The Bible's Buried Secrets, a 'new' documentary by William G. Dever, an American archaeologist, specializing in the history of Israel and the Near East in Biblical times, claims that the Bible is nothing more than a collaboration of mythical proportions, a story littered with historical facts embellished beyond reality. "It challenges the Bible's stories if you want to read them literally, and that will disturb many people," says Dever, "But it explains how and why these stories ever came to be told in the first place, and how and why they were written down."
Carol Meyers, a professor at Duke University who specializes in Biblical archaeology, and who contributes to the documentary, supports Dever's position "...Those [stories] were ways to communicate power, to communicate control, to communicate sovereignty. So as the Israelites are struggling with their own lives and with the sense that they have a God among other gods -- there are other gods out there, but they think their God is the best God. And one of the ways to prove that my God is better than your God is to show that my God is more powerful than your God.
"I understand that some believers won’t like what the PBS program has to say and I can even understand that they would rather not be presented with any evidence that might shake their faith." Daniel DiRito opinions in his blog, PBS, Politics, Patriotism, & The Primordial Patriarch ,", "However, I’ve always understood that true faith should be able to withstand challenge."
Such a statement is devastating in its accuracy. The True faith has withstood challenge for centuries. And only those who don't know how to articulate their faith stand shaken by such outrageous claims as those by Dever and Meyers.
The PBS special explores, through archaeological and biblical scholarship of such worthies as Dever, provocative declarations concerning the ancient Israelites’ adoption of monotheism and seeks to explain who wrote the Hebrew Bible and what influenced them. Dever and his colleagues make claims to Israelite beliefs; God had a wife, and the Bible cannot be literally read.
"I am not reading the Bible as Scripture… I am in fact not even a theist. My view all along—and especially in the recent books," Dever offers,"—is first that the biblical narratives are indeed 'stories,' often fictional and almost always propagandistic, but that here and there they contain some valid historical information."
"The Bible is essentially a religious history. Even those who wrote the Bible made it clear it was not a secular history, even though secular events are referred to." is most biblical theologians' view on the text. "It is a book about God and his relationship with man."
In the post-Reformation era, when the Bible began to be translated into several languages, erasing the illiteracy common in the Middle Ages and bringing individual ability to read and ponder the Scriptural texts, it became the one and only textbook on ancient history. It was regarded as the unerring Word of God.
The great 'sagas' of the Bible were approved as true and accurate, beyond any doubt, until the 'Enlightenment' of the 17th and 18th centuries, when human reason and scientific exploration were placed in the forefront and a frontal attack began on the Scriptural text of the Christian movement.
Professor Dever holds that the bible is a product of the Persian or even Hellenistic periods, composed at the very earliest after 500 BC, and therefore unreliable as a record of earlier periods.
It is not what is not already found in both the archaeological and historical arenas that such 'noted' personages claim are at the heart of a 'historical and scientific' reasoning behind the 'mythical fiction' of the Biblical text that frightens those who would disprove such as a reliable source of ancient histories, it is what is unknown. That uncertainty, coupled with the historically provable facts and archaeological discoveries of the last century, would cause those who seek truth to draw on startling conclusion:
We are the product of a God to whom we owe every fiber of our being, allegiance, and loyalty.
Gone are the superiority of the human species above all other things. Gone is the ability of mankind to make their own way in the universe, shaping and discarding as they march resolutely through the cosmos. Gone is the shady reasoning behind the universal question as to WHY?
Even if we isolate the attempt to show the validity and authority of the Biblical text to just the archaeological discoveries, ignoring the historical weaving of mankind throughout the text and the accuracy of the historical proofs of such items as prophecies and worldviews that were against the commonly held views of the time, we find startling logic staring us in the face.
Of some 5,000 known sites of archaeological significance in Palestine alone, only about 350 have been excavated. Furthermore, only about 2 percent of these sites have been extensively excavated. At that level of excavation, the entire Bible hold a remarkable accuracy compared to the unearthed finds.
The biblical accounts of locations, events, and other archeologically proven facts often is accurately pinpointed in the modern landscape.
Not even secular archaeology can boast such accuracy in human story of events we traditionally view as cultural history, events known through eyewitness accounts to have happened.
Whereas the scholars born of the 'Enlightenment" period doubted the existence of empires, population groups, and even the central characters portrayed in the Biblical text, the mounting evidence is forcing more and more skeptics to recant earlier positions.
Many archaeologists because of a scarcity of evidence, outside of the biblical record, even doubted the Israelites were ever captives in the land of Egypt. "Not one historical reference to the presence of the Israelites has yet been found there" (Magnus Magnusson, Archaeology of the Bible, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1977, p. 43). Thirteen years later, proof forced a recanting.
Proof such as that found at Karnak, site of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes; depicting the pharaoh Merenptah warring with Israel, "the oldest known visual portrayal of Israelites" (Frank Yurco, "3,200-Year-Old Picture of Israelites Found in Egypt," Biblical Archaeology Review, September-October 1990, p. 22).
