Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Manuscripts, Translations and the "Perfect Bible".
1Corinthians 13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
Now in terms of meaning, I have interpretted the perfect to come as the second coming of Christ. After all, the scriptures are able to make the Christian wise unto perfection even before the completion of the canon.
Colossians1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Perfect, here meaning "complete" btw. However, there is still an implication regarding the scriptures from this passage.
For the scriptures often have implications, and we know there is a spiritual presence of christ with the church.
Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Matthew 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Ephesians 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
So, Christ will be preserved in his congregation.
1 timothy 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Here we see that the church is supposed to be pillar or base of truth. How do we preserve the truth.?
Hebrews 10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
This gives us a clue. Christ which is with his body will be with us in the volume of a book.
So Now we see that the "Logos/Word of God" is manifested in a single book. This is a prophecy of the day when their would be such a thing as 1 volume books.
There are many positions on how to understand the preservation of scripture.
A. The Bible is not verbally inspired and simply the product of religious men.
These men coming out from the anglican church were known as rationalist. They, following the philosophy of david hume, debunked classic apologetics. Then they developed a theory of form criticism espousing a form of textual evolution as the bi-product of religious evolution.
This would result in a series of conspiracies in order to prove that the Bible was purely a fictional account. This theory is in conformity with evolutionary philosophy though not the darwinian model.
This view is found sorely lacking intellectually for the following reasons.
A. lack of proof of the evolving jewish religion.
Judaism is unique among the ancient cultures for it's strict adherence to monotheism
Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD
"The existence of a particular god named El is not only important for the origins of the religion of Israel but it raises the problem of a primitive Semitic monotheism formerly defended Renon. The thesis of an original monotheism has been upheld more recently and with more convincing arguments by scholars of such varied outlook as Andrew Lang, N. Soederblom, R. Pettazoni, Father W. Schmidt and Geo Widengren, Upsala and finally, and on the particular grounds of the religion of Israel, I. Enguell believes that El, the supreme god of the canannites ; was a "high god" who was worshipped in the whole of the west Semitic world under the names El shadday, El Elyon, Shaelem, and Hadad." (E. Jacobs, Theology of the Old Testament, 1958, pp.44f.)
B. Archaelogical evidence for the history of recorded events in line with the scripture. These early skeptics have been humiliated by the advances of modern archaeology. Many places that they assumed fictional were factual. The most well-known being the existence of the Hittite Empire. Though many skeptics went so far as to even deny the exodus and the jewish stay in egypt altogether.
"I know of no finding in archaeology that’s properly confirmed which is in opposition to the Scriptures. The Bible is the most accurate history textbook the world has ever seen." - Dr Clifford Wilson, formerly director of the Australian Institute of Archaeology (quote obtained from: Archaeologist Speaks Out) http://www.creationwiki.org/Biblical_archaeology_quotes
C.Lack of evidence as far as intermediary texts
They have yet to find any text which is the "Elohist" or "jehovist" or deuteronomist. They are all fantasy text.
So basically if we have no record of this as a real text then the whole JEDP theory is fantasy.
"The higher criticism of an awakened critical faculty to a particular kind of material, and was encouraged by the achievement of the faculty to form it's bold conclusions. If the biologist, the geologist, the astronomers, the anthropologist had not been at work, I venture to say that the higher critics would have been either non-existent or a tiny minority in a world of fundamentalist." F.M. Powicke Modern Historians and the study of history
D. unexplained testimony of apostles at the cost of life.
This argument is typically brought for the resurrection, but is generally true of the New Testament. The 12 apostles were mostly uneducated, only a few( matthew for instance had an education) were literate. They even admit that after the resurrection they had gone back to fishing. If they were not inspired of God and actually witnessed Christ Resurrection, what would have made them do this? It was not for money because they had next to nothing. They also would die gruesome deaths and none confessed to such a conspiracy. Many other "messiahs" popped up in that century and the followers always scattered and settled down. What would make you die for nothing? Unless you die for something you to be true?
E.Jesus as lord, liar or lunatic (trilemma)
Who was Jesus christ? If he was an angel why would he call himself God? If he was a teacher why would he call himself God? If he was an angel why would he call himself God?
John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?
10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.
If he was a lunatic could he have impressed the pharisees?
Luke 2:45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.
46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.
47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
Reknowned thinkers across the world and even many across the religious spectrum recognize the moral truth of Christ.
Even political leaders like Ghandi. Ghandi was a reknowned moral leader who though a pagan, drew upon the teachings of christ to inspire his philosophy of non-violence which won the independence of the nation of India.
The Christian minister Martin Luther King Jr. drew the same inspiration from christ to have african americans granted equal rights in America.
However, christ would be practically maniacal to lead millions of souls into a lie for their eternal destination. And His teachings are all based on His identity as the Christ and God in human flesh.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
F. pre-nicene testimony to the canon) The Bible emerged naturally as churches prefered the writings of the various books individually. Even more than a century prior to the council of Nicene the montanists, such as tertullian, affirmed the entire canon of scripture.
G. fulfilled Bible prophecy) This could go on and on. But here is an example text.
Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
This passage is referring to Jesus for the following reasons
a. he was despised and rejected. ( pharisees and his trial)
b. born our greifs (the story of lazurus and the resurrection)
c. wounded for our transgressions (the evil court system and it's a authority the roman empire the civilized world)
d. lamb to the slaughter (connections with passover)
e. stripes (flogging with the cat of nine tails)
f. he opened not his mouth( at the trial)
g. prison and judgement (before herod and pilate)
h. grave with the wicked (cross)
i. rich (joseph of arimathea)
j. he shall bear our iniquities. (forgive them father they know not what they do; My God My God why has thou forsaken me?)
B. The Bible was verbally inspired but not preserved.
This is a very popular position today in New Evangelicalism. It was birthed by academic fundamentalist at the turning of the 19th and 20th century. It assumed the modern sciences and scholarship to be accurate on the issues of textual criticism. At least on the issues of lower criticism. Since the Lower criticism of Westcott and Hort was not nearly as brutal an attack as higher criticism.
"Before the printing press, the New Testament (and all other) documents were copied by hand. People are not capable of copying a lengthy piece of written material without introducing some errors. This is easily proved. Sit downand copy out the gospel of John(from whatever translation you like). After you have finished, read it through and correct it. Then give it to two or three friends and have each one of them correct your correction. No more evidence will be needed."
D.A. CARSON
This position rest upon a liberal empirical epistemology(the study of the authority of knowledge. How do we know what we know?). In other words, it assumes that scientific knowledge can render the revelation of God subordinate to a greater authority.
Since the printing of Carson's book there have been several major translations and several new editions of the Greek New Testament.
So the if the eternal revelation of God is the Words of scripture. Then God's eternal Word can indeed be altered.
The other positions
C. The Bible was verbally inspired and generally preserved within the Byzantine family. and possibly the masoretic text.
D. The Bible was lost but recovered. (usually in the Ruckman KJVonly)
E. The Bible was verbally inspired preserved perfectly within the Textus receptus and Hebrew Masoretic text.
The Ehrman challenge to innerrancy: Ehrman is an admitted apostate. He claimed the "born-again" experience and went to a conservative bible college(moody) as well as a evangelical school (wheaten) and through the realization that the original autographs are lost after many years of schooling left the position of innerrancy and eventually came to the point of becoming an agnostic. Showing that with no originals the competing manuscripts can not be reconciled.
The Geisler response:( I had only accessed this by video, so I am simply summarizing)
Manuscript differences show us the historical nature of the text and gives us more valid witnesses
evidence of revelation etc.
Geisler diffused the alarm of the counting of the manuscript differences because the differences were counted among every existing manuscript. Geisler pointed out that ehrman had around a dozen grammatical errors in his book, which when counted among the copies turned into thousands.
If there are so many thousand differences then we have so many separate witnesses. Meaning each one had to choose to prepare the manuscript as they did. Also, the variety of manuscripts reveals which manuscript is most likely to be off and which ones are more accurate. Because now, we can draw concensus
On the external level Geisler refuted Ehrman; certainly within 6,000 Greek and 24,000 total manuscripts we should have the original manuscripts. Plus the Bible is certainly preserved better than any other ancient writing. (more copies and the authorship was closer to the accounts.)
However there is a small virus of doubt left in Ehrman's attack. Because while Ehrman is no longer evangelical, he was at one point. The outside religious world has no business in determining the specific scripture which evangelicals will cling to as the Word of God. They can only react after the fact. Yet the case is different within the evangelical community.
Why do we need an atomic clock?
In other words, why do we need absolute certainty? Now as many know, science thrives off of the study of time. And so we ultimately have an atomic clock which gives us the most precise measurements possible. Although it should be clear that we do not all run on the atomic clock. Frankly, most of us do not care if we are off by a second. Many people don't care if we are off by a minute or two. But indeed there are some people who have higher responsibilities and authorities to know the exact time and ultimately based there author on the standard of the atomic clock. Should christianity have such a standard?
1 timothy 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
John16: 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
We see here the promise of God to the church to Have God's objective truth.
We need to have a manuscript to declare the inspired Word of God. Otherwise how can we have absolute certainty? If we do not posess such certainty then how can sola scriptura be true? How can scriptural knowledge be any great than any other discipline?
This is a dagger hurled straight into the heart of protestantism.
Why not the earliest manuscripts?
The problem in this philosophy is the assumption that we have a perfectly accurate dating system.
The eternal word of God is relying upon a date.
But if we get the date wrong or find an earlier manuscript then the word of God has to change. Yet if we find a manuscript, no matter how old, is it guaranteed to be the original? It could be the same time period, if the copyist wanted to take credit for the real author.
This is a terrible epsitemology. Dating is part of the science of archaeology; and yet archaeology is a soft science. Because science is only an observation of the present. But history is the record of the past, so wouldn't it be a superior source of knowledge on the subject. So history is more certain than science.
