Category: FAITH

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THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

Is there any evidence for the existence of God?

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Consider first that there are three possibilities as to how we all got here. 1, We were created; 2, We evolved; 3, We aren’t really here, we just think we are. Other evolution-related concepts such as “Pan-Spermia” (life evolved somewhere else in the universe and was then seeded on earth) are not really alternatives, since all life, wherever it came from originally, either evolved or was created .

I have no time for the third option: I’m definitely here, and so are you. That leaves only two possibilities: a Creator, or evolution from nothing.

Apologies to those who’ve read this post before under a different name. It’s a favourite topic of mine, and vitally important. This is a shorter version.

DESIGN

We see incredible design in all of nature. The evidence for God is all around us: its impossible to miss. When we look around at our world we see beauty everywhere, and things which fit and have meaning and purpose. We live, love and exist in a world of wonder, not a world of chaos. Science is not evidence against God, it’s powerful evidence that God is The master scientist.

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INFORMATION

As an example, one strand of DNA, invisible to the naked eye, contained in each of the trillions of cells in our body, is packed with more information than a huge library of books. Where did that information come from? So- called “simple” life forms are really incredibly complex: how did that first information arise out of nothing, or out of inanimate matter? Information has never been observed to come from nothing or from chaos, and so to believe it did is blind faith, not science. Researchers scan the skies for a radio message from space which, they are convinced, would confirm intelligent life out there, yet ignore the incredible message in plain view within life on earth, as seen in our DNA, in our brains, and in all of life.

ORDER

The universe operates in a very orderly, lawful way, as does our own solar system and our own planet. The laws of nature hold all things together and allow us to exist and function. Sir Isaac Newton, whose laws of motion and gravity are still employable and were used to land man on the moon, attributed that orderliness to a Creator.

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ANTHROPIC PRINCIPLE

This principle, dismissed as mere “coincidence” by the evolutionist, demonstrates clearly that Earth is uniquely placed and equipped for life in our galaxy and in our solar system. We benefit from many thousands of extremely fortuitous conditions. As an example, if earth were tilted any more or less in relation to the sun, its temperature ranges would be too extreme to support life. If we didn’t have our moon, or if the moon were not at just the right distance from us and at just the right relative size with just the right orbital pattern, we would have no tides to keep the oceans alive and fresh, and there would be no life on earth. Earth’s magnetic field protects us from the harmful power of the sun’s radiation. Water is unique in many of its properties, enabling life to exist and continue.

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ORIGINS

Even famous evolutionists admit that they don’t know for sure how life evolved from non-life, and they’ve never seen it happen. Millions of people are convinced that life has been made, or almost made, in the laboratory: this is not the case. The Miller experiments made a few amino acids only. When the proverbial first living cell miraculously produced itself according to evolution theory, defying multitudes of natural obstacles, who did it mate with and what did it eat?

The “evolution” of photosynthesis has never been observed: it was a unique event in earth’s history, as even evolutionists have to concede. I can much more easily believe in an intelligent creator than in a rock producing all the complexity we see. In fact, try counting the incidences of evolution which you have observed-there will be none. Bacteria adapting is not evolution in the sense of one creature turning into another: it is still bacteria, and all of life has inbuilt potential in order to survive.

There’s plenty of scientifically supportable reason to believe in the Biblical view of origins. Try http://www.icr.org for a start, or http://www.answersingenesis.org

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HUMAN HUNGER FOR GOD

Man has an inbuilt hunger for the spiritual, which explains the existence of many religions throughout history and in every culture. Religion is not always a product of superstition: perhaps superstition is born of  a natural longing for God, and the realization that there’s something much greater than us.

ATHEISM

The condition of atheistic societies to date has not been impressive or endearing. Atheistic philosophy has been the cause of far more evil in our world than any religion has. Hitler, in his book “Mein Kampf” expressed the need to “cleanse” the human race for the sake of “Mother Nature” and healthy human evolution. Also refer to the regimes of such men as Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot, who wanted to rid the world of God. Once man sees no God to answer to, and no  fixed, objective standards of right and wrong, tyranny is the likely outcome, along with the degradation of the value of human life. We can see this at work in our world now. Please note I am not saying that every atheist is a “bad” person: they are usually no more evil than anyone else. Instead I’m demonstrating  that having a God-less society is not the answer to our problems.

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EMOTION

Most of our emotions would be superfluous and even detrimental if we were only here to contend with other life forms so as to emerge the winner (as we have, if we evolved). The God of the Bible made us in his image, and is himself a feeling, emotional being.

