Dispatches from the Culture Wars

I don't know anything about the UCMJ, but is there any way to charge this major, assuming he can be identified, with disrupting the meeting? My uninformed opinion is that he should be immediately given a dishonorable discharge and booted out. His authority was given him to be used in a military capacity, not to proselytize for his beliefs. If anybody "goes down" for this, it ought to be this guy. He is an embarrassment to the military.

Posted by: sbh | August 7, 2007 9:54 AM

What would be the best way to send an email or letter of encouragement to this young soldier as the contact information was redacted? I for one would like to send him a message of support.

Posted by: John P. DuLong | August 7, 2007 10:19 AM

If this sort of thing is common, it might one day be true that there are "no atheists in fox-holes" -- not for fear of getting killed by enemy action, but for fear of harrassment by their own side.

Posted by: Eamon Knight | August 7, 2007 10:34 AM

And of course, now we truly see how the love of Jesus makes them better people.

Posted by: Shawn Smith | August 7, 2007 11:42 AM

And we'll know they are Christians by their love!

Posted by: twincats | August 7, 2007 12:07 PM

Um, Chuck was commenting on the irony of the situation. Chuck obviously KNOWS irony when he sees it, and can comment on it all he likes. It IS ironic that athiests have to get permission from a chaplain to have a meeting. The source of that requirement and/or how well chaplains perform their duties doesn't change that.

Posted by: empirecookie | August 7, 2007 12:59 PM

Am I the only one into whose head popped the image of Major Frank Burns?

Posted by: Rieux | August 7, 2007 1:42 PM

Poly wrote:

I'm wondering if the publicity for the meeting made it clear that it was being conducted under the authority of the unit Chaplain?
If so - and if the other facts are as stated - I would say the officer who disrupted the meeting would be subject to some sort of administrative action.

According to the story, the officer seems to have been aware that the meeting had Chaplain approval. Whoever reported what went on at the meeting stated

...the Major shut down the meeting by saying he wasn't some "push-over Chaplain" and that he would not tolerate the meetings to continue.

The Major seems to think that the chaplain wasn't doing his REAL job (promoting faith in God), and this lack of attention to primary duty means someone has to take over. Uh oh.

Posted by: Sastra | August 7, 2007 2:15 PM

"It would have been better had the chaplain involved inquired if the meeting leader had the training or background to do what he proposed. It seems likely that wasn't done here, because the leader let the meeting get out of control."

I don't get this point. The meeting got "out of control" because a superior officer pulled rank. What was the meeting leader supposed to do?

Posted by: Ginger Yellow | August 7, 2007 2:33 PM

Cleek, of course you're allowed to believe whatever you believe, but strong and weak atheism exist whether they're "approved" or not. It's like insisting that your shirt is "blue" when in fact it's turquoise. One may choose to be less precise or more. ;-)

Like everyone else, I'm baffled by this:

It would have been better had the chaplain involved inquired if the meeting leader had the training or background to do what he proposed. It seems likely that wasn't done here, because the leader let the meeting get out of control.

Exactly what training and background does it require for an atheist to get some other atheists together and talk about atheism, and why should a military chaplain be considered an appropriate authority for judging such?

Posted by: Gretchen | August 7, 2007 3:17 PM

"I've had correspondence with her in which she basically admitted that she had never heard of the distinction between weak and strong atheism, and she basically assumed that you either believe in god, or you believe there is no god: a binary that is not logical, and laughably misinformed to boot."

Who said???
By what standard???
I simply do not believe in god, so by definition, I am an Atheist. I happen to proscribe to the philosophy of Secular Humanism, which actually has little to do with Atheism. All the other "weak and/or strong" crapola you postulate is a label to shoehorn people into your definitions.