Now the alexandrine text type gained it's authority on it's age, matched with the theory known as lucian recension. In other words, the idea that this manuscript is smaller because there was an organized effort to conflate or add more scriptures to the Bible
"Before the middle of the third century, at the very earliest, we have no historical signs of the existence of readings, conflate or other, that are marked as distinctively Syrian by the want of attestation from groups of documents which have preserved the other ancient forms of the text. This is a fact of great significance, ascertained as it is exclusively by external evidence, and therefore supplying an absolutely independent verification and extension of the result already obtained by comparison of the internal character of readings as classified by conflation."
"we are led to conclude that the hypothesis provisionally allowed [i.e. that where the Syrian text differs from all other extant ancient text, it's authors may have copied some other equally ancient and perhaps purer text now otherwise lost] must now be rejected, and to regard the Syrian texts as not only partly but wholly derived from other ancient texts. It follows that all distinctively Syrian readings may be set aside at once as certainly originating after the middle of the third century, and therefore, as far as transmission is concerned, corruptions of the apostolic text."
F.J.A. Hort Introduction pg. 115-119 9gathered from "The Byzantine text type & New Testament Textual Criticism by Harry A. Sturz)
However after there was a lack of historical evidence for such a conspiracy later alexandrine advocates gave up.
"The silence is inexplicable: it is not what one would expect. It seems logical that there should be as great or greater reaction to the replacement of a people's whole Greek New testament(the original language) than there was to jerome's revision of the Old Latin(a translation)" Harry a Sturz The Byzantine text type & New Testament Textual Criticism
"I am not here arguing for or against a theory that sees the genesis of the Byzantine text as a systematic conflation of other texts, even though some conflation certainly occured." D.A. Carson The King James Debate pg. 51
"Any text type is either recensional or not recensional. By 'recensional' I mean that a text has come into being by conscious revision , editing, or conflation or by any change over a period of time as part of a directed developing process. If this does not explain the genesis of a particular text, then that text is simply a copy of a copy: it is not a recension at all."D.A. Carson The King James Debate pg. 53
So if the lucian recension gets shot down, there must not be much unity in the text for a large conflation.
"A better more cumbersome, way to describe the situation would be something like this: 100% of the MSS. agree as to, say, 80% of the text; 99% agree as to another 10%; over 95% agree as to another 4%, over 90% as to another 3%: only 3% (or less) of the text do less than 90% of the MSS agree." Wilbur Pickering The identity of the New Testament Text With this type of agreement it is hard to develop any theory of sporadic conflation.
Yet historically, there was efforts made by heretics early in church history to cut verses out of the Bible.
"(1) In a work written by one of these authors against the heresy of Artemon, which Paul of Samosata again attempted among us, there was a narative well-adapted top the history we are now investigating...
"(3) 'They assert.' sadi he. 'that all these primative men and apostles themselves both, recieved and taught these things as they are now taught by them, and the truth and the truth of the gospel was preserved until the times of Victor who was the thirteenth Bishop of Rome from Peter. But that from his successor Zephyrinus, the truth was mutilated. (4) And perchance what they say might be credible, were it not that the holy Scriptures contradict them; and then, also, there are works of certain brethren older than Victor times which they wrote in defense of the truth, and against heresies then prevailing. I speak of Justus and miltiades, and tatian and clement, and many others in which the deity of christ is asserted...
"(13) To this, we will also add other extracts from the same writer respecting this sect: "The sacred scriptures," said he. "have been boldly perverted by them; the rule of faith they have set aside, Christ they have renounced, not inquiring what the holy scriptures declared, but zealously what form of reasoning may be devised to establish their impiety.
"(15) But as to these men who abused the acts of the unbelievers, to their own heretical views, and who adulterate the simplicity of faith contained in the Holy scriptures, by the wily arts of impious men; where is the necessity of asserting that they are not right in there faith? For this purpose they fearlessly lay their hands upon the holy scriptures saying they have corrected them. (16) And I do not say this against them without foundation, whoever wishes may learn ; for should anyone collect and compare their copies with one another, he would find them greatly at variance among themselves. (17) For the copies of asclepiodotus will be found to differ from those of Theodotus. Copies of many you may find in abundance, altered, by the eagernessof their disciples to insert each one of his own corrections, as they call them, i.e. their corruptions. Again, the copies of hermophilus do not agree with these, for thethose of Apolonius are not consistent with themselves. For one may compare those which were prepared before by them, with those which they afterwards perverted for their own objects, and you will find them widely differing..
"For either they do not believe that the Holy scriptures were uttered by the Holy Spirit, and they are thus infidels, or they deem themselves wiser than the Holy Spirit, and what alternative is there but to pronounce them demoniacs?"
Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History Book 5 Chapter 28 (translated by C.F. Cruse)
So here we have proof that there were organized efforts in the early era of church history to distort the text of the New Testament in the days of the alexandrine text and not during the production of the Byzantine manuscripts. We know these texts to be spurious by the fact that they do not agree with each other.
"According to Herman C. Hoskier,[2] there are, without counting errors of iotacism, 3,036 textual variations between Sinaiticus and Vaticanus in the text of the Gospels alone, enumerated as follows:Matthew: 656
Mark: 567, Luke: 791, John: 1022" Wikipedia: Comparison of codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus
Why the textus receptus and masoretic text?
1. Because these are the original languages which the prophets and apostles spoke in.
2. Because these are the traditional manuscripts. Textus receptus means the recieved text. Masoretic means tradition.These are the manuscripts of tradition.
3. Because these are the manuscripts of the true church. ( those with protestant and baptists theologies clung to these bibles)
4. Because the majority of Greek leans towards it.
5. Because this text would become the Bible text worldwide for KJV and other translations. It is the basis for most copies of the Bible all over the earth.
Why not the KJVitself?
The "ruckmanite position" holds that while the manuscripts were lost, they were reinspired through the work previous scholars and specifically the Authorised Bible translation team employed by King James.
This position tends to offend many but does have intellectual strength in the since that it admits to the subjectivity while also apealing to the conservative desire for a final authority and in america, being so easy a bible to access.
Yet how could they get the translation perfect and not the manuscript?
Different words have different word pictures; different words can shift our philosophy. Here is an example from Chinese turned christian philosopher Lin Yutang in his book "from Pagan to Christian" pg. 58
"There was something in the character of the chinese language which invisibly but most emphatically changed one's mode of thought. The modes of thinking, the concepts, the images, the very sounds of words are so different between the english language and the chinese. Speaking english, one thinks in english, and speaking in chinese one thinks inevitably in chinese. If I were to write two essays one morning on the same subject with the same ideas. one in english and the other in Chinese, the essays themselves would come out differently because of the flow of thought, following different imagery and allusions and associations, would automatically lead into different avenues. man does not talk because he thinks, but thinks because he talks, because he has words to play with,and thinking is only the tumbling about of words. The ideas themselves come wearing a different dress and complexion when one speaks a different language because the words have a different timbre and different associations."
We see famous ruckmanite teacher Gail Riplinger unwittingly prove this axiom
"The new spellings are not only strictly American, they are incorrect substitutions. It is important for printers of Bibles to retain the international British spelling seen in the KJV Cambridge and Oxford editions, so that their printings will be acceptable worldwide. Many Bibles introduce marginal notes which, while pretending to update or define a word, merely introduce an imprecise substitute. Observe how the KJV's built-in dictionary accurately defines 'bewray,' 'broided,'
'ensue,' 'entreat,' 'prevent,' and 'alway,' proving the new versions and marginal 'updates' unnecessary and incorrect." pg. 80 The language of the king james Bible; Discover its hidden dictionary
Gail Riplinger [a.v. publications corp 1998]
So Gail states the case that the spelling should not be made even to an american grammer. Because there are idiomatic meanings and misunderstandings of the nature of words to readers in other countries.
Now... If perfect translation is impossible within the same language. Then how is it possible with 2 different translations?
What about the LXX? (septuagint= 72)
a. hebrew) The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and has a much smaller canon of books than the LXX
b. hexapla) the Hexapla is a 6 column document owned by Origen that was used for altering the Greek Old Testament. The hexapla is very condemning to the point where the argument fails. The LXX is obviously not the original autographs. Since it was doctored well after the time of christ. The earlies copy of the LXX we have was after the writing of the Hexapla about in the 4th century.
What about the majority text?
The majority text provides us with a better argument. But never the less it is not absolutely certain.
There are 2 texts that claim to have the identity of the majority text. One is by Von Soden the other is hodges/farstad. Neither text actually collates the majority. Instead they worked with 500 manuscripts. This is impressive, but it is still not 5,600.
Then there are the destroyed manuscripts. How can we be objective when there are thousands of destroyed manuscripts?
Majority text advocates are starting to distance themselves from the Textus Receptus. claiming that the textus receptus is not byzantine. Yet this is confusing specifics with generalities.
"The dominant of the TR were taken from the Byzantine tradition." D.A. Carson The King James Version Debate pg. 37
Is it important that the TR be identical to the Byzantine manuscripts to be preserved? No, because the preserved text only has to be with us now. We can have no certainty as to whether it was with us in the past. in other words it may have existed in a tradition that was destroyed by age or burning. The fact is the existence of the byzantine manuscripts corroborates the likely hood of this being the case and the fact is that the TR is not so different as to be another manuscript type considering the range of 5,000 manusripts.
What should be our ultimate criteria for determining the manuscripts and the canon? The Bible itself.
A. First recognize that the Bible will be preserved
psalm 12:6 The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
psalm33:11 The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Isaiah 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Isaiah 59:21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
luke 16:17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
1 peter 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
2Peter 2:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
These and other text show us that the Word of God will be preserved. There is no greater authority than the Word of God.
Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
In a cosmic debate between Satan and the Son of God the highest authority used was the scriptures. The scriptures are the Final Authority. Certainly they have authority of textual criticism.
B. Second determine which texts have been preserved through the centuries.
C. Third, which of these texts is in the most use by New Testament christians(baptist evangelicals)
D. Also which of these texts is the most productive.
E. Finally if these texts can be rationally shown to have ancient roots.
At the end of the day The Textus Receptus and masoretic text fits the qualities needed.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Esau's Tears
Yea, I saw you down there shakin in your sandals
Knowing that you stole my blessing in a nasty lil scandal
But I couldn't help but weep to see this dear brother of mine
Boy you look scared! You'd rather fight God than look me in the eye!
So could you tell me again just how did you hurt your thigh?
Yeah, I been on my own,
Huntin alone like I wanted be!
People like what I hunt and I gained popularity.
But I couldn't help but weep to see this dear brother of mine
I know I gave away my inheretance for soup
But what you inherit I sure can't see
But I can trust in my hunger and I didn't want TA stoop
But then I saw that I lost my pa and I never felt quite right
Because you and maw went to fool him
So y'all got ahold of me birthright.
But I couldn't help but weep to see this dear brother of mine
Yeah I thought about killin you and rippin you limb from limb.
But when I got around hear, I started remembering
How you were my brother and all our history
And how all of my family used to mean so much to me.
I never got to see your babies or tell them about the time.
When their daddy was a little rascal
And the little brother of mine
I'll never understand you or God
And your people won't like mine
But I couldn't help but weep to see this dear brother of mine.
Knowing that you stole my blessing in a nasty lil scandal
But I couldn't help but weep to see this dear brother of mine
Boy you look scared! You'd rather fight God than look me in the eye!
So could you tell me again just how did you hurt your thigh?
Yeah, I been on my own,
Huntin alone like I wanted be!
People like what I hunt and I gained popularity.
But I couldn't help but weep to see this dear brother of mine
I know I gave away my inheretance for soup
But what you inherit I sure can't see
But I can trust in my hunger and I didn't want TA stoop
But then I saw that I lost my pa and I never felt quite right
Because you and maw went to fool him
So y'all got ahold of me birthright.
But I couldn't help but weep to see this dear brother of mine
Yeah I thought about killin you and rippin you limb from limb.
But when I got around hear, I started remembering
How you were my brother and all our history
And how all of my family used to mean so much to me.
I never got to see your babies or tell them about the time.
When their daddy was a little rascal
And the little brother of mine
I'll never understand you or God
And your people won't like mine
But I couldn't help but weep to see this dear brother of mine.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
B.H.S. Biblical Historical Science: My philosophy of science
Over the years I have studied the creation evolution debate. Now, I see how it is just tip of the iceberg of the naturalistic and judeo-christian worldviews. In this debate I have slowly developed my own philosophy of science. I have studied three thinkers most for this subject.
E.Y.Mullins) Mullins is a baptist theologian and philosopher, he was the primary architect for the southern baptist denomenation. ( he drafted the 1925 Baptists Faith and Message, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary(30yrs), designed the International missions board, was president of the sbc and baptist world alliance)
Gordon H. Clark) was a philosopher and later a theologian. Considered one of the greatest philosophers in the 20th century. He mentored later thinkers such as Carl Henry, Ronald Nash and John W. Robbins
Henry M. Morris) Founder of the modern creation science movement. A scientist in the fields of geology and hydrology. Later a decent bible scholar.
Edgar Young Mullins) Mullins might seem an odd pick in the since that he was not a young earth creationist. However Mullins specialty was in the field of religion. He expounded the baptist religion better than any other in his book "the Axioms of Religion." And it must be said that in the 20th century the SBC best survived modernity better than any other mainline denomination.
Mullins had 2 major argument on the issue of science and faith.
A. The religious experience is an empiracle proof of christianity. Thus showing religious knowledge as valid knowledge.
B. That the Bible doesn't use scientific language.
On one hand Mullins was weak in the since of defending the finer points of scripture, and allowing liberalism to creep in the denomenation.(though it was without him already.) However his empirical case for religion related well to the common man.(as the song goes "you ask me how I know He lives 'He live within my heart!)
Also understanding that the language of the bible is not scientific might seem elementary to some. But it is one of the primary tactic in indoctrinating young students into the idea of the Bible being contradictory.
For instance in the torah moses teaches that a bug has four legs. (sounds rediculous right?)
But He also describes a spider when they use their hands. So when they are saying an insect has four legs, it is because they classify the first two legs as hands. Also a record number may be a recorded number; or it may be an estimate. These linguistic issues must be instilled into people before they judge the scripture for disagreeing.
Gordon H. Clark) Is both an influential and Isolated thinker. His approach is more strictly philosophical. In his book "Religion, Reason and Revelation" Dr. Clark traces the history of Western Philosophy starting with the Work of Thomas Aquinas onward. He evaluates each system since in light of the problem of authoritative certainty. Whether it be Descarte,locke, Hume, Kant, marx, or neitzche every system of thought contradicts itself and is incapable of arriving at abosolute certainty. Thus the worldview of nihilism envelops them all. After the philosophical genocide, christianity is the only worldview left.
In terms of the religion science debate. Clarks perspective is to philosophically disable the authority of science especially in terms of discussing eternal issues.
Clark's argument is as such. (my interpretation of clark anyhow)
A. Our sense experience is limited. We only observe so much. We can not assume that everything is uniformly the same because we can not prove such an assumption. Even scientific law is waiting to simply be disproved. And on occaisions there are contradictions in assumed scientific knowledge. Therefore, science simply does not have the authority to overturn scriptural eternal truth.(biblical revelation)
B. Clark would also spend time reconciling scriptural discrepancies.
The weakness of clark views comes in two areas. It doesn't give a place for empirical truth. In other words there is no point of contact between the two systems. This is a common problem with presuppositional apologetics. However, clark system is more rational than Cornelius Van Til's.(Van Til refuses to defend the bible against rational scrutiny.) Still there is a block as to how to get from a pagan world view to christian. Certainly you could destroy the opposition, but that doesn't guarantee that they will affirm your view. They will simply invent a new worldview. Also Clark assumes religion to be his denominational creed.(Westminster confession of Faith) When the christian world doesn't agree with this confession.(even fellow presbyterians)
Henry M. Morris) is not much of a philosopher as much as he is a biblical science ideolog. Morris trust in two principles. 1st that the scripture is propositional truth. 2nd that general revelation will guide believers in affirmation of scriptural truths.
Morris has no handicapps that modern christians do when it comes to scientific objection. He knows the evidence is out there, So he goes about gathering it. While most Christians have to think inside the box, during the evolution debate, Morris is existing on a different plant putting the final pieces of the puzzle together.
Unfortunately Morris was not as strong in philosophically answering these issues. While his creationist ancestors had a field day destroying evolutionary arguments, they would often give up ground to the Intelligent design movement because they focus on their doppelgangers unique compromises. (paper beats rock!)
So Now I have tried to learn from these intellectual giants and gleam from them a more potent approach to the naturalistic worldview. to add Mullins pragmatism with Clarks skepticism and morris' biblical science research and here is what I propose in B.H.S.
Biblical Historical Science
Propositions:
1. The biblical Worldview is assumed as a result of the experience of the gospel through regeneration(born-again).
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
10 "Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?"
2. Philosophy is then armed with Biblical logic. There is criticism of other forms of knowledge in contradiction with the scripture. Since this knowledge contradicts scripture, which is objectively true, it will contradict the truth in other ways as well.
2Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ
3.The first way is in epistemology, where no secular system has yet to defend the notion of objective truth, which is the foundation for all knowledge. Until secularism can cling to an objective authority, suspicion as to it's truthfullness is justified.
Job 38 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding."
Ecclesiastes 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. 3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? 4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. 5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. 6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. 7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. 8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. 10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. 11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
4. When we looked to knowledge, the next valid form of knowledge is history. History is superior to science in the sense that science is observation of the present while history is observation of the past. Even present science will become history!
Ecclesiastes 12:11 The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. 12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
So scientific speculation of the past is inferior to historical record. Another point is that history must be utilized as evidence might be recorded which might not be revisited in the next generation or even impossible to reobserve.
5. Scientific evidence is true. However it is not objective knowledge. All interpretation of evidence is subject to revision.
6. The softer sciences: metaphysics, psychology, religion, cryptozoology are understood as real. Yet are not capable of full comprehension through scientific research. These mysterious sectors should be left to revelation to interpret.
7. Politics should be informed through a biblical worldview. In understanding a biblical Worldview, humanity has a natural antagonism towards the moral authority of Scripture. As a result not only is this worldview rejected, but there is a great deal of propaganda used which christians should be wary to.
(darwinian fraudulent fossils, nazi/soviet corruption of science propaganda, environmentalist's global warming fraud, gay rights agenda(kinsey) etc.)
1Corinthians 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
8. Creation Science evidences that are not directly referenced in the scripture are still subjective and can be overturned. (as well as theories may be altered) However established evidences which are overturned by a naturalist skeptic are subject to defense and/or further investogation. Afterall their false presuppositions could be warping their acceptance or rejection.
E.Y.Mullins) Mullins is a baptist theologian and philosopher, he was the primary architect for the southern baptist denomenation. ( he drafted the 1925 Baptists Faith and Message, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary(30yrs), designed the International missions board, was president of the sbc and baptist world alliance)
Gordon H. Clark) was a philosopher and later a theologian. Considered one of the greatest philosophers in the 20th century. He mentored later thinkers such as Carl Henry, Ronald Nash and John W. Robbins
Henry M. Morris) Founder of the modern creation science movement. A scientist in the fields of geology and hydrology. Later a decent bible scholar.