The "Israel Stele", discovered in 1896 by Sir Flinders Petrie, contains "the earliest known mention of Israel…" intertwines biblical and Egyptian history with boastful inscriptions of battles with Israel and other nations. It dates from 1207 B.C.
Dibon, mentioned in Numbers 33:45, has been claimed by some 'noted' experts to have nothing beyond the ninth century B.C. in the archaeological remains and thus throw into doubt the entire biblical journey of Israel's departure from Egypt. Now, in light of recent discoveries, such 'firmly committed' scholarship has been forced to reevaluate their positions, with the discovery of Ramesses II itinerary confirmed with Egyptian evidence that shows he "sacked the city in the course of a military campaign in Moab" during the time of the Exodus. (Charles R. Krahmalkov, "Exodus Itinerary Confirmed by Egyptian Evidence," Biblical Archaeology Review, September-October 1994, p. 58).
Another such impossible existence, the city of Hebron, mentioned in Joshua 10:36 as a major point in the conquest of Canaan, has been since recanted with newly discovered and documented archaeological finds. An Egyptian map lists, ordered by Ramesses II, shows a list of cities carved on a temple wall in Amon, listing Hebron as a city in the Egyptian world. (Biblical Archaeology Review, September-October 1994, p. 60).
Not only such finds support various 'non-existent' cities, but places named in the account of the Exodus are found in Egyptian records, such as the river Kishon where the Israelite army under Deborah and Barak defeated a superior force.(Judges 5:19-21).
Historically proven people, such as Ponitius Pilate, Herod the Great, Augustus, Sergius, Paullus, Gallio, Felix, Festus, and even Herod Agrippa I and II, mentioned in the biblical accounts, such as the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, are written to a degree that shows the accuracy and knowledge of the author that scholars once used to cast doubt upon the historicity.
"One of the most remarkable tokens of (Luke's) accuracy is his sure familiarity with the proper titles of all the notable persons who are mentioned..," F.F. Bruce shows such examples," . . . Cyprus, for example, which was an imperial province until 22 BC, became a senatorial province in that year, and was therefore governed no longer by an imperial legate but by a proconsul. And so, when Paul and Barnabas arrived in Cyprus about AD 47, it was the proconsul Sergius Paullus whom they met . . ." (F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 1973, p. 82).
The inscription on the Moabite Stone provides nonbiblical confirmation that king Mesha of the Moabites, mentioned in 2 Kings 3:4-27, as an actual historical character.
The Black Obelisk provides a record of the payment of tribute to the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III by Jehu, king of the Israelites (2 Kings 9-10; 2 Chron. 22:7-9).
The Babylonian Chronicle attests to the historicity of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his conquest of Jerusalem as recorded in 2 Kings 25.
Over 100 ostraca (inscribed potsherds) inscribed in paleo-Hebrew script were found in the citadel of Arad, the largest collection of inscriptions from biblical times, contain dates and several names of places in the Negev, including Be'er Sheva and the priestly families Pashur and Meremoth, both mentioned in the Bible. (Jeremiah 20:1; Ezra 8:33)
Even U.S. News has summarized exciting new archeological evidence that confirms the historicity of the Bible.
Kenneth Kitchen, University of London Egyptologist points to documents discovered in Syria that confirm the amount of money Joseph's brothers received when they sold him into slavery. The rate at the 'liberal' declaration of the time of the writing was far more and Kitchen points out that the writers would have logically used the standard of the day. This allows that the timeline written in the Bible is accurate, for the rate was much less than it was at the proported time of writing.
Archeologists have discovered the remains of a crucified man, a contemporary of Jesus, buried in a family grave, as described in the gospels, which disproves declarations of historical inaccuracy that the Romans historically didn't allow such burials. It also confirms the style of crucifixtion.
There are a number of other ancient inscriptions that have provided valuable insights into biblical history, among these the Gezar Calendar, the Samaria Ostraca, the Siloam Inscription, the Lachish Letters, and numerous Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions, that show non-biblical proof of events and people written in the text. (Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, ed. James B. Pritchard, 2nd ed., Princeton: Princeton University, 1955, pp. 320-24; 3rd ed., 1969, pp. 653-62.)
Time after time scholars have had to backtrack from earlier statements as additional archaeological evidence came to light. Yet, the noted scholar and expert in Israel, Dever, has committed much the same proof of unreliability of the current non-biblical bias with this latest 'series' of NOVA 'documentaries' which are nothing more than speculations of those who seek to disprove the proven.
"Archaeological silence is [a] problem." Noted skeptic Farrell Till claims. Yet, much of what Till claims shows the ability to cast doubt upon the accuracy and authority of the Biblical accounts is proven time and time again to be a failing of the human experience to expand beyond what is immediately known and reach for the unknown, to stretch beyond the 'known'.
