren't exactly open-minded about this theory that they saw to be utterly un-scientific. If this was the response of the scientific world, how did the church respond?

An English priest named Charles Kingsley wrote a letter to Darwin to congratulate him on his book.

The Reverend John Brodie Innes gave this testimony about Darwin before several highly-renowned clergy, “He is a man of the most perfect moral character, and his scrupulous regard for the strictest truth is above that of almost all men I know...I never saw a word in his writings which was an attack on Religion. He follows his own course as a Naturalist and leaves Moses to take care of himself.”

Josiah Strong, another famous preacher of the 19th century, wrote and distributed a pamphlet that stated that Christianity and evolution must go hand-in-hand.

During Darwin's funeral, preachers from around the world poured out compliments for him - emphasizing his "patience, calmness, ingenuity," and on and on...

Believe it or not, this promoter of a godless theory was even compared to the apostle Paul!

After all of this, his body was then buried in the floor of Westminster Abbey - the church of England.

Writing about his funeral, a preacher from New York named Charles White Chadwick declared “The nation's grandest temple of religion opened its gates and lifted up its everlasting doors and bade the King of Science come in.”

As much as I hate to say this, Darwin would be long-forgotten by now if it weren't for the compromisers in the church.

Creation Compromises

Since the publishing of Darwin's book, the church has had no fewer than four compromises concerning the first chapter of Genesis. Although each of these compromises differ on content, they all have one thing in common - they view the secular ideas of man as being more important than the clearly revealed Word of God. Each of them demonstrate this fact when they alter the very account of the Creator to agree with the man-made idea of evolution.

Let's examine these four theories more closely. As we do, keep this question in mind: Whose words are more important - fallen man's or the Creator who never lies?

The Gap Theory

As we've already learned, the gap theory was first developed by a man named Thomas Chalmers. Attempting to reconcile the long ages of time with the Genesis account of creation, Chalmers tried to cram the geologic ages between the first two verses of Genesis 1.

Genesis 1:1-2 "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void (empty), and darkness covered the face of the deep..."

Declaring that God would never make something that is formless or empty, Chalmers suggested that verse 1 and verse 2 were separated by a vast amount of time. During this time, he proposed that the earth was filled with a pre-adamite race of beings who were ruled by the angel Lucifer. When Lucifer was lifted up in pride, he led this race of beings in a rebellion against God. The results were a fallen Lucifer and a world that was flooded in judgement.

The thousands who hold to this theory today believe that long ages of time, the millions of years contained in the theory of evolution, can be attributed to this pre-Adam time frame and the flood that brought judgement to the world. They also believe that the disembodied souls of this pre-adamite race of beings are what we call demons today.

Later on, we'll discuss the number of problems with the gap theory, both scientific and Biblical. But for now, we can see the two main issues. First, "gappers" have to invent an entire mythology that has absolutely no scriptural record! Second, let's not forget that the whole purpose of the Gap Theory, once again, is to reconcile a godless theory with God's Word.

The Day-Age Theory

Like the Gap Theory, the day-age theory tries to find room in Genesis chapter 1 for the secular idea of millions of years. The key, they say, is found in 2 Peter 3:8 "But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

The day-age theory states that the long ages of time that are supposedly in the rock layers, were in fact laid down gradually during the creation "week." Using 2 Peter 3:8, they claim that the days of creation weren't actually days, but were vast periods of time. By claiming that the Hebrew word for day doesn't always mean a literal day, proponents of this theory claim that they can reconcile the secular ages of the earth with the biblical account of creation.

Theistic Evolution

The theory of theistic evolution is a much more drastic compromise than any we've seen yet. Instead of trying to harmonize secular theories with the Bible's account of creation, theistic evolution simply discards the record of Genesis 1 as a good story that isn't literally true. The entire first chapter (indeed, the entire first book) of the Bible is simply considered to be an allegory. The point, they say, is that God made the world - exactly how He did that seems to be less clear.

"God created," they say, "but He used evolution to do it." Essentially, the theory of theistic evolution embraces every evolutionary idea - from the age of the earth to the evolution of life - and then tack on the claim that it was guided by God. In this way, they seem to be able to accept the secular theory of evolution while still claiming to believe the Bible. Sadly, every time that the evolutionist and the Bible disagree, the theistic evolutionist is quick to alter God's Word to fit the man-made ideas.

We will further discuss the problems that theistic evolutionists face - but their largest problem is this; is God's Word the authority on creation or not?

Progressive Creation

In many ways, this theory is similar to theistic evolution. They both embrace the idea of long periods of time before man when the earth was inhabited by different plants and animal species. They also believe that each of the rock layers in the earth came from different geologic ages in its history. But rather than saying that God guided the process of evolution, progressive creationists claim that the rock layers show a progressive series of creations and the destruction of those creations.

