Saturday, May 28, 2011

The Chicken or the Egg

Remember the old question, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Well which was it? The answer is simple if you understand that there is a Creator in the Bible who made all that there is. However, if you follow naturalistic concepts such as evolution the answer is less than clear. Let's make the question a bit more modern. Which came first, the Blu-Ray disc or the machine to read it? In this question we understand that there was a system creator and that the two were developed together. What good is making a Blu-Ray disc if you do not have a machine to read it? It would make a good skeet target, but that is about all. All of the information contained on it could not be retrieved if the machine to read it was not developed simultaneously. Problems like this are found around us every day in the entire universe and they give the overwhelming impression that there had to be a Designer of life as well as the universe.



Every cell in your body holds DNA. That DNA holds close to 750 megabytes of information or 3/4 of a gigabyte. That is a great deal of information. In his work* Signature in the Cell, Dr. Stephen C. Meyer asked to find a source of information that did not have a mind from which it originated. What if you found a book at a garage sale with the title page missing and the front cover destroyed. If you read it and liked it, would you ask how that book evolved or who wrote it? You would ask who wrote it, of course. That much information just doesn't evolve especially using a language system that is readable, detectable, and discernable, so the thought that it spontaneously generated would be an absurdity. Meyer used a similar illustration in his work noted above. If you had a set of encyclopedias wash ashore while you were at the beach, common sense tells you that it did not evolve by random processes. The encyclopedias had someone who compiled and printed the information. So why do so many ask if random processes spontaneously generated the information in the cells of every living thing while not asking who compiled and compressed the information into an ingenious language readable by components in the cell and discernable and decodable by other intelligent minds?



Let's say that you have a complete car engine but you don't have spark plugs. What good is the engine? How many necessary parts are there like this in an engine? How many parts are so integral to the engine that the car could not run without it? For that matter, let's say the engine worked fine, but you have no transmission--where will the car go? All of the systems and the parts of those systems have to be in place at the beginning or the car won't perform its designed task. Your cells and your body are even more complex than an engine, and there are many, many things that have to immediately be in place for life to happen. The organism simply could not survive without those integral components in place. This is called irreducible complexity. Biochemist Michael Behe was one of the first to make the argument that cells are too complex to just have developed on their own without an intelligent mind behind their design. There are many parts of a cell and entire organisms that must be in place at once for the organism to survive. They could not have evolved separately over time. Yet, many who claim to be brilliant are being illogical and ignoring this because they all too well understand the implications. They are turning a blind eye to the facts in order to maintain their own stubborn assertions and paradigms.


Let’s think back to the original question about the chicken or the egg and apply it to DNA. If we look at the information in DNA, the blueprints for building life, which came first, DNA or the RNA reader systems that decode it. Like the worthless Blu-Ray disc, if the system to read and interpret the information did not come about simultaneously, the information is worthless and there could be no life. How did such a complex system evolve over time? These are the sort questions that have many scientists saying that life on earth may have been seeded from space since every living cell is just too complex to happen randomly. Cells definitely have the appearance of being developed by an intelligent mind. As the quote mentioned in my prior post stated, it appears that “a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology". Fred Hoyle, astronomer and mathematician, clearly could see that there seemed to be such an appearance although he was no believer in the God of the Bible as far as can be determined. The point is that one has to ignore all of these inferences of divinity and creation to conclude that there is no God.


Being an atheist, then, may actually be very illogical. Those believing in the random and spontaneous generation of life and the universe while willingly ignoring or explaining away the evidence to the contrary may be actually be professing themselves to be wise while thinking very foolishly.


Without realizing it today’s intelligent minds, such as Hawking, who says there is no God are fulfilling the prophecy of the end of days below. They are purposefully ignoring the evidence that there is a God who is creator and judge. The reasoning may be that they don’t want a God to be accountable to. Yet, they are accountable whether they state that He is there or not. We all know that ignorance of the law is no excuse in court. Ignorance of God will not hold up in His court either!