Posted by: RAM | August 7, 2007 3:30 PM

Does anyone think that there is a connection between this and what happened to Pat Tillman?
From http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/20060728_worm_dirt/
But in the meantime, a recent ESPN.com exposé by Mike Fish aired an interview with Kauzlarich, who was the "cross commander" of the Rangers in Khoust, Afghanistan, in April 2004. Kauzlarich, in a stunning display of Christian empathy, blamed the family for continuing to ask questions about the circumstances of Pat's death, and suggested that the reason they'd found no closure was that infidels such as themselves (the Tillmans did not belong to a church), when they die, are only "worm dirt."
"But there [have] been numerous unfortunate cases of fratricide," Kauzlarich told ESPN, "and the parents have basically said, 'OK, it was an unfortunate accident.' And they let it go. So this is--I don't know, these people have a hard time letting it go. It may be because of their religious beliefs."
"So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more," continued Kauzlarich, "that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks....
That investigation determined two things: (1) The fellow Rangers who shot Tillman (and an Afghan that the military has never credited with a human being's name) violated their own rules of engagement and were possibly criminally negligent and (2) that the order that led to splitting the platoon--one vigorously and rightly opposed by the platoon leader on the ground--was responsible for setting up the communications breakdown that resulted in the incident.
Pat himself, after seeing the Iraq war firsthand and declaring it to be "so fucking illegal,"
Any comment?

Posted by: Karl | August 7, 2007 4:00 PM

Your tone was quite evident. Judging by responses you are batting six out of seven. Me thinks the problem is with the reading comprehension of number seven.

Now to find a senior chaplain who takes seriously the responsibility to cater to the needs of all their flock and not just those of spiritual faith. My personal experience says this is going to be a long shot. Second hand information says they exist, but I went 0 for 3 in firsthand encounters.

Posted by: Sean | August 7, 2007 6:53 PM

...I would hope that someone who sets themselves up as president of all atheists ...

Don't be silly. Ellen Johnson is not president of all atheists.

Margaret Downey is president of all atheists. ;)

Posted by: Sastra | August 7, 2007 8:35 PM

I wonder what would have happened if an equal or higher ranking officer would have been present? Or even worse, what if the higher ranking officer showed up a little late to the meeting and entered in on all the fussing and carrying on? Sounds like a small script for a military-based comedy sitcom.

It sucks for those enlisted men. I hope discipline comes to the Major involved.

Posted by: Shawn Wilkinson | August 8, 2007 6:48 AM

I don't believe in God. I am Buddhist. Am I a weak or strong atheist?

Posted by: Onera | August 9, 2007 12:56 AM

whatever happened to God not being involved in politics?

Posted by: Dude | August 9, 2007 1:12 AM

Good luck to the poor military atheists. Christian fundamentalism in the highest ranks of the US military is well documented (google "General Jerry Boykin," for instance).

Posted by: Mona Bee | August 9, 2007 1:14 AM

Weak-minded people and authority is a dangerous combination, although it's often the case.

Posted by: fred | August 9, 2007 1:26 AM

I am an atheist and i think that this is so bad i am a strong atheist wich means that i have a thing agianst religion. It only causes problems and hate and i think that "belivers" are weak minded and i dont know why modern society cant see that. This man seemed to be a weak atheist and by weak I mean not as agressive so to speak all he was trying to do was make people think on an open scale he did not do anything wrong he was just haveing a meeting about his belifs just like the christians have sunday worship, nothing will happen to this man and if i does then we will see how big a grip religion has on this nation.

Posted by: kyle | August 9, 2007 2:26 AM

The problem with this article is that it is hearsay. Nothing more and nothing less. We don't know what really happened because we didn't hear the two sides; instead we heard from a third party who wasn't even there. Young enlisted soldiers can easily misinterpret their own stories and have a habit of gearing them into their favor. Don't get me wrong, older soldiers can do it to; however it isn't as common.

The problem really lies within the media and how it has misrepresented this data ("Atheist Mistreatment in Iraq"). They put some spin on the situation to create a stir, when they in fact don't even know the real story. Before we start calling it "mistreatment" how about we get the facts first and then title it appropriately. When the EO report is final, it will be thorough and those that were in the wrong will be corrected. Then and only should it make the waves of news articles, and by that time my guess is that it wouldn't even be newsworthy.

I don't feel a Major in the U.S. Army should be dishonorably discharged over that, nor should a junior soldier. In any case whoever's at fault, may just simply need some sensitivity and awareness training. Again, NONE OF US REALLY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED during that meeting.