Edgar Young Mullins) Mullins might seem an odd pick in the since that he was not a young earth creationist. However Mullins specialty was in the field of religion. He expounded the baptist religion better than any other in his book "the Axioms of Religion." And it must be said that in the 20th century the SBC best survived modernity better than any other mainline denomination.
Mullins had 2 major argument on the issue of science and faith.
A. The religious experience is an empiracle proof of christianity. Thus showing religious knowledge as valid knowledge.
B. That the Bible doesn't use scientific language.
On one hand Mullins was weak in the since of defending the finer points of scripture, and allowing liberalism to creep in the denomenation.(though it was without him already.) However his empirical case for religion related well to the common man.(as the song goes "you ask me how I know He lives 'He live within my heart!)
Also understanding that the language of the bible is not scientific might seem elementary to some. But it is one of the primary tactic in indoctrinating young students into the idea of the Bible being contradictory.
For instance in the torah moses teaches that a bug has four legs. (sounds rediculous right?)
But He also describes a spider when they use their hands. So when they are saying an insect has four legs, it is because they classify the first two legs as hands. Also a record number may be a recorded number; or it may be an estimate. These linguistic issues must be instilled into people before they judge the scripture for disagreeing.
Gordon H. Clark) Is both an influential and Isolated thinker. His approach is more strictly philosophical. In his book "Religion, Reason and Revelation" Dr. Clark traces the history of Western Philosophy starting with the Work of Thomas Aquinas onward. He evaluates each system since in light of the problem of authoritative certainty. Whether it be Descarte,locke, Hume, Kant, marx, or neitzche every system of thought contradicts itself and is incapable of arriving at abosolute certainty. Thus the worldview of nihilism envelops them all. After the philosophical genocide, christianity is the only worldview left.
In terms of the religion science debate. Clarks perspective is to philosophically disable the authority of science especially in terms of discussing eternal issues.
Clark's argument is as such. (my interpretation of clark anyhow)
A. Our sense experience is limited. We only observe so much. We can not assume that everything is uniformly the same because we can not prove such an assumption. Even scientific law is waiting to simply be disproved. And on occaisions there are contradictions in assumed scientific knowledge. Therefore, science simply does not have the authority to overturn scriptural eternal truth.(biblical revelation)
B. Clark would also spend time reconciling scriptural discrepancies.
The weakness of clark views comes in two areas. It doesn't give a place for empirical truth. In other words there is no point of contact between the two systems. This is a common problem with presuppositional apologetics. However, clark system is more rational than Cornelius Van Til's.(Van Til refuses to defend the bible against rational scrutiny.) Still there is a block as to how to get from a pagan world view to christian. Certainly you could destroy the opposition, but that doesn't guarantee that they will affirm your view. They will simply invent a new worldview. Also Clark assumes religion to be his denominational creed.(Westminster confession of Faith) When the christian world doesn't agree with this confession.(even fellow presbyterians)
Henry M. Morris) is not much of a philosopher as much as he is a biblical science ideolog. Morris trust in two principles. 1st that the scripture is propositional truth. 2nd that general revelation will guide believers in affirmation of scriptural truths.
Morris has no handicapps that modern christians do when it comes to scientific objection. He knows the evidence is out there, So he goes about gathering it. While most Christians have to think inside the box, during the evolution debate, Morris is existing on a different plant putting the final pieces of the puzzle together.
Unfortunately Morris was not as strong in philosophically answering these issues. While his creationist ancestors had a field day destroying evolutionary arguments, they would often give up ground to the Intelligent design movement because they focus on their doppelgangers unique compromises. (paper beats rock!)
So Now I have tried to learn from these intellectual giants and gleam from them a more potent approach to the naturalistic worldview. to add Mullins pragmatism with Clarks skepticism and morris' biblical science research and here is what I propose in B.H.S.
Biblical Historical Science
Propositions:
1. The biblical Worldview is assumed as a result of the experience of the gospel through regeneration(born-again).
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
10 "Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?"
2. Philosophy is then armed with Biblical logic. There is criticism of other forms of knowledge in contradiction with the scripture. Since this knowledge contradicts scripture, which is objectively true, it will contradict the truth in other ways as well.
2Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ
3.The first way is in epistemology, where no secular system has yet to defend the notion of objective truth, which is the foundation for all knowledge. Until secularism can cling to an objective authority, suspicion as to it's truthfullness is justified.
Job 38 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding."
Ecclesiastes 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. 3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? 4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. 5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. 6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. 7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. 8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. 10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. 11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
4. When we looked to knowledge, the next valid form of knowledge is history. History is superior to science in the sense that science is observation of the present while history is observation of the past. Even present science will become history!
Ecclesiastes 12:11 The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. 12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
So scientific speculation of the past is inferior to historical record. Another point is that history must be utilized as evidence might be recorded which might not be revisited in the next generation or even impossible to reobserve.
5. Scientific evidence is true. However it is not objective knowledge. All interpretation of evidence is subject to revision.
6. The softer sciences: metaphysics, psychology, religion, cryptozoology are understood as real. Yet are not capable of full comprehension through scientific research. These mysterious sectors should be left to revelation to interpret.
7. Politics should be informed through a biblical worldview. In understanding a biblical Worldview, humanity has a natural antagonism towards the moral authority of Scripture. As a result not only is this worldview rejected, but there is a great deal of propaganda used which christians should be wary to.
(darwinian fraudulent fossils, nazi/soviet corruption of science propaganda, environmentalist's global warming fraud, gay rights agenda(kinsey) etc.)
1Corinthians 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
8. Creation Science evidences that are not directly referenced in the scripture are still subjective and can be overturned. (as well as theories may be altered) However established evidences which are overturned by a naturalist skeptic are subject to defense and/or further investogation. Afterall their false presuppositions could be warping their acceptance or rejection.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
The spirit of evolution; (theistic evolution)
Greek Origins
While the Greeks did not specifically refer to their concepts as "evolution", they did have a philosophical notion of descent with modification. Several different Greek philosophers subscribed to a concept of origination, arguing that all things originated from water or air. Another common concept was the idea that all things descended from one central, guiding principle. Aristotle suggests a transition between the living and the nonliving, and theorizes that in all things there is a constant desire to move from the lower to the higher, finally becoming the divine. (See Evolution from The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.)
www.thinkquest.org
Jude 1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The real worldview of theistic evolution
Theistic evolution is in truth a pantheistic worldview. Because God acts through nature. So what is nature? Nature is creation itself.
If God is only acting with creation according to the laws of science, it appears that God is submissive to nature. Also it appears that God never acts outside of nature. So it is not too hard to conjure up the idea of God as a pantheon. in fact the only other possibility is that God is a minor deity inside a pantheon.
Because God is not acting as a personal deity.
So if God is pantheistic, then God is the same as that conjured up by the eastern religions. which of course is simply pagan.
Genesis 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Pierre Teilhard De. Chardin and the New Age
"Chardin is one of the most frequently quoted writers by leading New Age occultists" Gary Kah, En Route to Global Occupation (Lafayette, LA: Huntington House Publishers, 1992), p. 41.
The New Age is another term for paganism.
Luke 6:26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
"...a general convergence of religions upon a universal Christ who satisfies them all: that seems to me the only possible conversion of the world, and the only form in which a religion of the future can be conceived"
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Christianity and Evolution (Collins, 1971): 130.
Luke 6:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
"I believe that the Messiah whom we await, whom we all without any doubt await, is the universal Christ; that is to say, the Christ of evolution." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, as quoted in “ Teilhard de Chardin: Christianity and Evolution,” Spiritual Conspiracies Project Journal: 56.
This is the New age Christ it sees christ as lower on the rung of spiritual evolution waiting to evolve.
Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
"It is a law of the universe that in all things there is prior existence. Before every form there is a prior, but lesser evolved form. Each one of us is evolving towards the God-head." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, as quoted in Sir John Templeton, The Humble Approach: Scientists Discover God (Templeton Foundation Press, 1998): 92.
Deification is obvious here.
Genesis 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
"As we know, the belief that the human individual cannot perfect himself or fully exist except through the organic unification of all men in God is essential and fundamental to Christian doctrine." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Mankind (New York and Evanston: Harper & Row, 1959).
The promise is not that we would be one with God, but family with God.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
"Once complete unity has been achieved, Christ—who will be the Omega Point—will appear; man will then be more than man, will be what Teilhard called Ultra-Human, the cosmos will be transformed; and the glory of it all will be established" Malachi Martin, The Jesuits (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988): 288
matthew 24:23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Eventuallly Chardin was rightly charged with heresy. Yet it is obvious from remarks of Pope John Paul II on evolution that his influence has grown and there has been a large migration from Catholicism to the New Age. So theistic evolution is quite pagan in His ideology.
Evolution was developed with pagan roots. "Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection, which prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own ideas in On the Origin of Species. Wallace did extensive fieldwork, first in the Amazon River basin and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the Wallace Line that divides the Indonesian archipelago into two distinct parts, a western portion in which the animals are largely of Asian origin, and an eastern portion where the birds and mammals are more similar to those of Australia. He was considered the 19th century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species and is sometimes called the "father of biogeography".[1] Wallace was one of the leading evolutionary thinkers of the 19th century and made many other contributions to the development of evolutionary theory besides being co-discoverer of natural selection. These included the concept of warning colouration in animals, and the Wallace effect, a hypothesis on how natural selection could contribute to speciation by encouraging the development of barriers against hybridization."
"Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living. Anyone may receive spirit messages, but formal communication sessions (séances) are held by "mediums," who can then provide information about the afterlife.[1]"
"Many scientists who investigated the phenomenon also became converts. They included chemist and physicist William Crookes (1832–1919), evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913)[18] and Nobel-laureate physiologist Charles Richet. Other prominent adherents included journalist and pacifist William T. Stead (1849–1912)[19] and physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930).[17]
^ The Scientific Aspect of the Supernatural, Alfred Russel Wallace, 1866.