But absence of proof is not proof of absence, only a lack of time to find such proof. Until 1993 there was no proof of the existence of King David or even of Israel as a nation prior to Solomon, and then in 1993 proof of King David's existence outside the Bible in an ancient mound called Tel Dan, where words carved into a chunk of basalt were translated as "House of David" and "King of Israel."
Even Hershel Shanks, the editor of the magazine Biblical Archaeology Review is critical of "belief in the inerrancy of the Bible."
These 'new' biblical archaeologists come to the digs with "geologists, paleobotanists, zoologists, anthropologists, soil scientists, climatologists, etc." and apparently evolutionists. (Hamid Abu Duruk, "Archaeology Thriving in Saudi Arabia," Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 21, No. 2, March/April 1995, p. 73.)
And together, it is less understanding what the evidence presents as rendering interpretations of what is to be told.
These interpretations, much like their counterparts in evolutionary theory, are flawed by the natural subjection of whatever presuppositions they have in regards to what is found and it is less archaeology than humanistic depiciton of man's past, present and future.
James K. Hoffmier, a professor at Wheaton College, claims that, in truth, most biblical archaeologists are enemies of the bible, "The result of their scholarly investigations has been that virtually all that the Bible has to say about the early history of Israel has been rejected . . . Gone are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua and now even David. The Egyptian sojourn and exodus stories, along with Sinai wanderings and Joshua's military entry into Canaan, have been reduced to retrojections or inventions by later Biblical writers." (James K. Hoffmier, "Of Minimalists and Maximalists," Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 21, No. 2, March/April 1995, p. 22.)
Abraham didn't exist, according to the new biblical archaeologists and historians, and even if he did, he didn't live in Palestine but in Arabia. But finds in the field of archaeology have Abraham's name in Babylonia as a personal name at the very period of the patriarchs of the Old Testament. This wouldn't exist if he was a fictitious character who was redacted back by the later Israelites. The field of Abram in Hebron, mentioned in the Bible, is mentioned in 918 B.C., by the Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt (possibly actually Ramases II).
The temple at Karnak has Abraham's name in the accounts of Ramases II's battles and this squarely places such a patriarch in Palestine, where the Bible places him, not Arabia as is contended by Muslims. The Beni Hasan Tomb from the Abrahamic period, depicts Asiatics coming to Egypt during a famine, corresponding with the Biblical account we often refer to as "Joseph's story".
The Smithsonian Department of Anthropology remarks, "Much of the Bible, in particular the historical books of the old testament, are as accurate historical documents as any that we have from antiquity and are in fact more accurate than many of the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, or Greek histories."
Frank E. Gaebelein, author and general editor of The Expositor's Bible Commentary, made a comment in 1979 that remains true in the 'search for archaeological proofs' in that "the attitude of suspended judgment toward Bible difficulties . . . is constantly being vindicated, as archaeology has solved one Biblical problem after another, and as painstaking re-examination of discrepancies has finally led to answers" (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1979, Vol. 1. p. 31).
Nelson Glueck, a Jewish Reformed scholar and archaeologist, has concluded, "No archaeological discovery has ever been made that contradicts or controverts historical statements in Scripture".
So what is the link between new archaeology and new hermeneutics? It exists only to promote the liberal theology, as expressed by James A. Sanders;
I think that it is time for us to stop fooling the people, making them think that there is just one Bible and that our Bible committee got closer to it than their committee did. . . . Must we continue to pretend that only our group is right denominationally and others are not right, and it is just too bad about others? . . . The Hebrew text is still in the process of standardization, but I wonder if it would not be proper for there to be an effort afoot to provide our people with the differences where they exist and let them see that there have been differences all along. I have been told by some that that would just destroy the Bible because lay folk still want to think of the Bible as somehow "inerrant." (James A. Sanders, "Understanding the Development of the Biblical Text," The Dead Sea Scrolls After Forty Years, pp. 70-71.)
Much like the evolutionary cause, this is just another attempt to reclaim man's pursuit of Godhood, by any means possible. And it can only be done if we, as a species, prove that there is no God.
The river in Egypt just isn't a river......it's a state.
of De-Nile.
Showing posts with label Creation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creation. Show all posts
Thursday, July 31
Monday, June 16
Father's Day
"I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you." Psalm 32:8 WEB
Father's Day is over, passing into the annuals of time with the ticking of the clock from 11:59pm to begin Monday morning at 12:00am. My kids had already left to start their summer 'schedule' with their mother, a shift from daily living with dear old Dad everyday but alternate weekends to spending about six weekends with Dad. This is a major leap for me, trusting in the Heavenly Father to take care of my two little ones who aren't so little anymore while they are away from me. Plus, the simple fact that they are away from me. But, God put it on my heart that this summer the kids should spend max time with their mother ---not so He can work on me (there's never a time He doesn't stop working on this mess) but so that He can work on them and through them, their mother.
She already started attending our church, SoulQuest, after years and years of asking. And she continues on a semi-regular basis to do so.