Based on the hearsay given, my assumption would be something that is relatively common in the military and that's the line of professional vs. personal being crossed. The junior soldier(s) probably got "too" comfortable and crossed the line and disrespected the Major in some way and he quickly took control of the situation. Maybe his statements were accurate and in that he was trying to educate them about being respectful of other religions. After all regardless of your religious beliefs aren't you supposed to respect others; especially if you expect them to respect yours? Maybe what they were discussing was offensive and disrespectful to his religion or others for that matter. His job as a Chaplain includes education and awareness, and if they got into heated debate which probably turned into an argument and that you do not do with seniors as that is disrespect. In the end he quickly took control of the situation and "canned" it. Just because they were having a religious geared meeting does not give them the liberty to disrespect a senior, a commissioned officer at that.

I'm not taking anything away from being a civilian but it is easy for a civilian to misinterpret things that happen in the military because they don't know the rules and regulations of the military, hell I don't even know them all. We sign up for "knowing" that we are to follow the rules and adhere to the regulations. It's not easy, nor do we always agree with them, but we do have to obey; for a military will not function without discipline and structure. The rules vary from slight to great difference from the civilian sector. It's just the way it is.

I'm a former Sergeant First Class (E-7 Enlisted) and now I'm a Lieutenant (O-1 Officer). Does this really matter? Yes and no. Many of you won't care and many will not know what the either of the two are. I have walked both sides of the fence, one as enlisted and the other as an officer. They both are two entirely different worlds and they are that way for a reason. My point is that I can see the enlisted soldier's side and I can see the officer's side, but having served 12 years I have become seasoned to the things that happen in the military and how easily things can get misinterpreted. I've had my share ass chewing's and I have given my share as well. When I was a young junior enlisted soldier and I got chewed I used to think of how I could get the "jerk" into trouble because I was mad that I got my ass chewed, now as a former senior enlisted soldier and a junior officer when I get my ass chewed I reflect and learn from it, as I'm sure there was a message in there that I obviously didn't get during the heat of the moment. Most of the time I get the message after I have replayed the whole scenario in my head and used rational thought. "Oh I see what he "really" meant, why I didn't catch that the first time as I could have saved myself and ass chewing. The truth is a young soldier, many of them do not rationalize, and instead they act out of haste and a lack of self regulation, leaving them vulnerable to easily disrespect a senior.

The bottom line is you have to get the Majors story and the soldier's story and then dissect it, analyze them both and then make a decision. You cannot go off of what a third party presents as it is only hearsay.

On one last note and in regards to having to get the Chaplains permission in the first place, I must first state that I do not know the regulation that would cover this although with some inquiring I could find out. In any case an educated-military guess would be that on a military reservation one must get permission to organize or solicit. Being that this was religion related, it quite possibly could be the Chaplains responsibility to approve this meeting or a more common idea is that a leader in that soldiers chain of command did not know if this was permissible and sent him to the Chaplain for further guidance as it was religious related. I don't know just a guess.

And to the fellow ranting about "line officers" and this Major not having the right to hand out some ass chewins; my friend you have been sorely misled or aren't conveying your information correctly. In the U.S. Army a Major that is a Chaplain has the same commission as a Major that is in the Infantry, Ordnance, etc. He might not be a line officer but it does not take away from the general military authority that he has been granted to him by the President of the United States. A line officer can go from an Infantry unit to an Artillery unit, etc and give "operational" orders in combat. Keyword=Combat.

Just my two cents. It's late and I'm tired, but I hope I conveyed my point enough to give you a different perspective and a way of analyzing this situation.

Don't be so judgemental, ecspecially when you don't know all of the facts.

Goodnight!

~J Wagz

Posted by: J Wagz | August 9, 2007 2:46 AM

I served in SOCOM under Clinton and received pretty much the same treatment. Being a non Christian / Muslim in any part of the world will always get you in trouble if you insist on waring you faith on your sleeve. I highly suggest that this soldier grow a set and explain that this function is under chaplain preview. If the major would like to continue in the conversation he should calm himself and behave accordingly or that the host would have the MP's remove him. Also if it was under the chaplains preview he should have peen present.
And in c;losing if this happened on a FOB and he had enlisted ranks standing at attention in front of him he will soon be dead no you wont have to worry about that.