"Alfred Russel Wallace believed qualitative novelties could arise through the process of spiritual evolution, in particular the phenomena of life and mind, Wallace attributed these novelties to a supernatural agency.[43] Later in his life, Wallace was advocate of spiritualism and believed in an immaterial origin for the higher mental faculties of humans, he believed that evolution suggested that the universe had a purpose, and that certain aspects of living organisms are not explainable in terms of purely materialistic processes, in a 1909 magazine article entitled The World of Life, which he later expanded into a book of the same name.[44] Wallace argued in his 1911 book World of life for a spiritual approach to evolution and described evolution as “creative power, directive mind and ultimate purpose”. Wallace believed natural selection could not explain intelligence or morality in the human being so suggested that non-material spiritual forces accounted for these. Wallace believed the spiritual nature of man could not have come about by natural selection alone, the origins of the spiritual nature must originate “in the unseen universe of spirit”.[45][46]"spiritualism wikipedia
1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
accomodating or propaganda
Pierre Teilhard De' chardin role in the piltdown man fraud.
"Since the truth about Piltdown Man was revealed, there have been many suspects implicated in the forgery. Dawson was the prime suspect. But he died in 1916, so scientists never had the chance to question his possible role in the hoax. Teilhard de Chardin, who found the isolated canine tooth on his own, is another possibility. One of Smith Woodward’s colleagues, Martin Hinton, may have also played a role. In 1978, workers found an old trunk of Hinton’s at the Natural History Museum in London. The trunk held teeth and bones stained in a similar way as the Piltodwn Man fossils. Despite much interest and speculation, no one has ever definitively tied any of these men to the hoax."
Smithsonian.com :Hominid Hunting "How to Solve Human Evolution’s Greatest Hoax"
December 19, 2012
Pierre Teilhard De' Chardin is consider one fo the founding fathers of theistic evolution. Yet He also pushed evolutionary propaganda. Whether he takes the fall for piltdown man, which he at least propagated and the erronius canine tooth. It is obvious that theistic evolution is not the mere result of a merger between atheism and Christianity. In fact, it is in reality the original evolutionary worldview.
2Thessalonians 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
Death before the fall
If death was before the fall of Adam what did Adam bring?
Roman 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Evry thing about death is tied to Adam. If evolution/old earth is true, then why? Afterall death was the work of God prior to the garden. Adam should be then innocent.
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Why is eternal life tied to christ? If death wasn't tied to Adam eternal life can't be tied to Christ.
6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What sin was there, before the garden of eden? If there was no sin, why was there death? The curse of death has plagued many evolutionary Christians and caused many to loose their faith.
8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
23 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
If death was not connected to Adam, then animal suffering is unchanging.
Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
This is a grave contradiction. Is death very good? Many Christians who accepted theistic evolution have now left the faith altogether because of this issue. If we have an ancient earth that is nothing more than an ongoing cycle of death and God considers that to be paradise then how good is God? Another issue is that neanderthals have been found to have cancer. Cancer is a mutation. How can God be a good God to give a humanoid creature a flawed design and existence without sin?
A creationist anser would argue that these are post flood and the dating methods are corrupt so the curses happened after adam sinned.
BioLogos) Theistic Evolution making a comeback among protestants.
In a Nutshell
"In recent decades, scientists have discovered more about the beginnings of humanity. The fossil record shows a gradual transition over 5 million years ago from chimpanzee-size creatures to hominids with larger brains who walked on two legs. Later hominids used fire and stone tools and had brains as large as modern humans. Fossils of homo sapiens in east Africa date back nearly 200,000 years. Humans developed hearths for fire, stone points for spears and arrows, and cave paintings by 30,000 years ago. By 10,000 years ago, humans had spread throughout the globe. Genetic studies support the same picture. Humans share more DNA with chimpanzees than with any other animal, suggesting that humans and chimps share a relatively recent common ancestor. Also, the same defective genes appear in both humans and chimps, at the same locations in the genome—an observation difficult to explain except by common ancestry. Genetics also tells us that the human population today descended from more than two people. Evolution happens not to individuals but to populations, and the amount of genetic diversity in the gene pool today suggests that the human population was never smaller than several thousand individuals. Yet all humans, of all races, are descended from this group. Humanity is one family." (biologos website)
So if humanity is one family are chimpansees, and neaderthals a part of that family?
If neanderthals are not human, is every race completely human? should we treat chimpanzees as citizens or should we go back to nazism and take away the rights of "inferior" races? How could neanderthals have died considering that they supposedly lived before adam and therefore never sinned?
Remember without the existence of thiestic evolutionist, the holocaust would not have been possible. It is obvious that if God had made genetically separated races through evolution than God is in fact racist.
The devil is in the details! Can evolutionist consistently be conservative evangelicals? Let's see....
"1.We believe the Bible is the inspired and authoritative word of God. By the Holy Spirit it is the “living and active” means through which God speaks to the church today, bearing witness to God’s Son, Jesus, as the divine Logos, or Word of God.
2.We believe that God also reveals himself in and through the natural world he created, which displays his glory, eternal power, and divine nature. Properly interpreted, Scripture and nature are complementary and faithful witnesses to their common Author."
This says the Bible is authoritative, but how much authority does it have? The document doesn't say. Is it the sole authority?(sola scriptura) The document doesn't say. The Bible is not the only source of revelation though. Because the natural world is a source revelation. This is the Roman Catholic doctrine of natural revelation invented by Thomas aquinas. Yet the theistic evolutionist seem to go farther as they have not stated whether natural revelation is of equal authority with scripture.
"3.We believe that all people have sinned against God and are in need of salvation."
What are people? After all the website claims that humans are descended from apes; are they people as well? Do animals sin? What is sin? and what is salvation? Theistic evolution teaches that death is natural. So then death is not a problem. So what is salvation? It doesn't make since for salvation to be eternal life, because death is not a problem so eternal life is an unneeded remedy.
"4.We believe in the historical incarnation of Jesus Christ as fully God and fully man. We believe in the historical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, by which we are saved and reconciled to God."
Ok, What is God? What is man? What does it mean for Jesus to be fully of either? This is irrational for the sake of political agreement.
Why is does Jesus death help save? What is the motive of Christ's resurrection? Reconciled to God is understandable, but why does death accomplish that? Everyone dies.
"5.We believe that God is directly involved in the lives of people today through acts of redemption, personal transformation, and answers to prayer.
6.We believe that God typically sustains the world using faithful, consistent processes that humans describe as "natural laws." Yet we also affirm that God works outside of natural law in supernatural events, including the miracles described in Scripture. In both natural and supernatural ways, God continues to be directly involved in creation and in human history."
What is a natural law? The word is typically used to describe universal ethical laws. But here biologos is using the term much like what we would describe as the "laws of science". However, how do they know what they are talking about? How do we know that God has committed Himself to only function to an undefined set of natural rules? Who defines the laws of nature? And if He did make those rules, why would he break them?
"7.We believe that the methods of science are an important and reliable means to investigate and describe the world God has made. In this, we stand with a long tradition of Christians for whom Christian faith and science are mutually hospitable. Therefore, we reject ideologies such as Materialism and Scientism that claim science is the sole source of knowledge and truth, that science has debunked God and religion, or that the physical world constitutes the whole of reality."
Which methods of science? Just the hard sciences or soft sciences as well? What about disputable sciences?(psychology, crypto-zoology, meta physics etc.)
Why do they reject "scientism"? They give no intellectual justification.
"8.We believe that God created the universe, the earth, and all life over billions of years. God continues to sustain the existence and functioning of the natural world, and the cosmos continues to declare the glory of God. Therefore, we reject ideologies such as Deism that claim the universe is self-sustaining, that God is no longer active in the natural world, or that God is not active in human history."
Why did God take billions of years? Why not millions or trillions? Exactly how many years? If God breaks the laws of nature is the natural world actually sustained? It may be a world, but it is no longer natural.
"9.We believe that the diversity and interrelation of all life on earth are best explained by the God-ordained process of evolution with common descent. Thus, evolution is not in opposition to God, but a means by which God providentially achieves his purposes. Therefore, we reject ideologies that claim that evolution is a purposeless process or that evolution replaces God."
1 Corinthians 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
10.We believe that God created humans in biological continuity with all life on earth, but also as spiritual beings. God established a unique relationship with humanity by endowing us with his image and calling us to an elevated position within the created order.
So God created Jesus in biological continuity with all life on earth?
Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
"11.We believe that conversations among Christians about controversial issues of science and faith can and must be conducted with humility, grace, honesty, and compassion as a visible sign of the Spirit’s presence in Christ’s body, the Church."
This assumes that we are all unified in an invisible body they call the church. The word church means a visible organization. Besides this I can't in good conscience assume that an evolutionist is automatically a saved brother or sister. This is political propaganda to get evolution into the evangelical world and destroy the scriptures.
Existential philosophyTheistic evolutionist typically have bipassed difficulties with the scripture using existential philosophy. The idea of faith as a form of imagination. having a subjective world within objective materialism.
faith is true; not imaginary) This view of faith has to involve the human imagination. Making spirituality virtually irrational. Faith is no longer a set of propositions; instead it is a work of the human heart. Leaving it in conflict with the gospel (sola fide') and lending itself to catholic mysticism.
materialism still fails without a supernatural God) This philosophy leaves one blind to the problems of evolutionary theory. even if you separate the world it still has to be coherent to be true.
So theistic evolutionist need a different God altogether to explain evolutionary leaps!
Obviously this system of God helping to give us a godless society is not only irrational but demonic as well. God got it right when he created us and He'll get it right when he restores us!!