Progressive creationists believe that at various times God filled the earth with the creatures we see in the fossils, allowed them to live for thousands of years, then wiped them out and replaced them with others. After creating and destroying successively for millions of years, God finally placed the first "real" humans in the Garden of Eden.

Progressive creationists, like Hugh Ross, even believe in races of "soul-less" apemen that were created by God and then wiped out and replaced by true humans!

This theory has many problems - not the least of which is the problem of turning God into a schizophrenic who can't make up His mind! The biggest problem they have though is the fact that they believe in millions of years of death before sin - something that the Bible disagrees with.

The Consequences Of Not Being Biblically Grounded

Psalm 11:3 "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

None of these four compromises are Biblical, none of them are scientific, and none of them are necessary! We'll see later that the scientific evidence simply doesn't support the idea of millions of years. But what we need to realize now is that every believer should start from the Word Of God.

Sadly, Christians that don't know where they stand or the trustworthiness of the Bible are falling into these compromises. Most Christians don't know what God has told us about creation or how important Genesis is to our faith. Too many of us are willing to compromise on the age of the earth and the way it was created - just as long as we can hold on to Jesus. What these compromisers don't understand is that every doctrine we have is rooted in Genesis!

Think about this:

What gives God the right to set the rules?

Why is mankind different from the animals?

Why are we in charge of the earth and it's creatures?

Where did sin and death come from?

Why do we need to be redeemed?

Why is Jesus' blood sacrifice necessary?

What is the definition of marriage - and why?

The origin of every one of these doctrines is found in the first few chapters of Genesis. Any believer that doesn't know where he stands on the authority of the Bible is in danger of falling into compromise and losing their foundation.

Secular evolutionists know what it means when a believer compromises on one point in God’s Word. Have you ever noticed that compromising Christians are almost never attacked by liberals, atheists or evolutionists? Instead, they save their most relentless attacks and vitriol for believers that hold onto the literal interpretation of Genesis. Why is that the case?

Richard Bozarth (a writer for the American Atheist) is very plain about this: “Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of god. Take away the meaning of his death. If Jesus was not the redeemer that died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing.”

We need to hold onto what the Word of God says and use that as the only starting point for the way we see the world. Every belief we have needs to be rooted in the Bible, not in a fallen man's ideas. Knowing this, let's take a look at what a believer should believe about the beginning of the world...

Dear Abigail...

2013-04-16T12:26:00.001-04:00

April 16, 2013

Dear Abigail
     Hi baby girl! I can’t believe your mom is almost eight months pregnant with you already! It seems like just yesterday we were looking at three positive pregnancy tests, laughing and crying all at once. That day changed everything for us! Even though we waited for you for two long years – we still had a hard time believing it at first!

     And now you’re almost here. I’m sure you know by now how much I love your mom – you hear it all the time! And I’m sure that you also know that we argue sometimes – but that’s nothing to worry about. As much as you’re moving around right now, and as strong-willed as you already seem to be, I’m sure we’ll have our own arguments too! But I hope you’re already finding out that no one in this family goes to sleep angry!

     Sadly, I have no idea what kind of world you’re going to grow up in. Horrible things are happening all around us even now. Where this world is going to go from here, I don’t even want to know! You’ll go through some hard times. You’ll experience some things that my generation never experienced. You’ll know other kids whose families are being torn apart – or were never there in the first place. You may even experience some very dangerous situations. But I promise you this; the same God that watched over your grandpa and grandma, the same God that protected and guided your mom and dad will watch over you! We’ll teach you how to hear His voice – and if you’ll pay attention, He’ll always place you at the right place at the right time! God will bring you out of every problem on top!

     God is always faithful – and we are going to show you this from the moment you’re born. I told you before that you’ll probably have friends with destroyed or nonexistent families. But I also promise you this, you will never have to go through that! You can rest assured that you will always have your mom and your dad. I’m going to do everything I can to be an example of God’s faithfulness. I’m going to love your mom the way Jesus loves us. I promise you this – you will never have a stepmom or a stepdad…I love your mom too much for that! Besides, there’s no way I’m ever going to let some other person raise my beautiful little girl!

     You’re not going to be normal, Abigail. Why? Because normal isn’t good enough for you! It isn’t normal anymore for girls your age to live with their mom and dad. The normal right now is to have a mom and a sperm donor. (I’m trusting that it will be decades before you even know what that term means!) It isn’t normal for kids to have parents involved in their life. And it certainly isn’t normal for them to have a mom and dad who are committed to raising them up spiritually. But that’s what we’re going to do!

     Even as a girl, you’ll know the Bible better than most Christians – because we’ll be reading it every night. Before you hit your teenage years, you’ll know how to talk to God…and how to hear Him speak to you! You are going to do amazing things for the Kingdom of God, Abigail. I can’t wait to see His calling on your life start to show up!