LOVE

Real love produces commitment, caring, empathy, loyalty, faithfulness and truthfulness. Where does love come from if not from a loving, faithful designer? How could chemical reaction and interaction alone-born of rock-produce love? When your significant other asks if you love her or him, do you reply that yes, you are currently experiencing some chemical and hormonal interactions, and as long as they occur you will stick around and refrain from killing and eating him or her? Love in today’s popular definition is a reductionist ploy with the aim of reducing our relationships to good vibes and temporary mutual use while the going is good. Godly love, as found in the Bible, is that which produces stable relationships, happy kids, and successful societies.

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JUSTICE

Our sense of justice is evidence that we were made by a just, moral God. If we “evolved” a sense of justice, why do we still have crime, war and murder, at every level of every society, no matter how many new laws and regulations are created? And why would or should we care anyway? The fact is that we recognize naturally in our hearts that there is such a thing as evil at large in our world, and that it needs to be controlled. This recognition was given to us by a God of justice.

AESTHETIC SENSE

We have an inbuilt appreciation for beauty and for all of creation, and not merely for our mate when we’re having sex, or for the food on our plate. We desire to be creative, to entertain, and to express ourselves, and we appreciate those who do so skillfully. We love art, music, literature, and all forms of recreation and creation. We imagine-often without any practical reason but the pleasure of it. We philosophize and think deeply (some of us do anyway).

SIN and EVIL

The Bible is right about human nature: just look around. You probably need look no further than the mirror, or your own family and friends.  Those who claim that people only abuse each other when they’re impoverished are often the same people who berate the ultra-rich for abusing the rest of us. If poverty were the cause of crime and terrorism, half of India and Africa would be in absolute turmoil. And if we evolved, why shouldn’t the rich abuse the rest of us, since life is all about the “survival of the fittest”?

EXPERIENCE

In the years I’ve been a Christian I’ve experienced God in many ways. This includes an acute awareness of His presence, a feeling of indescribable completeness at times, an inner peace and joy, and answered prayers. It also includes the fact that seeking God and His righteousness has helped me to live a far more meaningful and peace-filled life than I would have without Him. It’s important for me to remember those experiences and continuous states of mind, and not to let them be dismissed as mere superstition, hormonal balance or positive thinking. I’ve seen the difference made by the Spirit of God in people’s lives, in homes, and in areas of society where God has been allowed or invited in. I’ve also seen the destruction in societies and individuals who have rejected God.

TACKLING THE MONSTER WITHIN

It’s human nature to point fingers at other people, without finding fault at our own end of the finger. Some people live their whole lives without dealing with the monster within their own souls. They don’t see their problem-they just experience the consequences of their failings, and blame others for them. The wreckage they leave is often not visible to them, but it’s very tangible to those they’ve damaged-sometimes for a lifetime. 

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I was thinking about someone I was once very close to, and looking at the trail of wreckage she has left all the way along in her life: broken relationships, broken people, offended family members, lost homes, lost jobs, and worse. At this point in her life she seems unaware that any of the problems were caused by her. It’s always someone else’s fault. It was always her that was wronged. In no part of her life, it seems to her, was she responsible for what happened.

It’s always easy for us to see the faults in other people, but we don’t see them in ourselves very well, if at all. On top of that, our pride prevents us from even beginning to consider that what happened may have been at least partially our fault. And here I’ll freely admit that I am one of the guilty. When I allow myself, I catch a little glimpse in my mind of what I may have done, not just to one person, but to a whole string of people, in the course of my life. However, examining what happened closely is painful and embarrassing and demeaning: it doesn’t fit with the way of today’s life which says it’s all about me, and that others don’t meet my standards. We all make excuses for ourselves.

How will I ever truly confront my own dark side? As tough as it is, it has to be done, because if we don’t tackle that monster; that habit of destruction or of neglect or selfishness, we will continue to wreak havoc, and the consequences will affect us as well as others.

There are many reasons why Jesus said that we have to repent. It’s not just so that we can get back into a right relationship with our creator-it’s so that we can become more Christ-like, which is what our God wants in us. It’s so that we can stop damaging other people; so that we can stop giving our God a bad name that He does not deserve.

In prayer and meditation on our God and His words, we can face up to those monsters within us. We have to first acknowledge that we may be at least partially responsible. We have to ask ourselves if what happened with so-and-so could have been avoided if we were more caring and less selfish. And we have to make ourselves do what we can to at least try to mend bridges and to heal hurt souls. It takes humility, resolve, and determination, along with a daily walk with God. Don’t believe those preachers and believers who say “It’s all God”, meaning that only God can change us. If that were the case, Jesus would never have said that we need to repent, and Peter would never have written this:  

For this very reason, make every effort to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is near-sighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins (2 Peter 1:5-9).