While the Greeks did not specifically refer to their concepts as "evolution", they did have a philosophical notion of descent with modification. Several different Greek philosophers subscribed to a concept of origination, arguing that all things originated from water or air. Another common concept was the idea that all things descended from one central, guiding principle. Aristotle suggests a transition between the living and the nonliving, and theorizes that in all things there is a constant desire to move from the lower to the higher, finally becoming the divine. (See Evolution from The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.)
www.thinkquest.org
Jude 1:4 For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
The real worldview of theistic evolution
Theistic evolution is in truth a pantheistic worldview. Because God acts through nature. So what is nature? Nature is creation itself.
If God is only acting with creation according to the laws of science, it appears that God is submissive to nature. Also it appears that God never acts outside of nature. So it is not too hard to conjure up the idea of God as a pantheon. in fact the only other possibility is that God is a minor deity inside a pantheon.
Because God is not acting as a personal deity.
So if God is pantheistic, then God is the same as that conjured up by the eastern religions. which of course is simply pagan.
Genesis 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Pierre Teilhard De. Chardin and the New Age
"Chardin is one of the most frequently quoted writers by leading New Age occultists" Gary Kah, En Route to Global Occupation (Lafayette, LA: Huntington House Publishers, 1992), p. 41.
The New Age is another term for paganism.
Luke 6:26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
"...a general convergence of religions upon a universal Christ who satisfies them all: that seems to me the only possible conversion of the world, and the only form in which a religion of the future can be conceived"
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Christianity and Evolution (Collins, 1971): 130.
Luke 6:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
"I believe that the Messiah whom we await, whom we all without any doubt await, is the universal Christ; that is to say, the Christ of evolution." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, as quoted in “ Teilhard de Chardin: Christianity and Evolution,” Spiritual Conspiracies Project Journal: 56.
This is the New age Christ it sees christ as lower on the rung of spiritual evolution waiting to evolve.
Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
"It is a law of the universe that in all things there is prior existence. Before every form there is a prior, but lesser evolved form. Each one of us is evolving towards the God-head." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, as quoted in Sir John Templeton, The Humble Approach: Scientists Discover God (Templeton Foundation Press, 1998): 92.
Deification is obvious here.
Genesis 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
"As we know, the belief that the human individual cannot perfect himself or fully exist except through the organic unification of all men in God is essential and fundamental to Christian doctrine." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Mankind (New York and Evanston: Harper & Row, 1959).
The promise is not that we would be one with God, but family with God.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
"Once complete unity has been achieved, Christ—who will be the Omega Point—will appear; man will then be more than man, will be what Teilhard called Ultra-Human, the cosmos will be transformed; and the glory of it all will be established" Malachi Martin, The Jesuits (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988): 288
matthew 24:23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Eventuallly Chardin was rightly charged with heresy. Yet it is obvious from remarks of Pope John Paul II on evolution that his influence has grown and there has been a large migration from Catholicism to the New Age. So theistic evolution is quite pagan in His ideology.
Evolution was developed with pagan roots. "Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection, which prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own ideas in On the Origin of Species. Wallace did extensive fieldwork, first in the Amazon River basin and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the Wallace Line that divides the Indonesian archipelago into two distinct parts, a western portion in which the animals are largely of Asian origin, and an eastern portion where the birds and mammals are more similar to those of Australia. He was considered the 19th century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species and is sometimes called the "father of biogeography".[1] Wallace was one of the leading evolutionary thinkers of the 19th century and made many other contributions to the development of evolutionary theory besides being co-discoverer of natural selection. These included the concept of warning colouration in animals, and the Wallace effect, a hypothesis on how natural selection could contribute to speciation by encouraging the development of barriers against hybridization."
"Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living. Anyone may receive spirit messages, but formal communication sessions (séances) are held by "mediums," who can then provide information about the afterlife.[1]"
"Many scientists who investigated the phenomenon also became converts. They included chemist and physicist William Crookes (1832–1919), evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913)[18] and Nobel-laureate physiologist Charles Richet. Other prominent adherents included journalist and pacifist William T. Stead (1849–1912)[19] and physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930).[17]
^ The Scientific Aspect of the Supernatural, Alfred Russel Wallace, 1866.
"Alfred Russel Wallace believed qualitative novelties could arise through the process of spiritual evolution, in particular the phenomena of life and mind, Wallace attributed these novelties to a supernatural agency.[43] Later in his life, Wallace was advocate of spiritualism and believed in an immaterial origin for the higher mental faculties of humans, he believed that evolution suggested that the universe had a purpose, and that certain aspects of living organisms are not explainable in terms of purely materialistic processes, in a 1909 magazine article entitled The World of Life, which he later expanded into a book of the same name.[44] Wallace argued in his 1911 book World of life for a spiritual approach to evolution and described evolution as “creative power, directive mind and ultimate purpose”. Wallace believed natural selection could not explain intelligence or morality in the human being so suggested that non-material spiritual forces accounted for these. Wallace believed the spiritual nature of man could not have come about by natural selection alone, the origins of the spiritual nature must originate “in the unseen universe of spirit”.[45][46]"spiritualism wikipedia
1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
accomodating or propaganda
Pierre Teilhard De' chardin role in the piltdown man fraud.
"Since the truth about Piltdown Man was revealed, there have been many suspects implicated in the forgery. Dawson was the prime suspect. But he died in 1916, so scientists never had the chance to question his possible role in the hoax. Teilhard de Chardin, who found the isolated canine tooth on his own, is another possibility. One of Smith Woodward’s colleagues, Martin Hinton, may have also played a role. In 1978, workers found an old trunk of Hinton’s at the Natural History Museum in London. The trunk held teeth and bones stained in a similar way as the Piltodwn Man fossils. Despite much interest and speculation, no one has ever definitively tied any of these men to the hoax."
Smithsonian.com :Hominid Hunting "How to Solve Human Evolution’s Greatest Hoax"
December 19, 2012
Pierre Teilhard De' Chardin is consider one fo the founding fathers of theistic evolution. Yet He also pushed evolutionary propaganda. Whether he takes the fall for piltdown man, which he at least propagated and the erronius canine tooth. It is obvious that theistic evolution is not the mere result of a merger between atheism and Christianity. In fact, it is in reality the original evolutionary worldview.
2Thessalonians 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
Death before the fall
If death was before the fall of Adam what did Adam bring?
Roman 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
Evry thing about death is tied to Adam. If evolution/old earth is true, then why? Afterall death was the work of God prior to the garden. Adam should be then innocent.
21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Why is eternal life tied to christ? If death wasn't tied to Adam eternal life can't be tied to Christ.
6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What sin was there, before the garden of eden? If there was no sin, why was there death? The curse of death has plagued many evolutionary Christians and caused many to loose their faith.
8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
23 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
If death was not connected to Adam, then animal suffering is unchanging.
Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
This is a grave contradiction. Is death very good? Many Christians who accepted theistic evolution have now left the faith altogether because of this issue. If we have an ancient earth that is nothing more than an ongoing cycle of death and God considers that to be paradise then how good is God? Another issue is that neanderthals have been found to have cancer. Cancer is a mutation. How can God be a good God to give a humanoid creature a flawed design and existence without sin?
A creationist anser would argue that these are post flood and the dating methods are corrupt so the curses happened after adam sinned.
BioLogos) Theistic Evolution making a comeback among protestants.
In a Nutshell
"In recent decades, scientists have discovered more about the beginnings of humanity. The fossil record shows a gradual transition over 5 million years ago from chimpanzee-size creatures to hominids with larger brains who walked on two legs. Later hominids used fire and stone tools and had brains as large as modern humans. Fossils of homo sapiens in east Africa date back nearly 200,000 years. Humans developed hearths for fire, stone points for spears and arrows, and cave paintings by 30,000 years ago. By 10,000 years ago, humans had spread throughout the globe. Genetic studies support the same picture. Humans share more DNA with chimpanzees than with any other animal, suggesting that humans and chimps share a relatively recent common ancestor. Also, the same defective genes appear in both humans and chimps, at the same locations in the genome—an observation difficult to explain except by common ancestry. Genetics also tells us that the human population today descended from more than two people. Evolution happens not to individuals but to populations, and the amount of genetic diversity in the gene pool today suggests that the human population was never smaller than several thousand individuals. Yet all humans, of all races, are descended from this group. Humanity is one family." (biologos website)
So if humanity is one family are chimpansees, and neaderthals a part of that family?
If neanderthals are not human, is every race completely human? should we treat chimpanzees as citizens or should we go back to nazism and take away the rights of "inferior" races? How could neanderthals have died considering that they supposedly lived before adam and therefore never sinned?
Remember without the existence of thiestic evolutionist, the holocaust would not have been possible. It is obvious that if God had made genetically separated races through evolution than God is in fact racist.
The devil is in the details! Can evolutionist consistently be conservative evangelicals? Let's see....
"1.We believe the Bible is the inspired and authoritative word of God. By the Holy Spirit it is the “living and active” means through which God speaks to the church today, bearing witness to God’s Son, Jesus, as the divine Logos, or Word of God.
2.We believe that God also reveals himself in and through the natural world he created, which displays his glory, eternal power, and divine nature. Properly interpreted, Scripture and nature are complementary and faithful witnesses to their common Author."
This says the Bible is authoritative, but how much authority does it have? The document doesn't say. Is it the sole authority?(sola scriptura) The document doesn't say. The Bible is not the only source of revelation though. Because the natural world is a source revelation. This is the Roman Catholic doctrine of natural revelation invented by Thomas aquinas. Yet the theistic evolutionist seem to go farther as they have not stated whether natural revelation is of equal authority with scripture.
"3.We believe that all people have sinned against God and are in need of salvation."
What are people? After all the website claims that humans are descended from apes; are they people as well? Do animals sin? What is sin? and what is salvation? Theistic evolution teaches that death is natural. So then death is not a problem. So what is salvation? It doesn't make since for salvation to be eternal life, because death is not a problem so eternal life is an unneeded remedy.