     It’s important for you to know that I’ll do everything I can to guard that calling on your life…even if it means chasing away some of people who want to be your “friends”. If you’ll trust us, your mom and I will show you what kind of people are worth having around – and what kind of people aren’t worth the time of day! And…many, many years down the road…I know you’ll meet the righteous young man who will take you by the hand and lead you into the next level of God’s call on your life! From that day on, the two of you will walk with God together. Now, I don’t even want to think about that day! But I hope you’ll trust our input on that decision too. If you’ll pay attention to the way I treat your mom, you’ll see how your own husband (…in the very distant future…) should treat you.

     Above all, know this…I love you Abby! I’m going to do my best to teach you, to guide you, and to protect and provide for you. And when the times come that I don’t know how to help you, please let me take your hand and lead you to the One that has all the answers! After all, He loves you even more than I do!

Looking forward to seeing you for the first time,
Your Loving Dad

How To Understand The Book Of Job

2013-01-26T14:13:00.000-05:00

“Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.” - Eliphaz the Temanite

“Behold,God will not cast away the blameless, now will He uphold the evildoers.” Bildad the Shuhite

“Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven - what can you do?” - Zophar the Naamathite

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God.” - Job of Uz

There aren’t a lot of books in the Bible that are as misquoted and misunderstood as the book of Job. There are doctrines in the church that seem to be entirely based on a misunderstanding of what is said in the first thirty-one chapters. For example, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away” (Job 1:21) has become a major teaching in some churches. This single verse has become the basis for preachers to teach their people that God will take things from you just as fast as He will give things to you. The problem is, this isn’t what God said, it’s what Job said!

If you want to “rightly divide” the book of Job, there are a few keys:

Key #1 - Not Everything That Job Said Was Right
A lot of people focus on this verse: Job 1:8 “Then Yahweh said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?’” They believe that this passage means that Job never said or did anything wrong throughout the book. However, there is a lot of what Job said that was absolutely wrong!

After thirty-seven chapters of discourse, God stepped in and said this to Job, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2) When faced with God’s rebuke, Job responded, “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know...Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42: 3,6) Basing a doctrine on Job’s words alone can get very tricky - after all, Job himself admitted that what he said was wrong!

Why was Job wrong in what he said? Was everything he said wrong? We’ll find out the answer to these questions as we keep going.

Key #2 - Not Everything That Job’s Three Friends Said Was Wrong
In fact, a lot of what they were saying was well-known to godly people everywhere. Read some of their words in the verses above. Do you see that they were right on a lot of things? Even Job himself acknowledged that they were just restating what everyone knows!
Job 9:2 (in response to Bildad) “Truly I know it is so...”
Job 12:3 (in response to Zophar) “Indeed, who does not know such things as these?”

You see, the problem with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar wasn’t necessarily the principles that they were saying as it was how they were applying those principles to Job’s situation. What do I mean by this? How can we know where these three men went wrong? And why did they have to repent to Job in the end? We’ll find out the answer to these questions as we keep going.

Key #3 - There Was Only One Person That Was Not Rebuked By God
We’ve already read the beginning of God’s rebuke to Job in chapter 38, verse 2. But this rebuke extended from chapter 38 to chapter 41! Then, in chapter 42, God turned His attention to Job’s three friends. He said to Eliphaz, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as my servant Job has.”

What? Didn’t God just get done rebuking Job? Didn’t Job just admit that everything he said was wrong? What did God mean when He said that Job spoke what is right? Well, to put it simply, God’s referring to the last thing that Job said - when he repented.

This is Job’s repentance in its entirety: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You. You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I did not know. Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

This is what God was referring to when He said that Job spoke what was right. Can you see this picture? These three guys sat there and watched God rebuke Job for four chapters, and then they watched Job humble himself and sincerely repent....but then they did nothing. They were still convinced that everything they said was right! They were so caught up in their self-righteousness that they waited until God rebuked them before they repented.

So there you have it, all four characters in the book of Job were rebuked by God, and all four repented of what they were saying.

But wait a minute...there are actually five characters in the book of Job! From chapter 31 to chapter 37 we read the statements of a young man named Elihu. Whatever Elihu was saying in those passages, he must’ve been right - since he was the only person in the book who wasn’t rebuked by God or who needed to repent for what he said. So whenever you’re looking to make a doctrine from the book of Job, maybe you should look at what this man said first.

So what was it that Elihu said? Did he agree or disagree with Job? Did he accept what his three friends said or not? Let’s find out the answer to this question now, as we look at the main key of this book - Job 32:2-3

The Main Key To Understanding This Book
“Then the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was aroused against Job; because he justified himself rather than God. Also against his three friends his wrath was aroused, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.”

