Question: What does "abomination" mean?
Answer: There are five different words translated abomination in the Bible. The predominant meaning is, "to stink, to be loathsome, uncleanness" (Old Testament Word Studies by Wilson, pg. 3). The original words are expressive of the greatest disdain on the part of God. Let us see what is an abomination to God.
Witchcraft, adultery, and homosexuality. Divination, enchanter, or a witch, etc. are expressly called abomination (Deut. 18: 9 ff). Many of the practices of some of the Eastern Religions and of New Agers come under these headings. "Abominations" is applied to adultery in Leviticus 18: 17-27. Homosexuality is also included in the list, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination" (vs. 22).
Prayer of disobedient, dishonesty, and justifying the wicked and condemning the just. Proverbs 28: 9 states, "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination." The Book of Wisdom enunciates another general truth, "A false balance is abomination to the Lord…" (Prov. 11: 1). Those who justify the wicked and condemn the just, "…they both are abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 17: 15).
All sin is bad (I Jn. 3: 4, Isa. 59: 1, 2). Some sin, however, is suggestive of a greater degree of depravity and rebellion. We must remember God does not always see things as man does (Lk. 16: 14, 15). The foregoing references are often not appreciated today - "You are judgmental and too intolerant," we hear. However, God's word remains true, whether we like it or not! Man may laugh at the above, but such is a repulsive odor in the nostrils of God. More and more today, the "respectable clergy" is found justifying matters such as homosexuality and dishonesty. How sad and contrary to God's pronouncements!
Romans 1:24-28, "Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor 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. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature; And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient."
I did not write this. The Apostle Paul wrote this under the guidance of God's Holy Spirit. If you have a problem with these statements about homosexuality, talk to God about it. He is the one who has given you over to your perversion. Maybe He can save you from it
"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" N.K.J.V.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1 John 4:1 (New King James Version)
NEARLY HALF OF BRITISH MOSQUES ARE HARDLINE
Friday Church News Notes, September 14, 2007 - www.wayoflife.org - The following is excerpted from "Hardline Takeover of British Mosques Undefined," The Times, London, September 7, 2007: "Almost half of Britain's mosques are under the control of a hardline Islamic sect whose leading preacher loathes Western values and has called on Muslims to 'shed blood' for Allah, an investigation by The Times has found. Riyadh ul Haq, who supports armed jihad and preaches contempt for Jews, Christians and Hindus, is in line to become the spiritual leader of the Deobandi sect in Britain. The ultra-conservative movement, which gave birth to the Taleban in Afghanistan, now runs more than 600 of Britain's 1,350 mosques, according to a police report seen by The Times. The Times investigation casts serious doubts on government statements that foreign preachers are to blame for spreading the creed of radical Islam in Britain's mosques and its policy of encouraging the recruitment of more 'home-grown' preachers. Mr ul Haq, 36, was educated and trained at an Islamic seminary in Britain and is part of a new generation of British imams who share a similar radical agenda. He heaps scorn on any Muslims who say they are 'proud to be British' and argues that friendship with a Jew or a Christian makes 'a mockery of Allah's religion.' Seventeen of Britain's 26 Islamic seminaries are run by Deobandis and they produce 80 per cent of home-trained Muslim clerics."
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their own craftiness"; and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." 1 Corinthians 3:18-20. N.K.JV.
IT WILL NOT BE LONG NOW! WHEN CHRIST CRUCIFIED WORDS WILL BE TAKEN APART BY OUR IGNOBLE
ARCHBISOP THE UNREVEREND DR ROWAN WILLIAMS. ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. WHO WILL NOT SAY WHAT GOD HAS STATED, THAT SODOMISTS WHO COMMITT BUGERY ARE AN ABORTION TO OUR HOLY GOD.
Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.
2 Thessalonians 3:5 (New King James Version)
Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Jewish: multi-faith coronation for Charles
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones
Last Updated: 12:10am BST 24/09/2006
The coronation of the Prince of Wales will be a "multi-faith" event.
Prayers and readings from other denominations and religions, including from the Muslim, Sikh and Jewish faiths, are expected to be included in the ceremonies marking Prince Charles's accession to the throne.
Prince Charles
Prince Charles on a visit to a Sikh temple earlier this year
Canon John Hall, the Dean-elect of Westminster Abbey, said that the traditional Church of England coronation service must be revised to reflect society's changes since the Queen's coronation in 1953. As dean, he will be on the committee responsible for drawing up the service.
"The coronation service needs to find the right way of including people of other faiths," Canon Hall told The Sunday Telegraph. "It must be different in some ways because of the nature of society and how things have changed."
He said that the Church must be prepared to let other faiths play a role in the service. "We need to recognise the reality of religion at the heart of our national life. Rather than hold it possessively, it has become possible to help to create space for other religions within our national life. It is leading to inclusion and cohesion."
The proposed changes follow comments already made by Prince Charles, who has said that he wants to be "Defender of Faith" – not "Defender of the Faith" – when he succeeds to the throne.
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The Duke of Norfolk, in his role as Earl Marshal, has already begun overseeing a review of the ceremonies for the accession, and will consult with the dean over the coronation service.
Although at 80, the Queen remains in good health, preliminary discussions have already begun between the duke and Clarence House over possible alterations to the service, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. The Prince's office is conducting a parallel review of the accession ceremonies.
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has said that he thinks that the Queen may abdicate if she becomes seriously ill.
Canon Hall suggested that the revised service should follow an inclusive style similar to the Commonwealth Observance, a Church of England ceremony in which people from other denominations and faiths take part by saying prayers and sharing testimonies.
Alison Ruoff, a member of the General Synod, the church's parliament, voiced concern about the plans.
"We should not pander to political correctness," she said. "There is no way that other faiths should be involved in the service. This is a Christian country and so the coronation service must remain exclusively Christian and we should not apologise for that."
Canon Hall praised the prince's success in reaching out to "other communities" within our society and welcomed his desire to be "Defender of Faith".
The prince expressed his wish to be more inclusive in 1994, saying: "I believe that the Catholic subjects of the sovereign are as important [as Protestants], not to mention the Islamic, Hindu and Zoroastrian."
However, Canon Hall emphasised that the Church of England must remain at the heart of the coronation since the prince will be its Supreme Governor when he becomes king.
The crowning of the sovereign has taken place for almost 1,000 years at Westminster Abbey. The new king or queen takes the coronation oath, which includes a pledge to "maintain" the Church of England.
The Dean of Westminster's main role in a coronation service is assisting the Archbishop of Canterbury, which includes handing the archbishop the crown to put on the monarch's head.
As a Royal Peculiar church, like St George's Chapel at Windsor, Westminster Abbey falls under the direct jurisdiction of the Queen rather than that of a diocesan bishop.
In the past 10 years, the dean has conducted the funerals of the Queen Mother and Diana, Princess of Wales, and the service for the Queen's golden jubilee.
Canon Hall, who was the church's chief education officer, will be installed as Dean of Westminster in December and succeeds the Very Rev Wesley Carr, who left the post in February.
Canon Hall claimed that the Church of England still had a vital role to play in the life of the nation despite a continual decline in the number of its worshippers.
"Well over 50 per cent of the population see themselves as belonging to the Church of England. It's a sign of far greater adherence than is often suggested."