Dorothy Sayers, the mystery writer and apologist featured in the Christianity Today newsletter this Monday morning said, "Man is never truly himself except when he is actively creating something." And then, I came upon this verse as I was looking for the "instruct your children in the way" verse that is so often quoted on Father's Day. It seemed to me that the two had so much in common, a theme that escapes us in the hurried pace of life.
Our heavenly Father always teaches us, with adjustments to our style and choices, creating within us a work that defies evolutionary theory that we came from goo.
And we, fathers of the blessings that God gave us in the form of our children, create the people who stand firm in their faith or run away at the first disagreement. We only seem to recall that verse I stopped looking for, that we only have to 'instruct them on the way to go and they'll never stray.' Then, with dumbfounded amazement, we wonder why they are either running away from the church or laying claim to a 'new' method of 'Christian' thought.
We forget to create within our children the ability and the reasoning to examine what they themselves take in to their world and their faith. We teach them some milky food and expect that our job is done. We disciple, as fathers, in love but forget that the disciplines of the past can harm when they develop beyond those 'punishments' and start claiming their authority as men and daughters of the Most High God.
But isn't that the way of our Father, to instruct us and keep an eye on what we do with what was taught? To see if we understand, if we grow beyond a constant prodding to do our Father's will? And, as we come into the authority as children of God, doesn't He become more and more visible to us, more complex? But, He never takes His eyes off of us even though we may have mastered the ability to walk a long time ago.
My son made me a copy of his footprints, now so big compared to that copy that was imprinted upon the birth certificate when he came into this world some eleven years ago. In between the two colorfully scribbled crayon filled footprints was a poem that I was hardpressed to not tear up over. I don't know who wrote it, but they've captured the responsibility and the joy:
Walk a little slower, Daddy
said a child so small.
I'm following in your footsteps,
and I don't want to fall.
Sometimes your steps are very fast
Sometimes they're hard to see,
So walk a little slower, Daddy.
For you are leading me.
Someday when I'm all grown up,
You're what I want to be.
Then I will have a little child,
who will want to follow me.
And I would want to lead just right,
and know that I was true.
So walk a little slower Daddy,
For I must follow you.
It is the words that haunt a father throughout the childhood of a young child, that awesome and awe-inspiring responsibility; this responsibility to the future....not only to the child, but that child's child. And each person that they come into contact with, that they love and cherish, and they mold. And it is something that men have failed in a big way to do; mentor, shape, and grow a generation of god-led men.
We get caught up in life, we fail to realize the design plan God has for men, we are shaped by the men before us, and we pass the generational failure onto our own children to repeat. We need to slow down, realizing that the path we have set with our footprints is a trail blazing for our children to follow. And we need to make sure that those footprints, even if they take us in a wrong direction, are highly visible....if for nothing else, to warn our children away from that path.
My daughter, such a scary mirror-image of my personality, also gave me her hand-made gift for Father's Day. As I told someone later at church, the best gifts were the handmade ones, so much more than the 'greatest dad' shirt that I wore all weekend. (It said right on the t-shirt....weekend t-shirt! Honest!). They are the treasures I cherish, especially in these latter days of their childhood experience.
"These are my fingerprints, tiny and small.
To place in your Books
Winter, Spring, Summer,
and Fall.
They are here to remind you
the whole year through
that, you're the Best Dad,
And....
I love you!
"Man is never truly himself except when he is actively creating something." That is what we are doing with our children, creating a future today.
Let this be a constant reminder of the life-changing and molding of a young life entrusted into our care and a reminder of the joy that remains
in the hugs and kisses of a young child who loves the man God made.......
Another day as a father, another blessing as their Dad...........
That is what I truly hope I'll never lose the ability to be............
Father's Day is over, passing into the annuals of time with the ticking of the clock from 11:59pm to begin Monday morning at 12:00am. My kids had already left to start their summer 'schedule' with their mother, a shift from daily living with dear old Dad everyday but alternate weekends to spending about six weekends with Dad. This is a major leap for me, trusting in the Heavenly Father to take care of my two little ones who aren't so little anymore while they are away from me. Plus, the simple fact that they are away from me. But, God put it on my heart that this summer the kids should spend max time with their mother ---not so He can work on me (there's never a time He doesn't stop working on this mess) but so that He can work on them and through them, their mother.
She already started attending our church, SoulQuest, after years and years of asking. And she continues on a semi-regular basis to do so.
Dorothy Sayers, the mystery writer and apologist featured in the Christianity Today newsletter this Monday morning said, "Man is never truly himself except when he is actively creating something." And then, I came upon this verse as I was looking for the "instruct your children in the way" verse that is so often quoted on Father's Day. It seemed to me that the two had so much in common, a theme that escapes us in the hurried pace of life.
Our heavenly Father always teaches us, with adjustments to our style and choices, creating within us a work that defies evolutionary theory that we came from goo.
And we, fathers of the blessings that God gave us in the form of our children, create the people who stand firm in their faith or run away at the first disagreement. We only seem to recall that verse I stopped looking for, that we only have to 'instruct them on the way to go and they'll never stray.' Then, with dumbfounded amazement, we wonder why they are either running away from the church or laying claim to a 'new' method of 'Christian' thought.