Elihu (the only one in this book, other than God, who was completely right) was angry at everything that was being said. This young man was angry at Job because Job refused to give honor to God, but was pre-occupied with justifying himself. And he was angry with his friends because, although they had no evidence, they continued to condemn Job as a wicked man.

This is the key to the book, my friends!

Job’s fault was justifying himself instead of God. In other words, when the trouble came, Job spent all of his time asking God, “Why is this happening to me? I’m a good person? God, why are you doing this to me?” Instead of glorifying God for Who He is, Job accused God of unjustly sending trouble into His life. Job’s argument could be summed up like this, “I obeyed God my whole life. I did everything I could to serve Him! And yet, God sent trouble into my life for no reason!” Does this sound like anything you’ve heard Christians say?

The fault of Job’s three friends was this - they saw the trouble that came into his life and believed that he brought it on himself through some sort of sin. Their problem was that their logic was faulty. They thought, “Bad things happen to wicked people” - which is absolutely true! Then they looked and saw that bad things were happening to Job - also true! But when they put those two together, they came to the conclusion that Job’s problems were God’s judgement on his sin - not true at all!

You see, sin isn’t the only reason that problems come! Sometimes, situations arise in life to “try our faith” (James 1:2-3). Sometimes, situations come to teach us how to “do all things through Christ” (Philippians 4:11-13). Still other times, tribulations can come to produce perseverance, character and hope inside of us (Romans 5:3-5). When asked about a man who was born blind, Jesus told us that it wasn’t sin that caused him to be blind, but the sickness was allowed so that God would get the glory from the healing (John 9:1-3)! So, while it’s true that sin can bring judgement in this life, not all problems are a result of this! Job’s friends sinned when they condemned an innocent man because they thought he was being judged for his sin. Have you ever seen this happen in the church?

I hope that you can see now that there is good doctrine in Job, you just have to be aware of where you’re looking for it. Any time that Job is justifying himself instead of glorifying God - you should recognize that as wrong. And whenever Job’s friends aren’t condemning him for his supposed “sin” - you should know that they may be speaking truthful things!

But, above all, the point of this book is that we should glorify God no matter what’s happening in our life! Job missed it because He focused on what was happening to him - and why it was happening - instead of trusting in the grace and protection of God. Elihu was right in what he said because his whole speech was focused on Who God is!

Devoted

What Just Happened?

Because You’ve Made Jesus Your Lord

#1 - You’ve been delivered from Hell

#2 - Your past sins have been completely washed away

#3 - You’ve been made into a brand new creature

#4 - You were separated from the world you’re living in

#5 - You’ve been given the same measure of faith as every other believer

#6 - Every promise that you see in the Bible has been freely given to you

#7 - You’ve been given the grace to completely obey God

#8 - You’ve been made a part of Jesus’ body on Earth

Where Truth is Grounded

1 Timothy 3:15 “...but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

The Promise of Grace

The Freedom of Grace

Of Daughters and Wolves

Identity - Part 3

“I AM”

The Savior

The Incarnate Word

The Form of God, The Appearance of a Man

"I Wish I Had A Testimony!"

Identity - Part 2

The Messenger

To Clarify the Confusion

On Who's Authority?

Identity - Part 1

What's in a Name?

Without a Beginning

The Object of Worship

You Work Your Whole Life, Have Something To Show For It!

Dear Jenn...

Loving God Because...

In The Beginning, Chapter Ten - Day Six, Part Three

The Garden Of Eden

Planted, Not Created

Where Was (Is) It?

What about the Tree of Life?

A Mountaintop Meeting Place

In The Beginning, Chapter Nine - Day Six, Part Two

Forming The First Man

A “Living Soul”

A Whole New Perspective

In The Beginning, Chapter 8 - Day Six, Part One

Every Land Animal!

Cattle

Every creeping thing

Beasts Of The Earth

Species Vs. Biblical Kind

What We See Now Isn’t How It Was Then

A World That Was Ready

In The Beginning, Chapter Seven - Day Five

In The Beginning, Chapter Six - Day Four

Lights That Fill The Sky

The Two Great Lights

"He Made The Stars Also."

Just How Big Is This Thing?

Why Did God Make All Of This?

All For Us!

Is There A Problem With Distant Starlight?

In The Beginning, Chapter Five - Day Three

The Dry Land And The Seas

From Barrenness To Beauty

Day Three

In The Beginning, Chapter Four - Day Two

Dividing Waters From Waters

An Enormous Creation

Touching the Heavens

The Second Day

In The Beginning, Chapter Three - Day One

1 - Before Genesis 1:1, there was nothing

2 - God began creation for a purpose

3 - Before the very first verse, God had everything planned out

“In the beginning...” - The Creation Of Time

“...God created the heavens...”

"...and the earth."

Light

Day and Night

The First Day

In The Beginning, Chapter Two - What Believers Should Believe