Posted by: swdragoon | August 9, 2007 3:05 AM

Folks, Google Christian Embassy and see just how far up the chain of command goes the agenda of the Xtian Right. There's a Brig. Gen who describes members of CE as "the aroma of Christ". I can't get my head, much less my nose, around *that* .

Posted by: Xtian Borg Watcher | August 9, 2007 3:18 AM

To the serfs, religion is true.

To the intelligent, religion is false.

The the rulers, religion is useful.

Posted by: Plagerizer | August 9, 2007 3:27 AM

As a former *ist and current Christian you should be ahamed of your willingness to desecrate the memories of the dead, especially since it seems to be based on whatever the religion of the day is.

Posted by: bago | August 9, 2007 5:27 AM

what a shame! everybody should be allowed to express their religion even when they call themselves atheists, especially in the land of the free.

Posted by: charon | August 9, 2007 7:40 AM

-The problem with this article is that it is hearsay.

You are correct this is hearsay, BUT as an officer, especially a prior SNCO, you should know that this requires further investigation by leadership.

- The problem really lies within the media and how it has misrepresented this data ("Atheist Mistreatment in Iraq"). They put some spin on the situation to create a stir, when they in fact don't even know the real story. Before we start calling it "mistreatment" how about we get the facts first and then title it appropriately. When the EO report is final, it will be thorough and those that were in the wrong will be corrected. Then and only should it make the waves of news articles, and by that time my guess is that it wouldn't even be newsworthy.

As an EO person myself (DEOMI class 96-2), whiel the meida may spin things, the issue is whether an officer violated DoD Directive 1350.2 (among others).

- I don't feel a Major in the U.S. Army should be dishonorably discharged over that, nor should a junior soldier. In any case whoever's at fault, may just simply need some sensitivity and awareness training. Again, NONE OF US REALLY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED during that meeting.

You are being pretty defensive here. As to whether a Major should be discharged over this...well we differ in opinion here. A Major (O-4) has been in long enough to know the rules and policies. He PURPOSEFULLY violated them according to this letter. If this turns to be the case, then sensitivity and awareness training will do nothing to change this person's viewpoint, but only force them "underground" and perhaps have good soldiers' careers harmed becuase a bigot is in their chain of command. I would give a junior CGO a break, but NOT a filed grader.

- Based on the hearsay given, my assumption would be something that is relatively common in the military and that's the line of professional vs. personal being crossed. The junior soldier(s) probably got "too" comfortable and crossed the line and disrespected the Major in some way and he quickly took control of the situation. Maybe his statements were accurate and in that he was trying to educate them about being respectful of other religions. After all regardless of your religious beliefs aren't you supposed to respect others; especially if you expect them to respect yours? Maybe what they were discussing was offensive and disrespectful to his religion or others for that matter. His job as a Chaplain includes education and awareness, and if they got into heated debate which probably turned into an argument and that you do not do with seniors as that is disrespect. In the end he quickly took control of the situation and "canned" it. Just because they were having a religious geared meeting does not give them the liberty to disrespect a senior, a commissioned officer at that.

The Major was NOT a chaplain per the hearsay given (he stated he was not a pushover chaplain...). The major should have approached the chaplains and complained NOT berated the soldiers. Apparently HE was the unprofessional one. Usually, chaplains do not attend the functions and meetings of groups like these, but can eb found nearby.

-I'm not taking anything away from being a civilian but it is easy for a civilian to misinterpret things that happen in the military because they don't know the rules and regulations of the military, hell I don't even know them all. We sign up for "knowing" that we are to follow the rules and adhere to the regulations. It's not easy, nor do we always agree with them, but we do have to obey; for a military will not function without discipline and structure. The rules vary from slight to great difference from the civilian sector. It's just the way it is.

You apparently have little clue yourself. I could have understood it from an Ell-Tee, but you aknowledged your prior time as a SNCO. I believe you may want to rethink your ideas on what you know. Based on your post, you appear to be more ignorant that a 22 year old newbie Lt.