We forget to create within our children the ability and the reasoning to examine what they themselves take in to their world and their faith. We teach them some milky food and expect that our job is done. We disciple, as fathers, in love but forget that the disciplines of the past can harm when they develop beyond those 'punishments' and start claiming their authority as men and daughters of the Most High God.
But isn't that the way of our Father, to instruct us and keep an eye on what we do with what was taught? To see if we understand, if we grow beyond a constant prodding to do our Father's will? And, as we come into the authority as children of God, doesn't He become more and more visible to us, more complex? But, He never takes His eyes off of us even though we may have mastered the ability to walk a long time ago.
My son made me a copy of his footprints, now so big compared to that copy that was imprinted upon the birth certificate when he came into this world some eleven years ago. In between the two colorfully scribbled crayon filled footprints was a poem that I was hardpressed to not tear up over. I don't know who wrote it, but they've captured the responsibility and the joy:
Walk a little slower, Daddy
said a child so small.
I'm following in your footsteps,
and I don't want to fall.
Sometimes your steps are very fast
Sometimes they're hard to see,
So walk a little slower, Daddy.
For you are leading me.
Someday when I'm all grown up,
You're what I want to be.
Then I will have a little child,
who will want to follow me.
And I would want to lead just right,
and know that I was true.
So walk a little slower Daddy,
For I must follow you.
It is the words that haunt a father throughout the childhood of a young child, that awesome and awe-inspiring responsibility; this responsibility to the future....not only to the child, but that child's child. And each person that they come into contact with, that they love and cherish, and they mold. And it is something that men have failed in a big way to do; mentor, shape, and grow a generation of god-led men.
We get caught up in life, we fail to realize the design plan God has for men, we are shaped by the men before us, and we pass the generational failure onto our own children to repeat. We need to slow down, realizing that the path we have set with our footprints is a trail blazing for our children to follow. And we need to make sure that those footprints, even if they take us in a wrong direction, are highly visible....if for nothing else, to warn our children away from that path.
My daughter, such a scary mirror-image of my personality, also gave me her hand-made gift for Father's Day. As I told someone later at church, the best gifts were the handmade ones, so much more than the 'greatest dad' shirt that I wore all weekend. (It said right on the t-shirt....weekend t-shirt! Honest!). They are the treasures I cherish, especially in these latter days of their childhood experience.
"These are my fingerprints, tiny and small.
To place in your Books
Winter, Spring, Summer,
and Fall.
They are here to remind you
the whole year through
that, you're the Best Dad,
And....
I love you!
"Man is never truly himself except when he is actively creating something." That is what we are doing with our children, creating a future today.
Let this be a constant reminder of the life-changing and molding of a young life entrusted into our care and a reminder of the joy that remains
in the hugs and kisses of a young child who loves the man God made.......
Another day as a father, another blessing as their Dad...........
That is what I truly hope I'll never lose the ability to be............
Wednesday, April 9
The secret of stability
Worthy Ministry of George, Rivka, Elianna, and Obadiah devotion.
Isaiah 33:6 "And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure."
Have you ever felt uneasy, unsettled or unstable? Or maybe a better question is -- who hasn’t? How do we overcome these feelings? This is what George Muller wrote in His diary on May 9, 1841:
"Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed...by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart."
The word faith in Hebrew is “emunah” (em-oo-nah). But interestingly, in our Hebrew Bible, the word stability in the verse above is written “emunah”! Faith and stability are linked one to another. How do we become more stable and settled despite the circumstances surrounding our lives? By gaining faith! "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
When we search for wisdom and knowledge in His word, we become more stable in our walk! Let’s aim to spend more time in the Word and gain more stability in our lives.
Your family in the Lord with much agape love,
George, Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah
Turbulence has been a hallmark of my times lately; family, friends, church, finances, and even the direction of the Call have all undergone vast and disturbing changes often without my input or regard for my comfort. And yet, I have been 'content', if not downright 'at peace' during the worse of the raging seas. About the only thing that hasn't been affected is my writing, although I don't know what (if any) benefit the few readers I have as regulars are getting from it. But, God has put it on my heart to write what I experience or feel comes from Him and His word, so I'll continue until the moment that changes.
When I set out on this journey over four years ago now; to serve God in the capacity that He has shown me and developed me to, I have spent a majority of my time disturbed. Faced with the desire to know God, live according to His decrees, and do so in the way that He has shown me to do has me constantly uneasy, uncomfortable, and undone. Looking into the past, of who I was that was the root of who I had become prior to God's calling me into the shelter of His loving and grace-filled arms, forced me to look at the disparity of the man God designed me to be and the duality of society's definition coupled with my own developed sense of self.