 

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LIVING WITH THE BEAST

Mankind is devolving, not evolving. Yes, we have cell phones and cars and internet, but this is development, under the temporary opportunity given us by freedom, relative peace and prosperity: it isn’t physical or cerebral change for the better…

Such evolution, says the fairy story for adults, takes many millennia at least, and more likely, “millions of years”. While we poke away at our little digital devices, paedophilia is becoming the next immoral frontier to cross, sex changes are being carried out, millions of babies are being killed and thrown away before they can be born, rioters attack our emergency services personnel, and a multitude of other horrors and sicknesses develop which will ultimately bring the wrath of God on our so-called civilization. 

The arts are decaying into crass expressions of the worst in human nature, while we, the “entertained”, remain transfixed by the product of technology rather than the quality of meaning and message behind it. Universalism and multiculturalism are flooding the once-strong West with division and resentment, not unity.

The West, which once fought off communism and fascism, now teeters in the direction of those very same darknesses, in the name of change.  In my country of origin, and unfortunately, in most of the Western world, people constantly decry the failures of government, and then vote into power the very same kinds of people they are whining about, i.e., weak and unprincipled. And this is in part due to media types-the ones who parade themselves as purveyors of truth, but who instead are promoters of propaganda, and whose only truth is their own twisted, uninformed, biased view of how things should be. Our cultural navel-gazing is carried out with blinkers in the dark. Our aims are not the upholding of civil life, propriety and factual enquiry, but the overthrow of what has gone before, in the vain, misguided, foolish belief that Utopia is just around the corner. 

The warriors of hopelessness have successfully commandeered the narrative in education, politics and so-called entertainment. The worst in human nature has percolated to the top of the heap, and now seeks to lead the rest of humanity down the moral drain and into the sewer and the garbage bin of history. Only a few souls bravely work to hold us back from the brink, while being attacked and vilified by the lawless. Those of us who just want to live our lives and are not working to overthrow national and moral boundaries can only stand by and watch. Will the rot be in check for another four years, or not? If it is, its warriors of godlessness will be more vicious and devious than they are now.

Where will it all end? That’s the question asked by many more people than we think. And those who refuse to believe in absolutes, or in an Absolute, that is, a God who made us and therefore will hold us to account, have no hope of finding the answer. They are the willing lost; the willing blind; the blinded; the determined, cynical agnostics who are drowning in a sea of post-modernism, in which there can be no objective hope. Where it will end is in judgment. The creator of the world will not leave his creation to rot forever. Instead he-yes, I said “he”, will bring a screeching halt to all that mankind is doing to itself and to his world. The only remaining question is, are you ready for that day? Have you accepted God’s only Son as your saviour from the darkness? While you live, it’s not too late.

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NICE PEOPLE

How many nice people do you know? Let me be a little more specific: How many people do you know who you feel at ease with; who are genuine and real; who are warm and thoughtful; who you know care sincerely and consistently about you; who you trust, and who are committed to companionship with you for life?

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Perhaps you’re fortunate enough to know a lot of such people. I’ll have to admit, reluctantly, that I could probably count the number of such people I know on one hand, and have a finger or two to spare. If I look back over my life so far, I may be able to employ all my fingers and toes in the count.

I’m not saying this to have a dig at human nature, as easy as that would be. After all, I’m human too (surprise surprise) and I suffer from the same weaknesses and faults that everyone else does. We can all be hurtful at times, or aloof or busy and inconsiderate. Just how do those few “nice people” manage it? How are they nice? What makes them kind, considerate, warm, forgiving, and all those other special endearing qualities which I am deficient in?

If I focus more closely still on what turns me on, socially speaking, I think I would have to single out that amazing ability a very few people have to make you feel welcome, wanted, loved, and appreciated, every time you meet them, even when you know you’re a nobody, and even when you have nothing to offer them in terms of this world’s perks. I can picture a few shining faces, always fixed on mine, so glad were they to see me and let me know so. They were(and are) the people who have made me feel like life was worth living, that there is a loving God, and that the world really is a beautiful place after all.

My next point is unavoidable. As I’ve considered these people prayerfully, I’ve had to ask my God why I’m not like them. Why am I not a nice person? I wish I were. I wish I could have that effect on people. I wish I could be warm, polite, kind and welcoming as a normal standard of being, rather than having to stretch to a minute or two of pleasantness before I lapse back into my normal modus operandi: being distant and preoccupied.  And as many professing Christians as I’ve met over the years, I must confess that the bulk of them have been, like me, in various stages of brokenness, selfishness, business, worldliness, and yes, sinfulness. We go to church (in normal times) in the hope of meeting people who are going to reflect the love of Jesus Christ, not realizing that everyone else is doing the same thing.