For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
2 Peter 3:5-7


*Meyers, Stephen C. Signature in the cell--DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design
New York, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2009

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Wise Foolishness

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 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. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Romans 1:22-25

So just how smart are you?  Really!  Do you have all of the knowledge that is contained in the entire universe?  How close are you to attaining all of that knowledge?  For that matter, how close is mankind in obtaining all of that knowledge?  Why all the questions?  In order to conclusively state that there is no evidence for God you would need to have a reasonable percentage of that total knowledge--if not all--to come to that determination.  You would literally have to account for all understanding found in the entire universe and beyond in order to definitively state that there is no evidence of a divine being that is providing for and watching over creation.  Furthermore, you would have to conclude that the appearance of evidence is just that--an appearance.  Finally, you would have to explain the predictions and prophecies that have came to pass with extraordinary accuracy in the face of probabilities that seem to indicate evidence for a real all knowing being that is found in the Bible. 



Just how smart is mankind anyways?  Are we even close to finding all of the understanding there is to glean on our own planet?  If we don't fully understand all of the knowledge that is found on the planet that we live on, then how can we ever learn all that there is to know in a universe that is seemingly endless?  The amount of knowledge out there is nearly infinite, so how much do we know?  Do we have fifty percent of all knowledge acquirable? Do we have even forty percent?  Thirty? Twenty? Ten? It is very doubtful that we even have ten percent of all that there is to learn.  The estimates (estimates of this type are needed when you don't know!) for the number of galaxies in the universe are between 100 billion to 500 billion.  An average galaxy contains about 400 billion stars.  For a safe estimate, lets just say that there are 100 billion galaxies with 100 billion stars (much less than the best GUESS estimates).  That means that there are 1.0 x 10 to the 22nd stars in the KNOWN (?) universe.  Mankind has surely accounted for the lack of evidence of God in all of these parts of the universe, right? Surely!  If not, then why do "brilliant" men conclude that there is no God like Stephen Hawking recently stated?

For the sake of space, let me use an illustration that I often use of man's righteousness in approaching to God's holiness when witnessing.  We will leave God out of it for the time being.  Let's say that all of the knowledge that is acquirable is comparable to the distance from the Earth to  Jupiter.  The very best and brightest of all humans and the one with the lowest IQ decide they are going to jump towards that knowledge in order to show how much they know.  The one jumps ten feet and the other jumps one hundred feet--impressive!  Who neared the goal of Jupiter?  The one who jumped the 100 feet, of course.  In comparison to the goal of reaching Jupiter which is the higher jumper closer to, the goal or the one who jumped just ten feet?  Just as none of us by our own merits can obtain the unapproachable holiness of Almighty God in that we are closer to the rankest of sinners in our pathetic attempts to be righteous in ourselves, we are nowhere near the amount of understanding that there is in the universe.  Let's put God back in this now.  He is Omniscient, so how will we ever reach that level of infinite knowledge?  


In another post, I will discuss the evidence that appears to point to a divine mind and try to deal a bit with the overwhelming statistical probabilities found in fulfilled prophecy.  I also want to deal a bit with the verses above, in that they point to the sophomoric understanding of man when it comes to attempting to detach the Creator from His creation.  He left many, MANY fingerprints!  I will leave you with a couple of quotes to consider from men who jumped much higher than me!  

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”--Robert Jastrow

  “A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super intellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”--Fred Hoyle 



Sunday, May 22, 2011

What Did You Hear?

 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
Matthew 25:13


Well it was not the trumpet of the Lord, that is for sure!  However, I did not expect to hear it yesterday, but I am still expecting it at a time soon when people are unprepared to hear it.   Harold Camping and the Fitzpatrick fellow in New York may actually be a part of making sure the correct interpretation of Bible prophecy is not going to be heard by many who will be caught unawares.  What I did hear was the expected mockery from the media and their continued attacks on righteousness and godliness.  I heard an attempt to mask the true unveiling of prophecy with a man's foolish mathematical ramblings.   Finally, I heard the call of Christ to be steadfast and immovable to what is true.


It seems that Satan used this false preacher to try and embarrass the entire church while calling the correct preaching of Christ and His word into question.  It might work for those uninformed, but it will never work on those who know the truth.  Jesus Christ is coming!  All of those who are mocking the return of Christ will find themselves to be the ones embarrassed in the long run.  