"4.We believe in the historical incarnation of Jesus Christ as fully God and fully man. We believe in the historical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, by which we are saved and reconciled to God."
Ok, What is God? What is man? What does it mean for Jesus to be fully of either? This is irrational for the sake of political agreement.
Why is does Jesus death help save? What is the motive of Christ's resurrection? Reconciled to God is understandable, but why does death accomplish that? Everyone dies.
"5.We believe that God is directly involved in the lives of people today through acts of redemption, personal transformation, and answers to prayer.
6.We believe that God typically sustains the world using faithful, consistent processes that humans describe as "natural laws." Yet we also affirm that God works outside of natural law in supernatural events, including the miracles described in Scripture. In both natural and supernatural ways, God continues to be directly involved in creation and in human history."
What is a natural law? The word is typically used to describe universal ethical laws. But here biologos is using the term much like what we would describe as the "laws of science". However, how do they know what they are talking about? How do we know that God has committed Himself to only function to an undefined set of natural rules? Who defines the laws of nature? And if He did make those rules, why would he break them?
"7.We believe that the methods of science are an important and reliable means to investigate and describe the world God has made. In this, we stand with a long tradition of Christians for whom Christian faith and science are mutually hospitable. Therefore, we reject ideologies such as Materialism and Scientism that claim science is the sole source of knowledge and truth, that science has debunked God and religion, or that the physical world constitutes the whole of reality."
Which methods of science? Just the hard sciences or soft sciences as well? What about disputable sciences?(psychology, crypto-zoology, meta physics etc.)
Why do they reject "scientism"? They give no intellectual justification.
"8.We believe that God created the universe, the earth, and all life over billions of years. God continues to sustain the existence and functioning of the natural world, and the cosmos continues to declare the glory of God. Therefore, we reject ideologies such as Deism that claim the universe is self-sustaining, that God is no longer active in the natural world, or that God is not active in human history."
Why did God take billions of years? Why not millions or trillions? Exactly how many years? If God breaks the laws of nature is the natural world actually sustained? It may be a world, but it is no longer natural.
"9.We believe that the diversity and interrelation of all life on earth are best explained by the God-ordained process of evolution with common descent. Thus, evolution is not in opposition to God, but a means by which God providentially achieves his purposes. Therefore, we reject ideologies that claim that evolution is a purposeless process or that evolution replaces God."
1 Corinthians 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
10.We believe that God created humans in biological continuity with all life on earth, but also as spiritual beings. God established a unique relationship with humanity by endowing us with his image and calling us to an elevated position within the created order.
So God created Jesus in biological continuity with all life on earth?
Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
"11.We believe that conversations among Christians about controversial issues of science and faith can and must be conducted with humility, grace, honesty, and compassion as a visible sign of the Spirit’s presence in Christ’s body, the Church."
This assumes that we are all unified in an invisible body they call the church. The word church means a visible organization. Besides this I can't in good conscience assume that an evolutionist is automatically a saved brother or sister. This is political propaganda to get evolution into the evangelical world and destroy the scriptures.
Existential philosophyTheistic evolutionist typically have bipassed difficulties with the scripture using existential philosophy. The idea of faith as a form of imagination. having a subjective world within objective materialism.
faith is true; not imaginary) This view of faith has to involve the human imagination. Making spirituality virtually irrational. Faith is no longer a set of propositions; instead it is a work of the human heart. Leaving it in conflict with the gospel (sola fide') and lending itself to catholic mysticism.
materialism still fails without a supernatural God) This philosophy leaves one blind to the problems of evolutionary theory. even if you separate the world it still has to be coherent to be true.
So theistic evolutionist need a different God altogether to explain evolutionary leaps!
Obviously this system of God helping to give us a godless society is not only irrational but demonic as well. God got it right when he created us and He'll get it right when he restores us!!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
It's because of the Blood! the reason why blood atonement is necessary
A core issue between monotheistic religions is that the judeo-christian God requires blood atonement in the light of the present reality of sin. many from the islamic tradition argue that scriptures were tainted and that they hold to the abrahamic religion..
Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Why does Christianity have such a law?
Because blood is the source of life.
Genesis 9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
This comes as a result of sin.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Death is the penalty of sin, which Adam brought to mankind
Genesis 2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
But yet Adam and Eve did not instantly die. Why?
Genesis 321 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
God had provided a sacrifice. But this was not a permanent sacrifice.
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Hebrews 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
But some may argue that this is only a perverted interpretation of the OT using the New Testament.
However let us see How God treats blood sacrifice verse another type of offering.
Genesis 4
4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.
2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6 And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
9 And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;
12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
13 And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
15 And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
16 And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
Nottice that God did not approve of the sacrifice without blood? Also God was being reasonable, he had not yet rejected Cain altogether. But Can fell in sin. Why was he so weak? Because he was not in accord with God the Father.
hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Here the scriptures reiterate that abel's sacrifice was superior. It also states that this was true in light of the fact that Abel sacrificed in Faith. This would imply that Cain did not sacrifice in faith. He gave an offering. As if he were not a sinner! He was a sinner like his father Adam and needed atonement for His sins. His sacrifice was in Pride.
matthew 23 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Jesus prophesies against those who have tortured his prophets! Do not despise the Blood!
Hebrews 10:28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Please pray over these things!
Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Why does Christianity have such a law?
Because blood is the source of life.
Genesis 9:4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
This comes as a result of sin.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Death is the penalty of sin, which Adam brought to mankind
Genesis 2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
But yet Adam and Eve did not instantly die. Why?
Genesis 321 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
God had provided a sacrifice. But this was not a permanent sacrifice.
Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Hebrews 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
But some may argue that this is only a perverted interpretation of the OT using the New Testament.
However let us see How God treats blood sacrifice verse another type of offering.
Genesis 4
4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.
2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.
4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6 And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
9 And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;
12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
13 And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.
15 And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
16 And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
Nottice that God did not approve of the sacrifice without blood? Also God was being reasonable, he had not yet rejected Cain altogether. But Can fell in sin. Why was he so weak? Because he was not in accord with God the Father.
hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Here the scriptures reiterate that abel's sacrifice was superior. It also states that this was true in light of the fact that Abel sacrificed in Faith. This would imply that Cain did not sacrifice in faith. He gave an offering. As if he were not a sinner! He was a sinner like his father Adam and needed atonement for His sins. His sacrifice was in Pride.
matthew 23 33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Jesus prophesies against those who have tortured his prophets! Do not despise the Blood!
Hebrews 10:28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Please pray over these things!
Monday, February 18, 2013
Rock of Ages!!!
The history of Charles Lyell and uniformitarianism
"Lyell entered Exeter College, Oxford in 1816, and attended William Buckland's lectures. He graduated B.A. second class in classics, December 1819, and M.A. 1821.[2][3] After graduation he took up law as a profession, entering Lincoln's Inn in 1820. He completed a circuit through rural England, where he could observe geological phenomena. In 1821 he attended Robert Jameson's lectures in Edinburgh, and visited Gideon Mantell at Lewes, in Sussex. In 1823 he was elected joint secretary of the Geological Society. As his eyesight began to deteriorate, he turned to geology as a full-time profession.[3] His first paper, "On a recent formation of freshwater limestone in Forfarshire", was presented in 1822.[3] By 1827, he had abandoned law and embarked on a geological career that would result in fame and the general acceptance of uniformitarianism, a working out of the idea proposed by James Hutton a few decades earlier."
Wikipedia "Charles lyell"
It is important to nottice that Lyell was not trained as much of a scientist himself, but more educated in the field of being a lawyer. So most of His work was based upon the findings of James Hutton and his theory of plutonism. Evolutionist are fond of criticizing academic credentials even though the founders were soo unacredited.
"Plutonism (or vulcanism) is the geologic theory that the rocks forming the Earth were formed in fire by volcanic activity, with a continuing gradual process of weathering and erosion wearing away rocks, which were then deposited on the sea bed, re-formed into layers of sedimentary rock by heat and pressure, and raised again. It proposed that basalt was solidified molten magma. It was named after Pluto, the classical ruler of the underworld, or alternatively after Vulcan, the ancient Roman god of fire and volcanoes."
"The Frenchmen Compte de Buffon (a Roman Catholic, but likely a secret skeptic) postulated that the earth had gradually cooled from a molten lava state over at least 70,000 years and Pierre Laplace (a strong atheist) imagined that the solar system had slowly condensed from a gaseous nebula. The German Abraham Werner and the Scottish James Hutton (both deists) developed geological theories that the sedimentary strata formed slowly over millions of years. "
The 19th century scriptural geologists: historical background by Dr. Terry Mortenson, AiG–USA
"The catastrophists dominated the first 35 years or so. They believed that the geological/fossil record could only be explained by imagining that there had been several or many global or regional floods in earth history. George Cuvier, a famous French comparative anatomist and nominal Protestant, published his influential Theory of the Earth in 1813 (English version; the original in French was published a year earlier in Paris under a slightly different title). From studying the fossils found in the rocks in and around Paris he believed that the earth had suffered at least three or four floods, the last of which was Noah’s Flood."
The 19th century scriptural geologists: historical background by Dr. Terry Mortenson, AiG–USA
" The theory was first proposed before 1750, by Abbé Anton Moro who had studied volcanic islands, and was subsequently developed by James Hutton as part of his Theory of the Earth published in 1788. It contested Abraham Werner's neptunist theory which proposed that the Earth had formed from a mass of water and suspended material which had formed rocks as layers of deposited sediment which became the continents when the water retreated, further layers being deposited by floods and some volcanic activity." Wikipedia" plutonism"
"Uniformitarianism is the assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now, have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe. It has included the gradualistic concept that "the present is the key to the past" and is functioning at the same rates. Uniformitarianism has been a key principle of geology and virtually all fields of science, but naturalism's modern geologists, while accepting that geology has occurred across deep time, no longer hold to a strict gradualism.