I fell to my knees, but that wasn't low enough the more I have approached God in relationship. I've fell to my hands and knees, but still the weight of God's glory and holiness were still heavy upon my heart. And I finally found the 'eat carpet' position, where I've tried to defy the laws of matter and become part of the carpet, but still I can feel God's holiness and authority upon my soul. I have cried out in anguish about the heaviness of a relationship with such a glorious and honorable God.
And God showed me that it is not myself that has enabled me to live in relationship with Him, although it is a designed purpose of humanity to be in relationship with God. It isn't my good deeds, helping those who are in need; being a good friend; serving others that has enabled such a beneficial relationship (for me) to exist. It isn't even my faith that has given me a right to declare myself a child of God.
And it is not me who gives me the grace to live in a world that is broken and fractured. A world that has as its' greatest hope that all Christians disappear where they no longer bring such utterance of Truth to the ears of those who thirst for it. No. It isn't me who can live in relationship to God.
It's all part of God's gift of salvation. It's all part of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It's all the growth and the knowledge imparted of the Holy Spirit that gives me the ability to live under the shadow of my King's glory and belong.
And if He gives me all that, what's a little measly bit of contentment, of peace, in these storms that threaten to tear my world apart? How can the forces of the Evil One trump the mighty hand of the Creator? How can I not help but think that, despite the financial crisis, the relational disconnections, and the failures, that God will make perfect His will for me in all of this? I can't, and it was when I realized that that I was able to embrace the peace despite the raging winds.
It's all part of the gift He started so long ago; redemption, restoration, and re-creation.
Why are most of us too foolish to realize a peace that defies the times?
"My peace I leave with you, My peace I give you."
Perfect peace from a perfect man who is God.
Isaiah 33:6 "And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure."
Have you ever felt uneasy, unsettled or unstable? Or maybe a better question is -- who hasn’t? How do we overcome these feelings? This is what George Muller wrote in His diary on May 9, 1841:
"Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed...by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart."
The word faith in Hebrew is “emunah” (em-oo-nah). But interestingly, in our Hebrew Bible, the word stability in the verse above is written “emunah”! Faith and stability are linked one to another. How do we become more stable and settled despite the circumstances surrounding our lives? By gaining faith! "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
When we search for wisdom and knowledge in His word, we become more stable in our walk! Let’s aim to spend more time in the Word and gain more stability in our lives.
Your family in the Lord with much agape love,
George, Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah
Turbulence has been a hallmark of my times lately; family, friends, church, finances, and even the direction of the Call have all undergone vast and disturbing changes often without my input or regard for my comfort. And yet, I have been 'content', if not downright 'at peace' during the worse of the raging seas. About the only thing that hasn't been affected is my writing, although I don't know what (if any) benefit the few readers I have as regulars are getting from it. But, God has put it on my heart to write what I experience or feel comes from Him and His word, so I'll continue until the moment that changes.
When I set out on this journey over four years ago now; to serve God in the capacity that He has shown me and developed me to, I have spent a majority of my time disturbed. Faced with the desire to know God, live according to His decrees, and do so in the way that He has shown me to do has me constantly uneasy, uncomfortable, and undone. Looking into the past, of who I was that was the root of who I had become prior to God's calling me into the shelter of His loving and grace-filled arms, forced me to look at the disparity of the man God designed me to be and the duality of society's definition coupled with my own developed sense of self.
I fell to my knees, but that wasn't low enough the more I have approached God in relationship. I've fell to my hands and knees, but still the weight of God's glory and holiness were still heavy upon my heart. And I finally found the 'eat carpet' position, where I've tried to defy the laws of matter and become part of the carpet, but still I can feel God's holiness and authority upon my soul. I have cried out in anguish about the heaviness of a relationship with such a glorious and honorable God.
And God showed me that it is not myself that has enabled me to live in relationship with Him, although it is a designed purpose of humanity to be in relationship with God. It isn't my good deeds, helping those who are in need; being a good friend; serving others that has enabled such a beneficial relationship (for me) to exist. It isn't even my faith that has given me a right to declare myself a child of God.
And it is not me who gives me the grace to live in a world that is broken and fractured. A world that has as its' greatest hope that all Christians disappear where they no longer bring such utterance of Truth to the ears of those who thirst for it. No. It isn't me who can live in relationship to God.
It's all part of God's gift of salvation. It's all part of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It's all the growth and the knowledge imparted of the Holy Spirit that gives me the ability to live under the shadow of my King's glory and belong.
And if He gives me all that, what's a little measly bit of contentment, of peace, in these storms that threaten to tear my world apart? How can the forces of the Evil One trump the mighty hand of the Creator? How can I not help but think that, despite the financial crisis, the relational disconnections, and the failures, that God will make perfect His will for me in all of this? I can't, and it was when I realized that that I was able to embrace the peace despite the raging winds.
It's all part of the gift He started so long ago; redemption, restoration, and re-creation.
Why are most of us too foolish to realize a peace that defies the times?
"My peace I leave with you, My peace I give you."
Perfect peace from a perfect man who is God.
Tuesday, April 8
You have to first choose a intelligent design or a goo-to-zoo-to-you no design approach.