How many of us rise to the occasion?

The answer must lie in genuinely becoming Christ-like. I don’t mean a fleshly spirituality in which we think we’re just like Peter and Paul and can do all their magic tricks: I mean loving, selfless, warm, patient, faithful, godly behaviour as a way of life.

The few who achieve that level of walk with God in this life will be the ones to shine like stars for ever and ever.

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THE PARTY OF THE BEAST

Bible prophecy speaks of a future time when a political leader will emerge to world-wide influence, power and popularity, immediately before the return of Jesus Christ. There’s enough detail in Scripture to give us quite a clear picture of his character, his beliefs, his actions, and even his appearance.

Given that we can know to a large degree what this man will be like, and what he will do, and that he will be adored by all those who side with him, it seems logical that we can also project a character portrait of those who will help to propel him to power, and who will therefore share his views and opinions.

What kind of people will love him? Do we see such people at work in positions of power today, or at least, attempting to negotiate themselves into positions of power? Can we recognize any preparatory activity, or party prototypes? God doesn’t vote left or right, and there isn’t one party of the saved and one of the damned, but perhaps we can see some indication of who is most likely to follow the Beast and help him in his quest for power. Of the many indications we have, here are a few which are most relevant:

1/ He will fill a position of strength and extreme power, including military power which outmatches any other (Revelation 13:4; Daniel 7:7).

2/ He will think a lot of himself and will be very boastful (Daniel 7: 8 and 11). His boasting will extend to blaspheming God and God’s people (Daniel 7:25).

3/ He will work to “change set times and laws” (Daniel 7:25).  No doubt an entire book could be written on the meaning of this phrase, but briefly, it refers to rejecting the ways and natural laws God established for humanity, and which have guided people from the beginning. This would include natural marriage, family commitments, moral integrity, and a respect for life and property.

4/ He will be a “master of intrigue” (Daniel 8:23). “He will cause deceit to prosper” (Daniel 8:25). He will be a model for those who are deceitful. This is echoed throughout Bible prophecy-its a distinguishing feature.

4/ He will be helped by those who have become completely wicked (Daniel 8:23) . This is also echoed throughout Scripture. The question is, what does Scripture mean by wickedness? The answer is, to intentionally live life in disobedience to the ways of the Creator. Included in the list of wickedness which God will judge the world for is murder-a disregard for life- and immorality (Revelation 9:21).

5/ He will be a man of lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3). This doesn’t mean primarily that he will habitually break the laws of human government, although that may well be part of it-he will have no integrity in his dealings with others or those he leads. More directly it refers to the intentional turning from what we know to be true according to what our Creator has taught us, in Scripture and in our innate conscience and nature itself. Paul also informs us that his followers will “delight in wickedness” (verse 12). There will be no shame over the things they indulge in and teach others to do.

6/ He will be the ultimate globalist, as will his followers who will agree with everything he says (Revelation 13:7-8; Daniel 2:43).

7/ He will hate the nation of Israel, the nation which gave us Jesus Christ and the Judeo-Christian ethics which our civilization has been loosely based on (Matthew 24:15:22; Revelation 12:13-17). He will have a scheme to weaken and betray Israel (Daniel 9:27 with Matthew 24:15). The nations of the world, which will at that time be associated, will gather to attack Israel in an attempt to remove the Jews from Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:1-5). This ruler will be a hater of Judeo-Christian belief, history, religion and influence.

8/ He will hate and oppose Jesus Christ and Christ’s Church (Revelation 19:19; 13:7).

In summary, this man will be, perhaps quietly at first, a God-hater and a Church hater. He will oppose the nation of Israel and its  possession of Jerusalem. Being hostile to the Church and Israel, it’s likely that he will agree with those who blame all kinds of wrongs or perceived wrongs on the Church, and on Israel. He will also despise Western history which to a considerable degree has been shaped by these.

He will want to change ancient, natural and established ways of decency, righteousness and goodness, while promoting and supporting  immorality. He will be a globalist; the consummate controller of others via overbearing inter-national government. He will be arrogant and boastful. He will be incurably and shamelessly deceitful, accusing others of all kinds of things which he himself is guilty of. He will have a strong hand on all financial transactions (Revelation 13). He will take the reigns of a political entity which has awesome military power, which he will use. He will, of necessity, be backed by those who control and pass information onto the rest of us, i.e. news and information sources, or, if you like, “fake news”.

As time goes on, keep your eyes on such trends in government and on those who wish to govern us. Which party and which candidates in our political scene match up to the will of the Beast of Revelation?