- The bottom line is you have to get the Majors story and the soldier's story and then dissect it, analyze them both and then make a decision. You cannot go off of what a third party presents as it is only hearsay.

This is correct, but you also miss the TWO other soldiers present. Their statements will also need to be gathered. And perhaps, some of the major's coworkers and subordinates. Afterall, if he is as religious as appears in this hearsay, then he may have pushed it in other settings as well ("encouraged" his troops to attend the prayer breakfast, oor insists on invocations at staff meetings, etc).

- On one last note and in regards to having to get the Chaplains permission in the first place, I must first state that I do not know the regulation that would cover this although with some inquiring I could find out. In any case an educated-military guess would be that on a military reservation one must get permission to organize or solicit. Being that this was religion related, it quite possibly could be the Chaplains responsibility to approve this meeting or a more common idea is that a leader in that soldiers chain of command did not know if this was permissible and sent him to the Chaplain for further guidance as it was religious related. I don't know just a guess.

Again, as a former SFC, you should know this. Any religious or philisophical group wishing to meet on a base/post/military installation must be sponsored by the chapel if they wish to advertise the meeting. This is part of the chaplains' duties.

- And to the fellow ranting about "line officers" and this Major not having the right to hand out some ass chewins; my friend you have been sorely misled or aren't conveying your information correctly. In the U.S. Army a Major that is a Chaplain has the same commission as a Major that is in the Infantry, Ordnance, etc. He might not be a line officer but it does not take away from the general military authority that he has been granted to him by the President of the United States. A line officer can go from an Infantry unit to an Artillery unit, etc and give "operational" orders in combat. Keyword=Combat.

A chaplain can NEVER command. They are NOT the same type of commission. Hence the distinction between line and non-line. The PFC would be in command if the only higher ranking people were chaplains. Chaplains are advisors only, and they are allowed to remain in uniform as long as their endorsing agency (church, religious group) allows them to be. Name another officer who can have an outside agency pull them from the military? Agreed that if they see a violation of regs, they can address it. However, a chaplain who gives an ass-chewing will not be effective in their job for long as few would go see them for counselling.

-Don't be so judgemental, ecspecially when you don't know all of the facts.

Good advice, too bad you failed to follow it yourself.

And....allow me to give my military background: Active duty AF. Former AFSOC, currently Chief of Military Equal Opportunity. Crusty old NCO. Not an Atheist though!

Posted by: Gonzo | August 9, 2007 8:45 AM

The majors' actions were inexcusable. He should be disciplined.

However, anyone that thinks we came into existence from nothing hasn't done much research on the subject. Anything that begins to exist has a cause. Scientists pretty much now agree that the universe had a beginning. Therefore the universe has a cause, which means something or someone caused it to begin.

Think about how a mousetrap works. If you put all the pieces of a mouse trap on a table, how long would it take them to "evolve" into a working mousetrap? Never! And yet if you believe we came from a fish, you think that the mousetrap would somehow build itself over millions of years. Who looks ridiculous now?

What happened to the first "animal" that got a cut and it's blood didn't clot because blood clotting hadn't been evolved yet? It died. The next? It died. No darwinism, just death.

I don't think anyone could argue against evolution, certainly things evolve over time. But did we come from monkeys? No, and there is no fossil evidence to prove it.

Ever heard of the Cambrian explosion? Look it up.

The more scientists discover about us and our universe, the more apparent it becomes that there was a plan.

I really believe that the only way you can not believe in some kind of creator, is to not have done any research on the subject.

I will leave you with one last thought. As long as the Bible has been in existence people have been trying to prove it wrong. They never have.

Don't sit there and tell me how wrong I am, do the research, I think you will be surprised.

Posted by: Christian Fundamentalist | August 9, 2007 10:53 AM

Well, what the hell, I haven't got anything better to do.

Anything that begins to exist has a cause.

Wrong. Acausal events are a fundamental part of quantum mechanics.

Scientists pretty much now agree that the universe had a beginning.

Wrong. It's known that our corner of the Universe emerged from a hot, dense state some 13.7 billion years ago. Whether there was something before that remains an open question.