Uniformitarianism was formulated by Scottish naturalists in the late 18th century, starting with the work of the geologist James Hutton, which was refined by John Playfair and popularised by Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology in 1830.[1] The term uniformitarianism was coined by William Whewell, who also coined the term catastrophism for the idea that Earth was shaped by a series of sudden, short-lived, violent events.[2]"
Wikipedia "uniformitarianism"
"The contributions he made to correct understandings of ignaceous rocks is large. but his outstanding acheivement was formulation of the uniformitarian principle, which states that natural agents now at work on and within the earth have repeated with general uniformity through immensely long periods of time."
"Hutton reasoning inductively from a wealth of evidence, concluded that the earth dates from the remote past ; he could see no vestige of a beginning- no prospect of an end."
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA Geology: B. 18th century
Hebrews 11:3 "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."
naturalistic assumptions: Uniformitarianism most obvious operates under the worldview of naturalism. There is nothing fundamentally different about our ancient past.
One thing of interest is that Sutton's theory provides no origin of the earth. But how does the earth exist if it was never caused? We know the earth is limited and that it changes. If this theory is designed to accomodate an eternal earth, how can it give explanation for the age of the earth?
Essentially this leads one to a pantheistic worldview. The idea that matter is eternal. This could not be the case. Matter is not eternal due to entropy. Because energy escapes and matter breaks down.
So the gravity and rotation of the earth would eventually break down. So at somepoint, something had to get the earth started. The naturalist answer for this is in the "big bang theory". Which would be a starting point but would still require the miraculous to take place to have nothing to turn into something. However if there is a required intervention wouldn't this theory fall apart? Because there can not be something supernatural in an solely natural world.
So originally uniformatarianism descended from a form of pantheism. Then it was adapted to a form of deism. The ages are kept at a long range in order to support this theory; also they are used to accompany the idea of biological evolution. And vice versa.
Obvious bias
Lyell was not a geologist by training. he was a lawyer. Which is the essence of bias. Lawyers are paid to deliver a onesided arguement.
"I devoured Lamark... his theories delighted me... I am glad that he has been courageous enough and logical enough to admit that his argument, if pushed as far as it must go, if worth anything, would prove that men may have come from the Ourang-Outang. But after all, what changes species may really undergo!... That the Earth is quite as old as he supposes, has long been my creed..."Lyell K. 1881. The life and letters of Sir Charles Lyell. 2 vols, London. vol. 1 p. 168
Lyell had even stated that his goal was to "free the science from moses" life and letters and journals john murray 1881
1Corinthians 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
An unproven system:
If we were to find the system of uniformitarianism to be true, we would have to find Lyell's model of geological strata as consistent across the face of the earth. When in fact we have not found this. In fact there are few locations on the earth that have this specific order and we do not have.
"Whatever the method or approach, the geologist must take cognizance of the following facts... There is no place on earth where a complete record of the rocks is present.... To reconstruct the history of the earth, scattered bits of information from thousands of locations all over the world must be placed together. The results will be at best only a very incomplete record. If the complete history of the earth is compared to an encyclopedia of 30 volumes, then we can seldom hope to find even one comeplete volume in a given area. Sometimes only a few chapters, perhaps only a paragraph or two, will be the total geological contribution of a region; indeed, we are often reduced to studying scattering bits of information more nearly comparable to a few words of letters." Brown Monnet and Stovel Introduction to Geology
Luke 19:40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
Ties with evolution
"I devoured Lamark... his theories delighted me... I am glad that he has been courageous enough and logical enough to admit that his argument, if pushed as far as it must go, if worth anything, would prove that men may have come from the Ourang-Outang. But after all, what changes species may really undergo!... That the Earth is quite as old as he supposes, has long been my creed..." [16]"
Lyell K. 1881. The life and letters of Sir Charles Lyell. 2 vols, London. vol. 1 p. 168
"If I had stated... the possibility of the introduction or origination of fresh species being a natural, in contradistinction to a miraculous process, I should have raised a host of prejudices against me, which are unfortunately opposed at every step to any philosopher who attempts to address the public on these mysterious subjects".[18]
Lyell to William Whewell, March 7, 1837. In Lyell K. 1881. The life and letters of Sir Charles Lyell. 2 vols, London. vol. 2 p. 5
In dating the age of the fossils, they use circular reasoning having the rock layers dated by the fossils.
You may love luci but where is desi?
When we find a fossil or skelaton what can we prove?
Other than the fact that it used to be a living thing.
We have no proof that luci had any relative and we have no proof that lucy was not simply a mutant.
If the geological column has been debunked then how do we know its age?
More important is the question of "where is the missing link?" Because now if we accept a connection between apes and man how do we link them with another species?
Now I am not dealing with an exhaustive argument of lucy. Many point out that this creature was a knuckle walker, that the knee is not original. That many paintings portray human parts when the skelatons shows no evidence.
What I am saying is that if all these things are proven accurate on the evolution case they still have not proven to have a valid case for this being mankinds ancestor.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Proper Logic
A. Science bases it's information upon the obersvation of present facts.
B. History bases it's information based on the obseervation of recorded facts
C. Since Science focuses on observation of the present and history observes the past. History has a more reliable information concerning the past.
D. If Uniformitarianism is evidentially neutral and it does not have historical support. (human history is limited to 5-6,000 years) then we need to look to the best historical evidence.
The crafty snake
There was a snake early on who changed every thing! ......
Not that guy!
Titaniboa!!
This massive snake fossil ranging from 50-150ft(estimation because we are unaware if the complete fossil was preserved) has stirred up some controversy in the scientific community.
Because a giant cold blooded animal would require very warm weather. even in columbia the weather would have had to be about 10 degrees hotter.
There are other giant repties in this record of fossils as well. For instance a giant aligator and tortoise. So many scientist are convinced that this proves the climate there was warmer. But if this is true then it proves that giant cold blooded reptiles existed in the past.
Previous scientists under a uniformitarian philosophy would not draw this conclusion. They took the millions of dinosaur fossils and claimed that they were actually warm blooded. in order to keep with this school of thought. This is why we heard so much about dinosaurs being linked in evolution with birds.
But now there is nothing inconcisstent and dinosaurs were probably cold blooded. therefore the earth was warmer. Hence the natural processes of the earth were not uniformitarian.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/How-Titanoboa-the-40-Foot-Long-Snake-Was-Found.html#ixzz2B52GpyOm Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/How-Titanoboa-the-40-Foot-Long-Snake-Was-Found.html#ixzz2B4zC2L4G
Not only do we see the need for a warmer climate but we also see the need for a higher oxygen level due to the findings of giant insect fossils. Insects breath through there skin and could not sustain enough oxygen for a large body.
"Reign of the giant insects ended with the evolution of birds
June 04, 2012
By Tim Stephens
" Giant insects ruled the prehistoric skies during periods when Earth's atmosphere was rich in oxygen. Then came the birds. After the evolution of birds about 150 million years ago, insects got smaller despite rising oxygen levels, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz. ..."
"This fossil insect wing (Stephanotypus schneideri) from the period about 300 million years ago when insects reached their greatest sizes, measures 19.5 centimeters (almost eight inches) long. The largest species of that time were even bigger, with wings 30 centimeters long. For comparison, the inset shows the wing of the largest dragonfly of the past 65 million years. ..."
http://news.ucsc.edu/2012/06/giant-insects.html
Genesis 6:4a "There were giants in the earth in those days;"
keep it in the canopy!
Why was the atmosphere so different?
While creationist scientist have different opinions. I believe the bible has the answer to this as well. In the creation story there was a canopy over the earth. I believe this was a cloud of ice/hydrogen particle. Similar to the ice clouds over the planet urinus. God had perfectly arranged them there to provide a utopian environment. That was rich in oxygen and heat without the harmful radiation we recieve nowadays.
This is not simply a new theory. This was a historic observation by many tribes and natians and cultures in the ancient world.
"The notion of the sky as a solid object (rather than just an atmospheric expanse) was widespread among both ancient civilisations and primitive cultures, including ancient Greece, Egypt, China, India, native Americans, Australian aborigines, and also early Christians.[25]
The sky is depicted as a solid dome arched over the earth in both Mesopotamian and Indo-European mythologies (e.g., creation myths) and poetry. The Sumerian sky-god An ruled these firmament-like "heavens", which the wind-god had separated from the flat disc of the earth below, and there were primordial seas above the firmament. Ancient Indians also believed in a solid sky: "Firm is the sky and firm is the earth," says the Rig Veda.[25] This approach to cosmology is probably universal, and is also encountered in mythologies of the New World." Wikipedia firmament
Job 37:18 Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
Give the Bible a chance!
The Bible is the most historical of the ancient accounts.
A. It has the longest record. (most histories do not exeed 5,000 years)
B. Everything is linked in specific geneologies.
C. It has been confirmed in many cases by archaeology (a classic example is the record of the hittites which scholars denied.)
D. The point of a global flooded is corroborated universally. (virtually every ancient culture agrees to this much.
E. historic geology) the early geologist assumed a catastrophic flood.
all the earth has marine biology in the fossil records.
Obviously If you believe The scripture is the Word of God, You are more likely to hold this as true. Also if you reject scriptures you will not like the idea of accepting such an incredible event.
To this I ask you the following is it the logic that is the problem here... or is it the consequences? If the World was once destroyed it could be so again. If the biblical account is true, it may mean that the God of the Bible is real and that I am accountable to Him. You may look at the earth and find all of the destruction caused by rejecting the God of the Bible. And if this is bother you I encourage you to research www.biblesmack.net and read what the scripture says about salvation.
1 Peter3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
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