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
Isaiah 40:28 (New King James Version)
"GOD IS EVERYWHERE HE LIVES! THAT IS CREATION" DARWIN IS DEAD AND GONE! THAT IS EVELOTION!"
"The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8.N.K.J.V.
WHAT IS DEATH IN THE BIBLE?
Eccl 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they anymore a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
Eccl 9:6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more aportion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
Eccl 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither (where) thou goest.
Eccl 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Eccl 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Psa 6:5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Psa 49:12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.
Psa 49:14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have
dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
Psa 49:20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.
Psa 88:11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
Psa 88:12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
Psa 115:17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.
Psa 146:3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
Psa 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
Job 14:7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Job 14:8 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;
Job 14:9 Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.
Job 14:10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
Job 14:11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
Job 14:12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be
raised out of their sleep.
Job 14:13 O that Thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that Thou wouldest keep me secret, until Thy wrath be past, that Thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Job 14:15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee: Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands.
Job 17:11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
Job 17:12 They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
Job 17:13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
Job 17:14 I have said to corruption, thou art my father: to the worm, thou art my mother, and my sister.
Job 17:15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
Job 17:16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
Isa 38:18 For the grave cannot praise Thee, death can not celebrate Thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth.
Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 1 John 2:22 (N. K. J. V.)
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7 (New King James Version)
He said, "Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: 'Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's. ... You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!' Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you."
2 Chronicles 20:15,17 (New King James Version)
Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. Psalm 1:1-3 (New King James Version)
WHO WILL WEAR THE CROWN.?????
Claire Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home
Department what recent assessment she has made of alternatives to use of
the criminal justice system in reducing the incidence of begging and
vagrancy.
You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3 (New King James Version)
WHY ARE WE FIGHTING ON FOREIGN SHORES? WHEN THEY ARE ALREADY AMONGST US?
STATEMENT BELOW BY BRITISH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT! GOD HELP THE POOR.!
I KNOW YOU WILL FIND THIS MEMBER OF THE BRITIS PARLIMENT MORE THAN WELL FEED AND CLOTHED. ALSO DEFINATELY NOT HOMELESS.!
Does the Bible record the death of the apostles? How did each of the apostles die?
death apostles, apostles die
Question: "Does the Bible record the death of the apostles? How did each of the apostles die?"
Answer: The only apostle’s death the Bible records is James (Acts 12:2). King Herod had James put to death “with the sword,” likely a reference to beheading. The circumstances of the deaths of the other apostles can only be known based on church traditions, so we should not put too much weight on any of the other accounts. The most commonly accepted church tradition in regards to the death of an apostle is that the Apostle Peter was crucified upside-down on an x-shaped cross, in Rome, in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy (John 21:18). Following are the most popular “traditions” in regards to the deaths of the other apostles.
Matthew suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound. John faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to what is now modern-day Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.
James, the brother of Jesus (not officially an apostle), the leader of the church in Jerusalem, was thrown from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple (over a hundred feet down) when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a club. This was the same pinnacle Satan had shown Jesus during the temptation.
Bartholomew, also known as Nathanael, was a missionary to Asia. He witnessed in present-day Turkey and was martyred for his preaching in Armenia, being flayed to death by a whip. Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers, they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it." He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he died. The apostle Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church there. Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded. The apostle Paul was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero in Rome in A.D. 67. There are traditions regarding the other apostles as well, but none with any reliable historical or traditional support.
It is not so important how the apostles died. What is important is the fact that they were all willing to die for their faith. If Jesus had not been resurrected, the disciples would have known it. No one will die for something he knows is a lie. The fact that all of the apostles were willing to die horrible deaths, refusing to renounce their faith in Christ is tremendous evidence that they had truly witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The economic connection
Anderson's key point is that the current economic crisis affords us an opportunity to learn a vital lesson from the industrious nature of the ant, which is also the main point of the following scriptural passage in Proverbs.
"Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep—so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man" (Proverbs 6:6-11).
RELIGION IS NOT GODS WORD ! IT IS MANS FALSE INTERPRETATION OF THE TRUE WORD "JESUS THE CHRIST" IS THE TRUTH AND FULL OF LIGHT, CONTAINING NO DECEPTION AND FALSEHOODS.!
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15-17 (New King James Version)
HOW OLD IS THE EARTH?
By Bill Sizemore
February 20, 2009
NewsWithViews.com
Many Christians are under the impression that if you believe the Bible, then you must believe that the earth is 6,000 years old. But is this so?
Christians come to the 6,000 year conclusion, not based on something the Bible says about the age of the earth, but by tracking the biblical genealogies from Jesus back to Adam, which add up to about 4,000 years, and then adding in the 2,000 years from Christ until now.
From a biblical perspective, this approach tells us approximately how long man has been around, but as we shall see, it does not necessarily tell us how long the earth has been around.
Modern scientists, on the other hand, generally claim that the earth is more like five billion years old. They dismiss the 6,000 year claim as absurd, believing they have reams of conclusive evidence of a much older planet.
Scientists mock those “ignorant, Bible-thumping, fundamentalist Christians” and their 6,000 year doctrine, while Christians damn those “godless, atheistic, Bible-rejecting scientists,” who claim the earth is five billion years old.
With some trepidation, I toss my two cents into the fire. Here are the questions I will raise and attempt to answer:
(1) Is the real age of a material thing, if it was created supernaturally, what it appears to be? As we will see, the Bible answers this question.
(2) Is it possible to determine the age of any physical thing without first determining whether it was created in time or in eternity?
(3) Were the days of creation, which are described in the first chapter of Genesis, twenty-four hours long, or could they have been much longer?
(4) Is it possible to be truly scientific, if you reject the fact that the earth and its creatures were supernaturally created by God “ex nihilo” or out of nothing?
Let’s begin with this very real possibility: Christians are trying to defend a theory that the Bible may not teach. Biblical evidence for the claim that the earth is only six thousands years old is hardly conclusive.
The Bible opens with the well known passage, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…” and a little later it says, “and the evening and the morning were the first day.” In this brief passage of scripture we are told simply that God created the world. The passage doesn’t tell us how long God took to do that - only that He did it on the first day of creation, whatever “day” means in this passage.
This description doesn’t tell us whether time existed on day one, when God created the earth, or if time began later. It is at least possible that time did not yet exist. We know from many scriptures that God dwells in eternity, the ever present “now,” which at least makes it possible that “in the beginning” was before the creation of time or what we call the time/space continuum. We do know this about time: Time is a temporary thing and in the last book of the Bible God ends it.
Based on what we see happening later, it is unlikely that the first day of creation was a day as we use that term:
On the very first day of creation, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. We are not told what the source of that light was. It is important to note that it was not the sun.
Genesis says that on the first day, God separated the light from the darkness and called the light day and the darkness night. There was light on the first day, but there was not yet a sun. God did not make the sun and moon until the fourth day! (See Genesis 1:14-19.)
Let’s step back and look at this for a moment. It is generally believed that Moses wrote the Book of Genesis. Moses lived approximately 2,500 years after Adam was created. That’s a long time later. Obviously, the only thing the author of Genesis could have known about the first day of creation was what God told him.
The author of Genesis, knowing that the sun was not created until the fourth day, wrote that there was light on the first day. He obviously knew when he wrote this that the sun is what lights the day. That fact has been self-evident to all men at all times.