Think about how a mousetrap works. If you put all the pieces of a mouse trap on a table, how long would it take them to "evolve" into a working mousetrap?

Mousetraps are made of wood and metal, typically. Those are largely inert materials; throw them together in a pot and they'll do little but rot and rust.

This is manifestly not true of many chemicals. Chemicals have a tendency to react. Your example is simply way off base.

Who looks ridiculous now?

That would be you, since you're arguing against a position no one actually takes. Who has ever argued that inanimate objects which don't breed ought to evolve?

What happened to the first "animal" that got a cut and it's blood didn't clot because blood clotting hadn't been evolved yet? It died.

No, you're assuming that the first animal with blood had a high-pressure circulatory system which required a sophisticated clotting process. That wouldn't be the case.

No, and there is no fossil evidence to prove it.

Ah. So what is Lucy, then?

Ever heard of the Cambrian explosion?

Yes. Ever heard of pre-Cambrian fossils?

I really believe that the only way you can not believe in some kind of creator, is to not have done any research on the subject.

The problem is that you haven't really done research at all. What you've done is studied the arguments for one side in detail, and largely ignored the rest. Had you done your research properly, you wouldn't have raised the points you did, since you'd already be aware of the refutations.

Posted by: MartinM | August 9, 2007 11:18 AM

I've never heard of this whole strong/weak athiest thing before. Seems to be that a "Weak Athiest" is just another name for an Agnostic (http://www.webster.com/dictionary/agnostic).

Fundamentalists and fanatics of ANY religion are dangerous because by definition they prioritise their faith over everything else. A fundamentalist in a position of power s terrifying.

Posted by: Kerrisis | August 9, 2007 11:37 AM

Article 98--Noncompliance with procedural rules of the UCMJ might have been violated, and if not then definitely "Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer."

Posted by: D | August 9, 2007 11:43 AM

Christian Again,
It is not relevant what the people who's rights have been violated believe in this case or any case.

What is relevant is the problem is that the fundamentals of being FREE to believe anything you want to, and to assembly without discrimination were violated and that the trust placed in superior commissioned officers to uphold the CONSTITUTION was entirely violated by this Major. For shame.

Posted by: D | August 9, 2007 11:47 AM

Since UCMJ stands for Universal Code of Military Justice, there must be a procedure in the Army for redress in this issue.

In the USMC and the USN it was called "Request Mast"..."Mast" as in an audience with the Captain/colonel..etc..because it is every soldier or sailor's right to speak to, basically, every officer in their administrative chain of command, until the issue is resolved to the soldier or sailor's satisfaction. It is in this way an Officer (or higher enlisted person)can be held to account (in a situation like this).

Basically, he can go tell his Platoon Sergeant, then his Platoon Commander, then his Company Commander, until someone in the chain can address the problem. Unfortunately, this is a right rarely used.

Posted by: darius | August 9, 2007 12:05 PM

If you put all the pieces of a mouse trap on a table, how long would it take them to "evolve" into a working mousetrap? Never!

One word for you: fucking.

Posted by: pough | August 9, 2007 12:43 PM

Amazing. I agree that the major was wrong. You only need to read John 13:34 (11th commandment) to see that.

No where in the Bible does it tell us to "hate" people. Quite the opposite. I cannot explain, nor do I try to excuse the actions of religious fanatics who twist the Bible into justifying hatred and violence.

Unfortunately, if I really believe what I say I do, I can't just mind my own business.

Chris, you answered your own question when you asked if anyone has proved the Bible right and then stated that it does contain accurate historical depictions. People have been digging into the reality of it for years and can't prove it wrong. I haven't seen any rivers parted recently either, but miracles happen everyday.

It's hard to get around the fact that fossil evidence just doesn't support Darwin's theory. If all these creatures were evolving for millions of years there would be more in between fossils.

It's also hard to get around the fact that no one has ever proved the Bible wrong.

Having said that, I would never force my beliefs on anyone. That is no way to win people over to your way of thinking. I believe you should become friends with people and then, when and if the time is right, you can discuss Christianity.

Thank you for such a spirited debate. I appreciate everyone's opposing opinions because they will help me sharpen my arguments. It is good to see that people are doing research and are at least passionate about something. Apathy is going to be the death of this great country.