You don't have to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob to believe that there is intelligent design to the universe, ourselves, and everything else. Though I believe that is the eventual ending, it is not the first tier of our argument of a god (intelligent designer). The identity of the god we find is a second, deeper level of the argument.
Let's assume that we are taking the first tier of the argument; whether or not there is a god and leaving the discussion of who the identity of this God is for another tier. Most atheists want to be given naturalistic evidence of a supernatural being, so we will look at the natural world for such evidence.
Comprehend, if you can, the possibility of complex information not only coming into being out of a random explosion but also the fact this complex massive world of logical information 'ordered' itself into the chemical-based, mathematical, cosmological, planetary, and biological systems that exists in the microscopic levels of everything; whether man-made or otherwise. I don't say, 'if you can', but use that as a point to show that we are too limited in our knowledge to do so. Biochemists and mathematicians have shown that the odds of this coming from a non-life 'universe' to evolve naturally at random into the complex life that exists all around us in the natural world. So, if it is astronomically improbability that life came randomly to exist naturally, where did it come from?
You place the concept of an 'intelligent designer' being at the helm of this process and you find the arguments fitting neatly into a box that something/someone created life with its' complexities. The sheer amount of information encoded into each living thing, at the molecular level and even subatomic level, run thousands upon thousands of irreducibly complex organisms that cannot exist without the preexistence of the other parts that make them up. Darwin himself said that his theory of evolution would be invalid if such a level of existence could be proven. Science has.
That is another less direct hit upon the theory of non-intelligently controlled formation of life. Vast systems in the scientific areas of cosmology, stellar, planetary, chemical and biological realms are continually being reduced to such complexity. Logically, it cannot be recreated in any lab I know of the random chance of such complex engineering in the multitude of designs within each system. You cannot get something from nothing.
Take the system of the DNA. This is the encoding that lives in every living thing which is the wiring diagram to the functions that give it life-capabilities. We had the fastest computers working for years before the DNA strand was actually 'uncoded'. Each human DNA is composed of chemical bases arranged in approximately 3 billion PRECISE sequences. As shown, a simple single cell bacterium called E. coli's information would fill all the books in the largest libraries in the world. What is the logical probability of such programming, ignoring the massive amount of processing/debugging/testing processes that would of had to taken place, coming into existence at random? Again, such programming only points to some kind of intelligently guided creation.
Following this DNA, we find that even science is baffled by the information-transferring system that is connected to those 3 Billion sequences of code. With a vast system as complex as the space shuttles, precise DNA instructions are used to control this. A modern informational system found in the evolutionary process of goo to you? Why did it take us so long to're-discover' it then? And how did it get to a molecular level in the first place? The chemical processes have nothing to do with the origin of the messages that are sent. Evolution claims that the chemical process created the information to send and then how to send it.
Even the infamous Charles Darwin established the foolishness of his own expansion on evolution (it was actually his father and grandfather who first proposed such theory). Darwin, in speaking of the complexity of the eye, had this to say about 'macro evolution':
“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”
No matter whom you are, atheists or religious, you have a concept that things 'began'. To the atheist, the starting point was formless, mindless gobs of goo that adapted and jumped species as they evolved into humanity, animals, plants, and chemical processes that are so balanced that such 'chance' happenings are mathematically impossible. To a religious person, there is an intelligence that is seen through the chemical, structure, and historical evidences in that order that we find. Logically, a leap to an intelligent design is far less of a stretch than chance encounters of atoms to develop an intelligence that is defying logic today.
Logic, itself, stands as a finger pointing towards some kind of intelligent designer, a.k.a. God, as the author of abstract thinking, the ability to question the status quo. This is the hallmark of discovery, this ability to expand beyond the known into the possibilities yet discovered. Human philosophy has pointed towards the human tendency of self-gratification, yet many discoveries were made with the end result being to improve all of humanity. Conscience, that nagging voice or feeling that plagues all of us, is a separate function from the material brain (mind over matter). Morality, the existence of love, emotions, and inherent moral/ethical values that are the same no matter the culture or geographical location, fly into the face of the tendency for self-protection.
If we didn't have a morality at the societal level, then my belief that I have absolute authority in my world would mean that I have the right to decide to drive down the other side of the road unlike another person, who might feel that they have the right to drive down my side of the road in the opposite direction. The incarnation of those that society deems to be a threat stands to reason that there is an intelligent design that triumphs our own preservation that was designed for the preservation of the species.
But anyone who decides that God cannot exist will not believe any evidence given to show otherwise. This is where I say that anyone who believes that there is no God believes that they are god. They are the ultimate and final source of truth in their world, which is an attribute that only a god can have. They might say otherwise, but again logic stands against such claims. Dr. Richard Lewontin, in his book Billions and Billions of Demons, states it this way:
"It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the unitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."
This is why the fact the universe has been proven in astronomical circles to actually have begun, exquisitely designed/balanced/irreducible machines at a molecular level, natural law, objective moral standards, and personal claims of divine interaction with a supernatural 'something' are all thrown into the trash heap by those who don't want to believe in intelligent design.