If the author of Genesis was merely making up the creation story and wanted to be credible, he would have said that the sun was created on the first day and provided light for the earth from then on. But he didn’t. He wrote what was he was told to write about the first day, even if he didn’t understand
The Bible doesn’t tell us the source of this pre-sun light. The most likely answer is God himself. The Bible teaches that God dwells in unapproachable light. The Bible also teaches that in the heavenly city, the Lamb (Jesus Christ) is the light of the city.
Another question that springs to mind is: If there was no sun on the first day, how do we know how long the first day lasted? For us, a day lasts 24 hours. That fact is based on the time it takes for the earth to rotate one time on its axis facing the sun. A year is based on the amount of time it takes for the earth to orbit the sun one time.
With no sun, there is no basis for knowing how long the first day lasted, or the second or the third. In fact, there is no basis for knowing how long it took God to do any of the things He did before the fourth day of creation. They could have happened instantaneously or gradually. There was no way to measure that.
The sun is the God-ordained instrument for measuring time on the earth. It must therefore be an open question whether time existed before the fourth day of creation. If it existed, there was no basis for measuring it.
Some Christian scholars insist that the days of creation were 24-hour days, because the Hebrew word translated “day” in Genesis 1:5 (before the creation of the sun) is the same Hebrew word used elsewhere in the Old Testament to mean a 24-hour day. This is not a very persuasive argument. Hebrew words are not always precise or specific. The meaning of a Hebrew word is often determined by its context. Also, there are several examples in scripture of the word translated “day” not meaning a 24-hour period.
Now, let’s look at the fourth day of creation. What God says about the reasons He created the sun is instructive.
Genesis 1:14: “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years…” The passage goes on to explain that one great light (the sun) would rule over the day and give light upon the earth and a lesser light would rule over the night. Notice that the sun was created on the fourth day, not just to provide light, but also to determine seasons and days and years or one might say, to determine time.
One would logically infer from this passage that if God created the sun to determine days and seasons and years, there was no way to tell days and seasons and years before that. If the sun was created to measure days and years, those days of creation mentioned before the creation of the sun could have been of any length or perhaps of no length at all.
As strange as it sounds, it’s possible that there was no “time” at all before God created the sun. When one is speaking of the great “I AM,” the “Ancient of Days” who dwells in eternity, one could argue either way. After all, time is for us, not for Him.
Now, nothing we have said thus far tells us that the earth is five billion years old, as scientists claim. In fact, even if carbon dating and other methods scientists use for estimating age were sound and reliable, which they are not, those employing those methods still could be entirely wrong in the conclusions they reach. Why? Because the earth may appear to be very old and yet not be. Such is the nature of supernaturally created things.
For example, when God formed the first man, Adam was a full grown adult, not a baby. When Adam was only one hour old, he had a fully formed adult body. That’s the way God made him.
If a doctor had given Adam a thorough examination one hour after God had made him, Adam would have appeared to have been a perfect specimen of a human male of perhaps twenty to twenty-five years of age. Scientific evidence would have informed the doctor of Adam’s age, the doctor would have been fully convinced of that age, but the scientific evidence would have led him to a false conclusion. Adam was still only one hour old.
When Jesus miraculously turned pots of water into wine, as is chronicled in the second chapter of the Gospel of John, the master of the feast concluded after tasting this brand new wine that the host of the feast had broken with tradition and saved the best wine for last.
Now, in order for this newly created wine to have been the best wine, it would have had to have been aged for some time, at least to fermentation. A scientific test of this new wine would have proved conclusively that it was older than it was, perhaps by several years. The tests would have been scientifically correct, but the conclusion reached would have been wrong. The wine was minutes old and yet had the physical characteristics of wine of an older age.
Things that have been created or made supernaturally are not subject to scientific tests to determine their age. Scientists may be able to “prove” to their satisfaction that created things are much older than they really are. However, created things exist simply because God spoke them into existence. No matter how old they may appear to be, their true age cannot be determined.
For this reason, scientists who deny the reality of creation lock themselves into a set of rules that are entirely inapplicable to created things. Their unbelief prevents true scientific enquiry into the nature of created things and makes them susceptible to convoluted, contrived, conclusions.
Furthermore, there are plenty of common sense reasons to call into question science’s five billion year theory. For example, at the current rate of measurable erosion the earth’s mountain ranges would be flat, if the earth were billions of years old. Slowly but steadily, wind, rain, ice, snow, and avalanches are eroding the mountains at a measureable rate that precludes an earth-age in the billions of years.
At the current rate at which the Mississippi River delta is forming, as silt flows down the muddy Mississippi to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi delta would reach all the way to Africa, if the earth was five billion years old.
Perhaps you recall when the first spacecraft landed safely on the moon? That first craft was equipped with large, round dishes for feet, so the craft would not sink into the thick lunar dust. Based on the five billion year theory, scientists concluded that the moon must be covered with lunar dust several feet deep.
When the craft landed, however, it was discovered that there was only a thin layer of dust, perhaps a few thousand years worth. This discovery flatly contradicted the five billion year theory upon which the craft had been designed.
Consider this: Modern scientists claim that dinosaurs walked the earth hundreds of millions of years ago, long before the first man. They state with “authority” that such and such a dinosaur lived at such and such a time in some far distant age. This may come as news to you, but credible archaeological evidence seriously undermines this widely accepted theory.
Modern man began discovering and identifying fossil remains of the major dinosaurs only two or three hundred years ago. Early paleontologists immediately began naming and cataloging these “terrible lizards.” They also created drawings of the various dinosaurs, guessing what they looked like based on their bone structure.
However, there are serious problems with the estimated age of dinosaur fossils.
There exist many examples across the world of 1,000 to 3,000 year old cave drawings, tapestries, and ornate stone engravings depicting scenes of dinosaurs and humans together. These artifacts predate modern man’s discovery of dinosaur fossils by thousands of years and yet show unmistakable depictions of many of the dinosaurs we know today, including stegosaurus, brontosaurus, triceratops, and tyrannosaurus rex.
The older drawings depict living creatures almost identical to those in the modern artwork, which is based on fossil remains. Some of these ancient artifacts show men fighting dinosaurs and even men being eaten by dinosaurs.
Also, the Book of Job, believed to be the oldest book in the Bible, contains a detailed, rather fascinating description of a living creature that appears to be a very large dinosaur. The description is not presented in Job as mythical or fictitious, but as that of a real, living creature.
As for the enormous size of some dinosaur fossils, consider this: In the days prior to the Flood of Noah, we are told that several men lived to be more than 900 years old. If we apply that same kind of lifespan to reptiles, imagine how large and heavy some of those predeluvian creatures would have been. Unlike mammals, reptiles continue to grow during their entire lifespan.
You probably didn’t see this on a major television network, but in 2005 a fossilized bone of a T-rex was discovered to have soft tissue still inside it. This shocking discovery challenges everything scientists thought they knew about the age of dinosaur fossils. The finding of real soft tissue from a real dinosaur clearly suggests the T-rex bone was not nearly as old as formerly believed.
There is even a fossilized footprint of a human with a dinosaur footprint on top of the man’s print, clearly demonstrating that at some time in history a dinosaur stepped on a man’s footprint.