Posted by: Christian again | August 9, 2007 1:45 PM

Ed wrote: I agree with you that it's not something that warrants discharge, but if the story is true it would certainly warrant a reprimand for the officer and some training on why he has no authority to impose his religious views on others.

No, see, I don't remember offhand if you have ever been a member of a fundamentalist Christian church, but I was one, and I remember how it works. Giving a Christian fundamentalist fanatic remedial training is filed in his mind as "being subjected to religious persecution." He can't react rationally to rational statements. They are filtered through his twisted version of faith. He expects to be "persecuted" and indeed welcomes it as a sign that he is "targeted as a threat" by "demonic forces." Resistance is his only option.

Would you like a fellow like that to be in command when the young man's life is at stake? Would you even like them to be alone in a room together?

Posted by: speedwell | August 9, 2007 2:13 PM

Unfortunately, if I really believe what I say I do, I can't just mind my own business.

No one's asking you to "mind your own business;" we're pointing out that many of the things you say are just plain wrong, and based on either dishonesty or gross misunderstanding. Do your beliefs prevent you from studying the facts?

It's hard to get around the fact that fossil evidence just doesn't support Darwin's theory.

It's hard to get around the fact that you haven't demonstrated any knowledge of this fossil evidence, let alone shown us what theory the evidence DOES support.

If all these creatures were evolving for millions of years there would be more in between fossils.

Ever see the fossilized bones of early horses? There are LOTS of "in-between" fossils between "eohippus" and modern-day "equus."

It's also hard to get around the fact that no one has ever proved the Bible wrong.

The literal interpretation of the Genesis creation story has indeed been proven wrong. Even some young-Earth creationists admit that the physical evidence contradicts it.

Posted by: Raging Bee | August 9, 2007 2:27 PM

"I believe, and you are welcome not to, that the scientists who can plainly see these things and yet deny them, are going to be held especially accountable one day."

Snerk. I am going to end up in some "especially" hot part of hell.

Posted by: PhysioProf | August 9, 2007 2:46 PM

skemono: thanks, I can never remember if its org or net or what. I have it on my favorites at home, so I never type it. :)

Posted by: jba | August 9, 2007 3:05 PM

"Chris, you answered your own question when you asked if anyone has proved the Bible right and then stated that it does contain accurate historical depictions. People have been digging into the reality of it for years and can't prove it wrong."

I would think this part of Mark 13 is pretty conclusviely wrong, at least in the realm of logic and laguage as we know it.

26"At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

28"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 29Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. 30 I tell you the truth, this generation[e] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

Posted by: sailor | August 9, 2007 3:30 PM

sailor, "generation" there can also be interpreted as "race". The verses following those state that no one knows the time, and to always be ready.

Raging Bee, yes, the Bible tells us to go out into the world and proclaim the gospel. I take full responsibility for my statements, (other than telling you my real name). It has been a while since I researched some of those points and I will gladly do so again at your urging. I am not a scientist but really want to know what I believe and why I believe it.

With your help, hopefully I can avoid the "making Christianity look like the stupidest religion on earth" bolt of lightning.

Posted by: CF | August 9, 2007 4:04 PM

RB: Two very interesting points.

1) I believe the Bible is the infallable Word of God. Divinely inspired. It says so. I do agree that people quite often miss the overall point and forget or ignore Jesus' repeated teachings on kindness and love.

2) I also agree that Jesus used parables and that those cannot be taken literally. I my experience, the alliterations that disappoint me the most are the ones taken out of context to justify some extreme point of view.

Gotta go, it has been enlightening conversing with you today.

Posted by: CF | August 9, 2007 4:50 PM

CF is not for real. He's joking!

Posted by: Loc | August 9, 2007 5:23 PM

Gretchen: I could see calling myself a Christian Fundamentalist, but I don't because that implies (in some circles) beliefs about the bible which I either do not hold or consider irrelevant. Still, the notion of having one as a regular around here is not too absurd. Dr. Heddle or Wonders for Oysara might also qualify in a pinch. Certainly, we all could be described as evangelicals of varying stripes. We care about civil liberties too!