Jesus Himself told us to flee from those who would say He is here or there. Yet, this type of heresy does give godless men an excuse, no matter how flimsy from God's perspective,  for running the church in the ground.  On this point, I was very sad to see some of my former students, many still in high school, ridiculing the coming of Messiah and their classmates who are believers on Facebook.   It is so sad to see the true preaching of salvation alone in Jesus tied to such gross, unbiblical error.  Look at these news items as further proof, but I warn that these articles are graphic in nature and content.   
 BBC News - 'Rapture' apocalypse prediction sparks atheist reaction
Masturbate-a-Thon and Other Fun Rapture Parties Across These United States of Sin - Miami Art - Cultist


As a reminder that this mockery was correctly predicted, here is an excerpt from May 4th's post "Rapture--May 21st?".   "If we don't know the date of His return, surely the message of the cross is just as silly they reason.  Look at this article as proof. Atheists Mock May Rapture Prediction with "Rapture Party" Sadly, without Jesus Christ covering their sin this will not be funny to them in 1000 years if they do not repent.  Very few godless people will take the time to separate those truly following scripture from those in error.  To them, they are all the same.  Furthermore, these false prophets are actually strengthening them in their unbelief."  This prediction has come true in many ways.  Many see this as a way of uniting a false teacher with those who are teaching truth.  It is a demonic attempt to make orthodox (as in right and true in belief and not a denomination) believers seemingly look as foolish as this false prophet, Harold Camping.  Remember, the Bible says to know your adversary, and it was obvious that this was the Liar's intention.  Didn't Paul warn to be careful, "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices"?  (2 Corinthians 2:11)  


I loudly heard an attempt to unite correct teaching against godlessness with false teaching.  Remember, Satan's tactic was to call truth into question by means of blowing false "Christian" teachers out of proportion.  Here was an item that was directly under the home page articles on Fox discussing Doomsday and Harold Camping.  Anger After Controversial Anti-Gay Pastor Recites Prayer at Minnesota State House - FoxNews.com  What did this man do in this article?  It says nothing about Him praying against gays at all.   That was just used as an attention getter or literary hook.  His crime was that he prayed in Jesus name.  Here is a quote from this pastor's prayer that caused the anger.  "It's not about the Baptists, not about the Catholics alone, or the Lutherans, or the Evangelicals, or any other denomination, but rather the head of the denomination, and his name is Jesus, as every president up until 2008 has acknowledged and we pray it in Jesus' name."


Directly beside this post,  It's NOT the end of the world as we know it - CNN.com , there was another post similar to the one on Fox.  It also called into question true teaching, godliness and holiness.  My Faith: How I learned to stop 'praying away the gay' – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs  Again, the tactic is to call into question truth by pointing out the error of a heretic.  Don't be fooled into believing that all that Christians teach is wrong or open for men's opinions and suggestions.  It is not!  God's word is eternal and two-thirds of prophecy that has been fulfilled has been done so with amazing accuracy.  The final third deals with Christ's return which can be seen unfolding now.  Regardless of what Fox, CNN, any other news outlet, or all of mankind without Christ thinks, God will have the last laugh.  His word is amazingly true and accurate; furthermore, it is still unfolding before us even in the midst of the current chaos (which Jesus accurately predicted) around us.


Like a master magician that is excellent at misdirection, here is proof that the real End of Days is near.   Obama: Borders will be different ... JPost - Diplomacy & Politics  While the media mocks the false prophet, they don't realize that they are reporting the news of many of the true prophets both major and minor.  What are the last days scenarios wound around?  The borders of Israel and the city of Jerusalem.  The enemy is trying to hide the truth while diverting the world's attention to the error.  Don't be fooled!  The world is nearing the return of Jesus Christ.  I reiterate, as the scriptures assuredly teach, that we do not know exactly when, but we do know that the season is upon us.


Make sure that as evil men wax worse that your love for Jesus does not wax cold.  Stay steadfast in Christ!  As I shared in a message this morning, flee error, follow truth, and fight the good fight of faith.  


But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.  I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
1 Timothy 6:11-16

As verse 15 reminds above, Jesus is soon2come, but in His time not ours--Watch!