More often than not, modern scientists knowingly place themselves at odds with what the Bible says about the origins of the earth and the beginnings of life. Rather than exploring God’s creation to unlock the mysteries He has hidden there, as scientific pioneers such as Sir Isaac Newton did a few hundred years ago, scientists today often interpret the data they gather so as to disprove obvious realities about God, realities that the Bible says are “clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” Creation displays the awesome power of God as well as His infinite intelligence and creativity. Creation is the starting point of all true science.
In Summary, there is probably no way to know the age of the earth. As we have seen, there are plenty of reasons to doubt the five billion year theory. If dinosaurs and man walked the earth at the same time, as credible evidence suggests, then everything science tells us about geological ages collapses.
Along this same line, certain sciences routinely employ a type of circular logic to prove questionable points, such as basing the age of geological layers on the fossils found in those layers and basing the age of fossils on the geological layers in which they are found, which taken as a whole proves absolutely nothing.
On the other hand, the so-called Christian theory that the earth is only 6,000 years old seems unnecessarily restrictive. I would accept the 6,000 year doctrine in a heartbeat, if the Bible taught it, but I don’t think it does. If the sun, which God created to measure years and days, was not created until the fourth day of creation, then the actual length of the earlier days of creation is simply not known, which tells us the earth could be older than 6,000 years, perhaps by a lot.
And if God created the earth in eternity and not in time, and if time itself did not begin until the sun was created on the fourth day, then all discussion of age prior to that time is meaningless.
Also, as if to throw a curve ball into the entire discussion, the Apostle Peter wrote almost two thousand years ago that a day with God is as a thousand years and a thousand years are as one day. If the apostle meant that literally, those days of creation could have lasted a thousand years each, making the earth more like twelve thousand years old. If on the other hand, the Apostle used “a thousand years” simply to mean “a great quantity,” which is often the case in scripture, then the question remains wide open.
Frankly, I don’t lose sleep over the age of the earth. It’s an interesting topic for discussion, but what God demands of us regarding the earth is that we acknowledge that this planet and all its living creatures were brought into existence by Him, by his spoken Word. Those who reject that fundamental truth, no matter what title or degree they hold, are not really scientists at all. © 2009 Bill Sizemore - All Rights Reserved
THE ABOVE PICTURES ARE SIMPLY A SNAP SHOT OF THE WAY GODS WORLD IS HEADING FOR DISASTER. THIS IS DUE TO MANKIND BELIEVING NO LONGER IN GOD OUR FATHER AND JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR.
Impossible to Overcome or Defeat: Not Capable of Being Conquered or Vanquished : Incapable of Being Surmounted or Excelled: An Unconquerable Spirit. Jesus The Christ:
"The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’" Psalm 14:1; 53:1
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. 1 Peter 5:6 (King James Version)
DARWIN'S NO CREATION ? NO GOD ?
GOD ALMIGHTY'S CREATION
Genesis 1
The History of Creation
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was[a] on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” 7 Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.” 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all[b] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Footnotes:
Genesis 1:2 Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.
Genesis 1:26 Syriac reads all the wild animals of.
There are twelve events in the Biblical account of creation that science has confirmed are correct and in the correct order. As a mathematician I ask myself, what are the chances of just guessing the correct order.
Here are the events:
1. Light separated from darkness
2. Creation of the earth covered in water
3. The separation of the dry land from the seas
4 - 6. The creation of plants in a particular order - grasses, shrubs and fruit bearing trees
7. The placing of the heavenly bodies in relationship to the earth (this is often explained as the clearing of the atmosphere enough to see these creations)
8-11 The creation of animal life in a particular order - fish, birds, land animals, live stock
12. The creation of man
Think of the problem like this. Take a deck of cards. Keep just one suit -let's say hearts. Toss out the ace. Hand the remaining twelve cards to a one year old child. Ask him/her to hand you the cards one at a time. In order. What are the chances said toddler will start with the two and give them all to you in order right up to the king? It's a basic probability question (no, come back! forget I said anything about math.) I'll just tell you the answer. It's one chance in 479,001,600. (If you want the formula it's below) In other words Moses had less than one chance in 479 million of just correctly guessing.
Now compare this to other creation stories or myths. Many of these have remnants of the true creation story in place. Most leave out the hard and fast details found in Genesis. Many don't even come close to actual events or the order of actual events.
What's the simplest explanation? Moses actually just did guess it correctly? The ancients knew a lot more about science and the origins of the earth than their records show? Or Moses got it straight from the creator of the universe during one of his "face to face" talks with God (Exodus 33:11) or from information handed down to him from ancient prophets?
The simplest explanation is Moses got it straight from the creator.
Formula:
The chance of getting the first card correct is 1 in 12. If you get that correct you have eleven cards left. The chance of getting the next card correct is 1 in 11. What are the chances of getting the first and second cards correct? It's 1 in 12 times 1 in 11 or 1 in (12 times 11) or 1 in 132. So the answer for getting all twelve in order is 1 in 12*11*10*9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1 or 1 in 479,001,600.
Margaret S. Agard, is a Bible history enthusiast and contributor to the Amazing Bible History Timeline with World History. Her website at http://agards-bible-timeline.com offers free access to the entire 6000 years of Biblical and World history; Bible history articles and answers to the most asked Bible and world history questions.
When Constantine saw the cross of the crucified Christ in the sun, the world changed. Christianity immediately changed from cult status to the official religion of the now Holy Roman Empire. The Roman armies now had God on their side as they conquered and subdued the peaceful polytheistic and pagan societies that were no match for the Roman war machine.
Then the Roman Empire collapsed. Or did it? Some believe that the Roman Empire lives on, even today. They maintained their intentions of taking over the world. But something changed when he converted to Christianity on his deathbed. The tactics of Roman conquest changed from taking over with military might and brute force, to taking over societies from the inside out. When the Holy Roman Empire abandoned its military machine, and took up the cross, it transformed itself into the Roman Catholic Church.
Instead of threatening countries from military invasions that could take years to plan and implement, they now head an ultimate weapon that could be used immediately, and the effects would be felt for all eternity.
Excommunication.
By asserting that it was the only path to heaven, an assertion it still claims to this very day, the Roman Catholic church held incredible power over millions. The Vicar of Christ, could, without ever leaving his quarters, could speak Ex-Cathedra, and doom entire civilizations.
Indeed, this is exactly what happened to England in 1538, as the Pope Paul III decided, many agree for purely political reasons, to cut off the everlasting glory of heaven to an entire nation of people. People just like you and me who struggle every day to get their needs met and do the right thing, to take care of themselves and the people that they love. Such is the power that one holds who claims sovereignty over the very keys of heaven.
Spanning two thousand years from the savage jungles of South America to the mean streets of Los Angeles, Zapotec is a novel that is taking the world by storm. Girls are being murdered in a secret religious ceremony of the Zapotec tribe, thought kept secret by the Catholic Church for hundreds of years. The Zapotec tribe was all but wiped out by the conquering Spaniards. But did a secret sect survive? What does the Church know, and why do they want it kept secret?
Because people can readily think of ways to enjoy those insights from this, you will likely enjoy George Hutton's widely read Zapotec. One of the reasons many like you are starting to quickly discover that Zapotec may easily be one of the most gripping novels to come out in a long time is the incredible hidden truth. Many find that as you start reading, you quickly become engrossed, and can't stop until you experience the breathtaking climax. You can learn more, and find out what others are saying when you visit
The New World Disorder: Where Is It Taking Us?