Let's assume that we are taking the first tier of the argument; whether or not there is a god and leaving the discussion of who the identity of this God is for another tier. Most atheists want to be given naturalistic evidence of a supernatural being, so we will look at the natural world for such evidence.
Comprehend, if you can, the possibility of complex information not only coming into being out of a random explosion but also the fact this complex massive world of logical information 'ordered' itself into the chemical-based, mathematical, cosmological, planetary, and biological systems that exists in the microscopic levels of everything; whether man-made or otherwise. I don't say, 'if you can', but use that as a point to show that we are too limited in our knowledge to do so. Biochemists and mathematicians have shown that the odds of this coming from a non-life 'universe' to evolve naturally at random into the complex life that exists all around us in the natural world. So, if it is astronomically improbability that life came randomly to exist naturally, where did it come from?
You place the concept of an 'intelligent designer' being at the helm of this process and you find the arguments fitting neatly into a box that something/someone created life with its' complexities. The sheer amount of information encoded into each living thing, at the molecular level and even subatomic level, run thousands upon thousands of irreducibly complex organisms that cannot exist without the preexistence of the other parts that make them up. Darwin himself said that his theory of evolution would be invalid if such a level of existence could be proven. Science has.
That is another less direct hit upon the theory of non-intelligently controlled formation of life. Vast systems in the scientific areas of cosmology, stellar, planetary, chemical and biological realms are continually being reduced to such complexity. Logically, it cannot be recreated in any lab I know of the random chance of such complex engineering in the multitude of designs within each system. You cannot get something from nothing.
Take the system of the DNA. This is the encoding that lives in every living thing which is the wiring diagram to the functions that give it life-capabilities. We had the fastest computers working for years before the DNA strand was actually 'uncoded'. Each human DNA is composed of chemical bases arranged in approximately 3 billion PRECISE sequences. As shown, a simple single cell bacterium called E. coli's information would fill all the books in the largest libraries in the world. What is the logical probability of such programming, ignoring the massive amount of processing/debugging/testing processes that would of had to taken place, coming into existence at random? Again, such programming only points to some kind of intelligently guided creation.
Following this DNA, we find that even science is baffled by the information-transferring system that is connected to those 3 Billion sequences of code. With a vast system as complex as the space shuttles, precise DNA instructions are used to control this. A modern informational system found in the evolutionary process of goo to you? Why did it take us so long to're-discover' it then? And how did it get to a molecular level in the first place? The chemical processes have nothing to do with the origin of the messages that are sent. Evolution claims that the chemical process created the information to send and then how to send it.
Even the infamous Charles Darwin established the foolishness of his own expansion on evolution (it was actually his father and grandfather who first proposed such theory). Darwin, in speaking of the complexity of the eye, had this to say about 'macro evolution':
“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”
No matter whom you are, atheists or religious, you have a concept that things 'began'. To the atheist, the starting point was formless, mindless gobs of goo that adapted and jumped species as they evolved into humanity, animals, plants, and chemical processes that are so balanced that such 'chance' happenings are mathematically impossible. To a religious person, there is an intelligence that is seen through the chemical, structure, and historical evidences in that order that we find. Logically, a leap to an intelligent design is far less of a stretch than chance encounters of atoms to develop an intelligence that is defying logic today.
Logic, itself, stands as a finger pointing towards some kind of intelligent designer, a.k.a. God, as the author of abstract thinking, the ability to question the status quo. This is the hallmark of discovery, this ability to expand beyond the known into the possibilities yet discovered. Human philosophy has pointed towards the human tendency of self-gratification, yet many discoveries were made with the end result being to improve all of humanity. Conscience, that nagging voice or feeling that plagues all of us, is a separate function from the material brain (mind over matter). Morality, the existence of love, emotions, and inherent moral/ethical values that are the same no matter the culture or geographical location, fly into the face of the tendency for self-protection.
If we didn't have a morality at the societal level, then my belief that I have absolute authority in my world would mean that I have the right to decide to drive down the other side of the road unlike another person, who might feel that they have the right to drive down my side of the road in the opposite direction. The incarnation of those that society deems to be a threat stands to reason that there is an intelligent design that triumphs our own preservation that was designed for the preservation of the species.
But anyone who decides that God cannot exist will not believe any evidence given to show otherwise. This is where I say that anyone who believes that there is no God believes that they are god. They are the ultimate and final source of truth in their world, which is an attribute that only a god can have. They might say otherwise, but again logic stands against such claims. Dr. Richard Lewontin, in his book Billions and Billions of Demons, states it this way:
"It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the unitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."
This is why the fact the universe has been proven in astronomical circles to actually have begun, exquisitely designed/balanced/irreducible machines at a molecular level, natural law, objective moral standards, and personal claims of divine interaction with a supernatural 'something' are all thrown into the trash heap by those who don't want to believe in intelligent design.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)