Why does the world seem to be crumbling into chaos? Can we restrain the forces of anarchy? Is it possible to right the course of our severely straying civilization and solve our problems? Sadly, we seem to have no comprehension of the unseen spiritual forces arrayed against us, and we either reject or ignore the God who offers the only viable solutions to the enormous problems afflicting our troubled age.
by John Ross Schroeder
The tragedies afflicting this war-torn world multiply with every passing year. As I write, one headline in The Times of London is "The Hidden Massacre," noting that "20,000 civilians were killed in Sri Lanka's final assault on [the] Tamil Tigers" (May 29, 2009). The article goes on to state that actual casualties are triple the official figure, the deaths caused by indiscriminate shelling of a heavily populated refugee area.
The Times' front-page cover article and two pages of text and photos reveal the horrendous facts unearthed by investigative journalists. The article went on to say that "Sri Lanka was cleared of any wrongdoing by the UN Human Rights Control Council." An accompanying article explained that "support for this deeply flawed resolution came from the usual suspects—China, Russia, India, Pakistan and a clutch of Asian and Islamic nations determined to prevent the council ever investigating human rights violations in their own or any country."
Such horrors should make us think: Where is this world headed? Where are we in the biblical time frame of prophetic events? Just what's going on?
The New World Disorder: Where Is It Taking Us?Our world on the precipice
Today's secular prophets—knowledgeable, right-thinking authors and journalists —are sounding the alarm.
Author and educator James Martin, founder of the Institute for Science and Civilization at the University of Oxford, soberly warns us: "At the start of the 21st century, humankind finds itself on a non-sustainable course—a course that unless it is changed will lead to catastrophes of awesome consequences. This could be humanity's last century, or could be the century in which civilization sets sail towards a far more spectacular future" (The Meaning of the 21st Century, 2007, preface).
The choices and options of humanity are narrowing sharply. Intelligent observers of the world scene recognize that we must alter our ways soon or face eking out a bare existence in a shattered and disordered world. Either we are fast running out of time or we may have already passed the dreaded point of no return.
Current affairs author and historian Robert Harvey previously articulated his own stark warning: "Unless action is taken as the warm glow of sunset on the twentieth century is replaced by the pale light of dawn on the twenty-first, we will gaze towards the same horizon of global horrors as our great-grandfathers, this time through a nuclear haze. The world is a much more dangerous place than it has been for nearly half a century" (Global Disorder, 2003, p. xxxii).
Czech patriot and former President Vaclav Havel has stated that "cultural conflicts are increasing and are more dangerous today than at any time in history" (quoted by Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, 1997, p. 28).
Hopeful euphoria proves to be only illusion
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the subsequent breakup of the Soviet Union and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, world leaders like American President George H.W. Bush (1988-1992) spoke hopefully of a "new world order." The accompanying euphoria in the media closely resembled a similar atmosphere that followed in the wake of World War I (1914-1918)—supposedly "the war to end all wars."
The noted philosopher and author Frances Fukuyama labeled the previous bad history of humankind "the end of history"—with humanity presumably poised to transition into a liberal utopia. The United Nations, many thought, would finally assume its rightful place in the world, with its peacekeeping and peacemaking dominating a new age of harmony among nations.
But all this euphoria soon proved to be based on a deceptive illusion! If indeed this period was a brief window of opportunity during which humankind could have installed a new world order, it soon passed into history without any observable positive actions in that direction. Instead, what the world would soon see were horrendous terrorist tragedies like 9/11, the severe weakening of governmental authority, and a growing intensity of religious, tribal and ethnic conflict—exacerbated by radical Islamic ambitions.
The late Harvard professor and political analyst Samuel Huntington (1927-2008) summed up some of our ever-increasing problems rather well just over a decade ago in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order:
"The West's victory in the Cold War has produced not triumph, but exhaustion. The West is increasingly concerned with its internal problems and needs, as it confronts slow economic progress [now a severe world recession], stagnating populations [disturbingly low birth rates among Caucasians], unemployment, huge governmental deficits, a declining work ethic, low savings rates, and in many countries including the United States social disintegration, drugs, and crime" (p. 82).
How accurately prophetic this brief summary turned out to be. And how much worse the world has become since these sobering words were written!
But as the popular saying goes, "You ain't seen nothing yet." After describing chaotic world conditions to occur in the time of the end—which sound disturbingly like those we are beginning to see all around us—Jesus Christ said, "All these are the beginning of sorrows" (Matthew 24:8, emphasis added throughout).
The news we wish would go away
The comments above reflect only an overall summary. The specifics are stark and scary.
Consider the current recession. The previously exalted symbol of U.S. capitalism, the giant automaker General Motors (GM)—at its peak responsible for a 10th of the national economy—promises nine weeks of total manufacturing shutdown this summer with a number of plants probably never reopening. Its humbling bankruptcy move, which involves shedding some 21,000 jobs and 2,600 auto dealerships, has cast shadows over the American economy.
The federal government is to take a 60-percent ownership stake in the company. As some have noted tongue-in-cheek, now GM stands for "Government Motors"! Is the United States fast becoming a socialist country?
Chrysler, America's third-largest carmaker, had earlier suffered the indignity of having to declare itself bankrupt. Almost 800 dealerships face closure. Ford perilously hangs on, largely because it's in a better cash position than the other two. Detroit is quickly becoming an economic wasteland.
Ruinous government deficits plague both the U.S. federal government and many of the individual states. California alone struggles with a massive $21.3 billion deficit gap between revenues and spending. The gold rush appears to be over in the Golden State.
At the federal level, President Obama's budget deficit levels reach into the $2 trillion range—four times as great as the largest deficits under the George W. Bush administration. Huge inflation and/or unwanted tax increases wait ominously on the horizon. We have forgotten the biblical proverb telling us that "the borrower is servant to the lender" (Proverbs 22:7). At some point the day of reckoning must come.
Troubling news from overseas
What about the news from abroad? The Times stated on May 28, 2009, that "North Korea announced yesterday that it was abandoning the armistice that ended the Korean War 56 years ago [in 1953], and threatened war if there were any attempts to search its ships for weapons of mass destruction."
The recent underground test of a Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapon, the restarting of a reactor to produce nuclear material, the test-firing of new missile designs, threats of a thousand-fold military retaliation if provoked—what's next for this rogue state? Obviously North Korea has been raising the stakes, explicitly so by its threatening war with South Korea. The North's army stands at 950,000 compared with the South's 420,000. Whether in men or armaments, South Korea's inferior numbers cut across all categories.
No wonder the famous American World War II hero General Douglas MacArthur wanted, during the Korean War, to deal with North Korea once and for all—being willing for his nation to pay the inevitable price in negative world opinion. Men of lesser stature settled for a stalemate—the division of the country into the two Koreas along the 38th parallel. Now, after a half-century of tensions, we could be back at square one.
Longtime British journalist and author Max Hastings is known for telling it as he sees it. His headline in the May 28 Daily Mail reads: "North Korea's ruler may be mad. But his threats expose the impotence of America and the amorality of the Chinese."
This veteran journalist goes on to highlight the sad truths that most of North Korea's 23 million people "live on the brink of starvation" and "almost half its pitful national income is squandered on the armed forces and nuclear programme." The People's Republic of China remains in a much better position to restrain North Korea but doesn't. China has its own ends in mind.
The North's national leader, Kim Jong Il, rivals Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe as a ruthless dictator who cares little about the welfare of his own people, willing to let them starve so he can maintain power. "Like a roaring lion and a charging bear is a wicked ruler over poor people," Proverbs 28:15 tells us.
Hastings continued with his most telling point: "The very fact that he [Kim Jong Il] feels able to rattle his sabre at all speaks volumes about the shifting global order and in particular about the shrunken authority of the U.S. and her allies."
What's behind the West's general decline?
Back in the mid-1960s, political theorist James Burnham wrote a book titled Suicide of the West. He began by noting that between the years 1900 and 1960 the West lost considerable ground both in territory and population in comparison to the rest of the world. Burnham sought to understand why.
His conclusions are no surprise for those who truly understand the Bible: "The contraction of the West cannot be explained by any lack of economic resources or of military and political power ... We must therefore conclude that the primary causes of the contraction of the West [which continues in the 21st century] ... have been internal and non-quantitative: involving either structural changes or intellectual, moral and spiritual factors ... in one way or another ... 'the will to survive'" (1964, pp. 22-24).
With these comments we are getting somewhere. "Moral and spiritual factors" imply belief in God and a set of standards such as the Ten Commandments. Loss of belief in a divine Creator combined with situation ethics has played a big role in the declining influence and authority of the United States, Britain and other nations in the Western world.
Our free booklet Is There Really a Devil? shows how far these root causes reach back into the past: "Starting several centuries ago, and prompted by the theories of men such as Charles Darwin—who fabricated a way to explain creation without the Creator—many people began directly challenging the authority and inspiration of the Bible. They began to ridicule, as a mere myth and superstition, the existence of a spirit world, long accepted without question by those who believed the Bible.
"In the world's leading universities skeptics challenged the validity and accuracy of the Bible, and scientific reasoning ... became the order of the day. Generations of leaders were taught to discard anything that could not be measured by scientific methods" (2001, p. 10).
Having cast away the revelation found in God's Word, people cast away the knowledge that sheds so much light on the current tragic state of our world.
The Bible reveals the existence of a spirit world wherein hundreds of millions of righteous angels honor and serve God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ (Revelation 5:11). However, not all of the angels God created remained righteous. God's Word indicates that a third of them chose to follow the archdeceiver Satan the devil in a rebellion against their Creator (Revelation 12:4). Our free booklet Is There Really a Devil? explains the story of the angelic world.
The zeitgeist afflicting mankind
The book of Revelation, written by the apostle John, contains one of the most pivotal passages in the Bible. Revelation 12:9 tells us, "That serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, ... deceives the whole world."
Stop a moment and think about this one single verse. It tells us that the vast majority of the inhabitants of this world are out of step with God. Most people believe things that are simply not true. They are taken in by false and lying philosophies of all kinds.
Another biblical passage also penned by John expresses this same basic spiritual deception: "We know that we [true Christians] are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one" (1 John 5:19).
Many blame other human beings for their problems. Nations tend to blame other nations. But true Christians know that "we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits . . ." (Ephesians 6:12, New Living Translation).
It was stated at the beginning of this article that the human race as a whole has no real comprehension of the spiritual forces arrayed against it. That was speaking principally of the invisible demonic realm that has power to influence the minds of human beings to first contemplate and then commit acts of supreme folly.
A word sometimes used to describe the intellectual, moral and cultural climate of an era is zeitgeist, which literally means "the spirit of the time." Most fail to realize that the real source behind the spirit of the time of almost all of human history, the basic attitude of the age, remains the unseen demonic realm headed by Satan the devil, "the god of this age" (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Zeitgeist is a German term, and Central Europe will be at the heart of one of the greatest deceptions ever to afflict humankind. A new superpower will emerge there from the geographic area where part of the old Roman Empire was located.
Both the Old Testament book of Daniel and the New Testament book of Revelation describe a final revival of the Roman Empire (the fourth great geopolitical power described by Daniel) headed by two charismatic individuals whom the Bible calls "the Beast" (its political leader) and "the False Prophet" (its religious leader).
Speaking of people at the time of the end of this age, God's Word tells us that "they worshiped the dragon [Satan] who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?'" (Revelation 13:4).
Such is the amazing extent of this deception that the world's inhabitants will actually worship the devil and his chief human instrument, who blasphemes God (verse 6). But so complete is this satanic deception, backed up by misleading signs and wonders (verses 13-14), that the vast majority will have no inkling of what's really happening to their world.
Even today most people are simply not interested in God's warnings from the pages of the Bible. When awesome events demand urgent action, when frightening world conditions require the soberest contemplation and the deepest introspection, the many millions doze.
Take a quick look at a magazine newsstand sometime. Most periodicals are either trashy or simply a waste of valuable time. You often search in vain for something worthwhile to read. Today's massive obsession with the lives of celebrities, people who often drift from one meaningless experience into another, defies sound reasoning.
Human beings cannot rescue themselves
This article has quoted a number of secular sources from books and newspapers. Most were written by individuals who've studied world trends for many years, and their contributions to human understanding should be deeply appreciated. Yet most of them think that if they could just get world leaders to follow their particular recommendations, things would turn out all right in the end.
Wisdom from a deeply respected American founding father will tell us otherwise. After their presidential terms ended, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson carried on a lengthy correspondence until both died on the same day, July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. In a letter dated July 9, 1813, Adams told Jefferson:
"While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a stand[still]; little better understood; little better practiced now, than three or four thousand years ago. What is the reason? I say, parties and factions will not suffer, or permit[,] improvements to be made.
"As soon as one man hints at an improvement, his rival opposes it. No sooner has one party discovered or invented an amelioration of the condition of man, or the order of society, than the opposite party belies it, misconstrues it, misrepresents it, ridicules it, insults it, and persecutes it" (quoted by Norman Cousins, In God We Trust, 1958, p. 231).
This is the Achilles' heel of democratic government—rife with party spirit and strife. Adversarial opposition parties focus mainly on attaining high office rather than helping those in power rule wisely.
Imperfect human governments (including multistate organizations like the United Nations and the European Union) are not going to get a handle on this disordered world's megaproblems. A new president will not change the direction the United States is headed. A change of administration will not halt the nation's seemingly irreversible decline in morals and character.
Only the coming of a divine government, God's government, can overcome human imperfections and misjudgments. The Bible tells us this will bring "the times of restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21). Then, and only then, shall we have the good government that humanity has always longed for. No other solution will work.
Only God can rescue humankind by sending Jesus Christ back to earth to save us from the chaos we have created. He will restore right government. Revelation 11:15 proclaims a wonderful announcement that will be declared throughout the earth at that time: "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" GN
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE CREATED THE HEAVEN & EARTH ? DARWIN'S EVELOUTION THEORY ? BIG BANG ?
OR GOD ALMIGHTY ? THINK ! NOTHING EVER CAME FROM NOTHING ! CREATION CAME FROM GOD.!
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Revelation 1:8 (K. J. V)
"God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change
His mind. Does He speak and then not act ? Does He promise and not fulfil."
Numbers.23 : 19. N.K.J.V.
"I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other." Isaiah 45:5-6 (New King James Version)
FOR ALL PEOPLES WHO TRULY BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER & CHRIST JESUS HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.! IT IS TRUE.!
"Lets go across to those heathen Philistines", Jonathan said to his armour bearer, "Perhaps the Lord will do a miracle for us. For it makes no difference to Him how many enemy troops there are!" "Do all that you have in mind", his armour bearer said, "Go ahead, I am with you heart and soul".
1 Samuel 14:6-7, NIV
This is the story of the bravery of Jonathan and his armour bearer. His armour bearer was only a youth. He was fully submitted, loyal and obedient to Jonathan, even to the point of risking his own life.
Saul did a poor job as king, because of fear, and he seemed to have no communication with his Son, Jonathan. Saul's weak leadership was a result of his spiritual decline. Effective leadership needs spiritual character.
Why did Jonathan go it alone? Maybe he was fed up with the long hopeless procrastination of his father. Jonathan knew God was a miracle-working God, even if the enemy powerfully outnumbered the two of them. They put their trust in God alone. God honoured their faith and gave them a tremendous victory.
Do you sometimes feel surrounded by overwhelming odds with the enemy looking all powerful? We can learn from Jonathan today to commit what resources we do have to God, to rely totally upon Him and He will surely give us the victory.
With God on our side we are always in 'the majority'. But notice God did not initiate this event. Jonathan had a plan and his number two agreed to go with him. They killed 20 Philistines and panic struck the whole army of the Philistines and the ground shook. The Philistines were confused and started killing each other in their panic. God provided the miracle following Jonathan's steps of faith.
Is God calling you to step out in faith? If you are truly being obedient to His voice, then as you walk forward today and initiate the action, God will bring the blessing and the victory.
Prayer: Dear Lord, please help me to have the faith to believe for the miracles and the victories that You have for me in my life. Give me the courage to get started by moving forward first. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Stepping Out in Faith - The Beginning of Miracles
You must remember we are in a spiritual war for our minds and lives! We see only the physical and miss the spiritual dimension of this struggle. "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:11-12).
-- STANDING ON THE EDGE OF ETERNITY! -- Bible Prophecy and You!
The Apocalypse - The Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, is the point at which all the prophecies of the ages converge and find their ultimate fulfillment. Within its pages are specific details concerning The Good News of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth, the establishment of His Millenial kingdom, and finally, the eternal state of both the saved and the lost. Other books of the Bible also contain important prophecies relevant to these exciting last days in which we live.
The word "revelation" comes from the Greek "apokalupsis" meaning "an uncovering or unveiling." For this reason, the Book of Revelation is also known as the Apocalypse. In either case, the definition reflects the fact that God has made known to mankind those eternal, supernatural truths and realities which man, on his own, could never realize or discover.
The Apocalypse - The Book of Revelation is the final work of the New Testament and the Revelation of Jesus Christ which details world history from the time of the apostle John (the early Church Age) to eternity. It constitutes God's description of future facts and events.
Current international events reflect exactly the conditions and happenings predicted throughout the Bible for "The Last Days" of this age. Remember that this special message has been given to reveal God's truth, not conceal it; and to clarify God's eternal purpose, not mystify it. Millions need to be alerted to the fact that Jesus is coming soon-perhaps this very day!
We all need to be ready and:
"Looking for that Blessed Hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13).
May you truly come to know Him and the power of His resurrection!
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2 (King James Version).
THE BIBLICAL DESCRIPTION OF HELL
A place of weeping and gnashing of teeth - "And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 25:30).
A place of outer darkness - "Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 22:13).
A place of torments - "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom" (Luke 16:23).
A place of Sorrows - "The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;" (2 Samuel 22:6).
A place of everlasting destruction - "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;" (II Thessalonians 1:9).
A place where men are tormented with fire and brimstone - "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8).
A place where fire is not quenched - "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:44).
A bottomless pit - "And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit" (Revelation 9:2).
A place of no rest - "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name" (Revelation 14:11).
It is ultimately a lake of fire - "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death" (Revelation 20:14).
A place of hopeless of unsatisfied desires - "And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame " (Luke 16:24). The rich man wanted water but could not get any.
A place of hopelessness and suffering - as a woman is about to give birth to a child, many go through painful labor that can last from a few minutes to a few days. But through this painful anguishing time, there is hope that when the child is born this terrible labor pain will subside. Just imagine if you can if that pain was multiplied many times over and you would never have hope of it ever going away forever? You would do anything to die to get rid of the pain, but it would always remain and continue forever and ever and ever. THIS IS HELL!
A place of memory - When a person is tormented with a bitter memory they sometimes may commit suicide as a way out. In hell this is impossible because your spirit will never die, but will always remember how you sold your soul for the pleasures of this short sinful life. You will continue to always wish you were in heaven instead of hell, if only you would have made the right decision.
Oh man or woman, boy or girl without Christ, if only you would realize how dangerously close you are to hell. With each second that passes by, you are drawing nearer and nearer to hell. Actually this night your soul may be required of you and will pass into an eternity of the fires of hell that are never quenched!
Oh how completely the opposite is the Christian who knows the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They are living for Him now and wait with expedient hope of His return or when they will also get to pass into eternity and experience the complete glorious bliss called heaven.
Why do most people give up heaven for hell?
A). Is it because they don't want to change their lives and live for their creator who is really the only one worthy of living for? Is it because they want to live for themselves their own way until their hearts are content? Those who live this way believe that this will give them happiness. But sadly, they are giving up heaven for not only hell, but failures, despair, and some times of what some would call hell on earth. This kind of living will never "fill the void" or will never bring "fulfillment", but will always amount in a longing for more out of life. As a person lives for themselves they become selfish. This selfishness brings forth sin, and sin only produces death and destruction.
By rejecting Christ, people are really giving up a heaven on earth. The void is completely filled with the only one that can fill it. Jesus Christ is the only one who brings true purpose and meaning to lives, not material items. A hope of eternal life with Christ the Savior fulfills and is all the heart truly needs.
Jerusalem's Old City at risk in earthquake
Ancient walls rest on layers of debris, not solid rock
Image: Jerusalem
About half a dozen major earthquakes have hit Jerusalem over the last thousand years. Some Israeli scientists have warned that another major earthquake appears likely to hit in the next 50 years.
Oded Balilty
JERUSALEM - The Bible tells of earthquakes splitting open the hills of this holy city with apocalyptic fury, adding to the mayhem of battles and punctuating Jesus' crucifixion.
Now, a geological survey says the heart of biblical narrative, Jerusalem's walled Old City, would be among the worst hit parts of the city in the event of another earthquake because it rests on layers of debris, not solid rock.
A natural disaster in the Old City could also bring devastating political aftershocks because it is the fiery heart of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
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The three-year study, conducted by the Geological Survey of Israel and released this week, found that the Old City is more at risk than modern neighborhoods because of its ancient construction and the underground layers of shifting debris left behind by ransacking armies, said Amos Bein, the center's director.
"The layer below is not made of solid rock, but rather a kind of rubble," Bein said. Those weak foundations could magnify an earthquake's seismic wave, he said.
Researchers used computers to map Jerusalem's topography, geology, soil and the Old City's subterranean labyrinth of cisterns and tunnels.
Most at risk, the report says, is the Old City and the 11-acre elevated plaza housing two major mosques, including the gold-capped Dome of the Rock.
The site is known to Muslims as the Al Aqsa Mosque compound and to Jews as the Temple Mount — once home to the biblical Temples. Jews pray at one of the compound's outer walls, a remnant of the Temple complex — the Western Wall.
The report urges Jerusalem's municipal planners to identify and reinforce weak structures.
About half a dozen major earthquakes have hit the city over the last thousand years, Bein said, and archaeologists have found evidence of the damage. The last big earthquake in the area was in 1927, when a magnitude 6.3 quake centered near Jericho, about 15 miles to the east of Jerusalem, killed more than 200 people.
It rumbled through Jerusalem's holy places and may have been to blame for cracks in the southwestern corner of the mosque compound's outer wall, which some researchers have warned is in danger of collapse.
That earthquake also damaged Christianity's holiest place, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built around a boulder believed to be the skull-shaped mount on which Christ was crucified and buried.
Some Israeli scientists have warned that another major earthquake appears likely to strike the Holy Land in the next 50 years.
The Great Rift Valley runs for 3,000 miles between Syria and Mozambique and passes through the Dead Sea, below Jerusalem's eastern hills. The fault line was caused by the separation of African and Eurasian tectonic plates 35 million years ago, a split that weakened the Earth's crust.
About 35 miles to the north, another fault line cuts the land east to west from the Mediterranean port of Haifa with the West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus before reaching the Jordan River.
"This is a very active area which may produce a large earthquake once in a while," Bein said.
Two weeks ago, a small 3.7 magnitude earthquake was measured in the Dead Sea region but caused no damage.
The Bible recounts a number of earthquakes here. Some scholars reckon a quake may have been behind the shower of brimstone and fire that engulfed Sodom and Gomorrah.
Just after Jesus succumbed on a wooden cross, "the earth shook and the rocks were split," inspiring awe and faith in the Roman centurion and other onlookers who "saw the earthquake" (Matthew 27:51-54).
"With God's will, anything could happen," Bein said.
Question: "Why did Jesus curse the fig tree?"
Answer: The account of Jesus cursing the barren fig tree is found in two different Gospel accounts. First it is seen in Matthew 21:18-22, and then also in Mark 11:12-14. While there are slight differences between the two accounts, they are easily reconciled by studying the passages. Like all Scripture, the key to understanding this passage comes from understanding the context in which it happened. In order to properly understand this passage, we must first look at the chronological and geographical setting. For example when did this occur, what was the setting, and where did it happen? Also, in order to fully understand this passage, we need to have an understanding of the importance of the fig tree as it relates to the nation of Israel, and understand how the fig tree is often used in the Scriptures to symbolically represent Israel. Finally, we must have a basic understanding of the fig tree itself, its growing seasons, etc.
First, in looking at the general chronological setting of the passage, we see that it happened during the week before His crucifixion. Jesus had entered Jerusalem a day earlier amidst the praise and worship of the Jewish people who were looking to Him as the King/Messiah who was going to deliver them from Roman occupation (Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11). Now, the next day, Jesus is again on His way to Jerusalem from where He was staying in Bethany. On His way, both Matthew and Mark record that He was hungry and saw a fig tree in the distance that had leaves on it (Mark 11:13). Upon coming to the tree expecting to find something to eat Jesus instead discovered that the fig tree had no fruit on it and cursed the tree saying, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” (Matthew 21:19; Mark 11:14). Matthew records the cursing and the withering of the fig tree all in one account and includes it after the account of Jesus cleansing the Temple of the moneychangers. Mark explains that it actually took place over two days with Jesus cursing the fig tree the first day on the way to cleanse the Temple, and the disciples seeing the tree withered on the second day when they were again going to Jerusalem from Bethany (Mark 11:12-14 and Mark 11:19-20). Of course upon seeing the tree “withered from the roots up,” the disciples were amazed as that would have normally taken several weeks.
Having reviewed the general chronological setting of the story, we can begin to answer some of many questions that are often asked of it. First of all is the question: Why did Jesus curse the fig tree if it was not the right season for figs? The answer to this question can be determined by studying the characteristics of fig trees. By doing that we learn that the fruit of the fig tree generally appears before the leaves and because the fruit is green it sort of blends in with the leaves right up until it is almost ripe. Therefore, when Jesus and His disciples saw from a distance that the tree had leaves, they would have expected it to also have fruit on it even though it was earlier in the season than what would be normal for a fig tree to be bearing fruit. Also, from studying about the way fig trees grow in Israel we learn that each tree would often produce two to three crops of figs each season. There would be an early crop in the spring followed by one or two later crops. In some parts of the area, depending on climate and conditions, it was also possible that a tree might produce fruit ten out of twelve months. This also explains why Jesus and His disciples would be looking for fruit on the fig tree even if it was not in the main growing season. The fact that the tree already had leaves on it even though it was at a higher elevation around Jerusalem, and therefore would have been outside of the normal season for figs, would have seemed to be a good indication that there would also be fruit on it.
As to what the significance of this passage is and what it means, the answer to that is again found in the chronological setting and in understanding how a fig tree is often used symbolically to represent Israel in the Scriptures. First of all, chronologically, Jesus had just arrived at Jerusalem amidst great fanfare and great expectations, but then proceeds to cleanse the Temple and curse the barren fig tree. Both had important significance as to the spiritual condition of Israel. With His cleansing of the Temple and His criticism of the worship that was going on there (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17), Jesus was effectively denouncing Israel’s worship of God. With the cursing of the fig tree He was symbolically denouncing Israel as a nation and in a sense even denouncing unfruitful “Christians.” (That is people who profess to be Christian but have no evidence of a relationship with Christ).
The presence of a fruitful fig tree was considered to be a symbol of blessing and prosperity for the nation of Israel. Likewise, the absence or death of a fig tree would symbolize judgment and rejection. Symbolically, the fig tree represented the spiritual deadness of Israel, who while very religious outwardly with all the sacrifices and ceremonies, were spiritually barren because of their sins. By cleansing the Temple and cursing the fig tree, causing it to whither and die, Jesus was pronouncing His coming judgment of Israel and demonstrating His power to carry it out. It also teaches the principle that religious profession and observance is not enough to guarantee salvation, unless there is the fruit of genuine salvation evidence in the life of the person. James would later echo this truth when he wrote that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). The lesson of the fig tree is that we should bear spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23), not just give an appearance of religiosity. God judges fruitlessness, and expects that those who have a relationship with Him will “bear much fruit” (John 15:5-8).
THE PHILISTINE STORY IN PART.
Philistines , inhabitants of Philistia, a non-Semitic people who came to Palestine from the Aegean (probably Crete), in the 12th cent. BC Their control of iron supplies and their tight political organization of cities made them a rival of the people of Israel for centuries. Philistine has come to mean an uncultured, materialistic person. Philistines , inhabitants of Philistia, a non-Semitic people who came to Palestine from the Aegean (probably Crete), in the 12th cent. BC Their control of iron supplies and their tight political organization of cities made them a rival of the people of Israel for centuries. Philistine has come to mean an uncultured, materialistic person.
Our Palestinian Cousins started the '48 war, and in so doing released the warlike appetites of a nation of survivors, a people with no place to run, who had repressed their rage for millennia, and had now earned full title to it!