Posted by: kehrsam | August 9, 2007 5:40 PM

It seems a lot of christian fundamentalist read the bible wrong and take it out of context, especially those who say God hates. When I have read the bible, I read that God loves all and hates none. I believe if anything is true in the bible it has to be that, because a creator is all about love. The same way the Goddess is who gave birth to the christian God is all about love.

Posted by: mek | August 9, 2007 6:08 PM

However, anyone that thinks we came into existence from nothing hasn't done much research on the subject. Anything that begins to exist has a cause. Scientists pretty much now agree that the universe had a beginning. Therefore the universe has a cause, which means something or someone caused it to begin.

I propose that the first cause of the universe was unconcious, unintelligent, and temporal. Since we don't see any evidence of creation going on now, it's likely that the first cause destroyed itself during that act of creation. I have not violated the logic of the premise: "Anything that begins to exist has a cause." Since these aren't the attributes of the various gods of the various religions, it fails completely as a "proof" for the existance of a god.

Think about how a mousetrap works. If you put all the pieces of a mouse trap on a table, how long would it take them to "evolve" into a working mousetrap? Never! And yet if you believe we came from a fish, you think that the mousetrap would somehow build itself over millions of years. Who looks ridiculous now?

Straw dog arguement. A mousetrap is not a living thing which reproduces itself.

I don't think anyone could argue against evolution, certainly things evolve over time. But did we come from monkeys? No, and there is no fossil evidence to prove it.

Evolution proposes no such thing. Here's a hint: Chick tracts aren't reliable scientific papers.

The more scientists discover about us and our universe, the more apparent it becomes that there was a plan.

For every apparant case of good "engineering", I can cite plenty of examples of just horrible "engineering". Furthermore, it's not possible to make such a determination without a sample of a universe that's known to be a purely natural formation.

I will leave you with one last thought. As long as the Bible has been in existence people have been trying to prove it wrong. They never have.

O Rly?

Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.

Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.

Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

Lev 11 : 2 - 6

Hares are not cud-chewers. Hares and rabbits are leporidae, not artiodactyls. No member of the leporidae family has ever chewed a cud.

And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.

All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you.

Lev 11 : 19 - 20

Here is a clear claim that the bat is a bird. Leviticus groups the various animals into mammals, fish, and birds. The bat is included, not with the beasts (i.e. mammals) but with the birds. In case you didn't get it the first time, the very next paragraph is an amplification: "All fowls that creep..."

There: I just proved the Bible wrong. That's OK, no need to thank me for clearing up your misconception.

I believe, and you are welcome not to, that the scientists who can plainly see these things and yet deny them, are going to be held especially accountable one day.

First the bribe, and then the threat. You lose by default.

Posted by: x_eleven | August 9, 2007 9:40 PM

My comment was more of a joke, I am not a religious person and I believe more in science then in a book that contradicts itself.

Posted by: mek | August 10, 2007 2:53 AM

Yineputhotep, I enjoyed reading your commet it seems the bible is full of stuff like that and a lot of the followers are full of it as well. I worked with a bunch of "born agains" until last week and most of them said I was evil and a satan lover. I do not even believe in satan. And most of these "born agains" said the most sexual things and thought it was ok because their christians and they just pray and God forgives them. Well if thats the case forgive me God for everything and I forgive you for your followers.

Posted by: mek | August 10, 2007 5:22 AM

Christians are just like muslims, they want to kill everyone who isn't one. It's in their bible, like it's in the jewish bible. Read Kings if you don't believe me.

The article shows why many Americans don't make careers in the military. When the major gets out (and he will) he'll be another nothing like the rest of us). And he won't have the power to push people around any more. He'll get divorced. Get depressed. I think he'll have a common Christian lifestyle.

I love you Christians. You act oppressed and innocent. You are just mean cruel children with adult toys that kill.
Sincerely - an American Patriotic Atheist

Posted by: Tony Cordasco | August 10, 2007 9:19 AM

I believe the Bible is the infallable Word of God.

"Infallible" on which specific subjects? It sure ain't an "infallible" source on quantum physics or calculus. It's kinda weak on Asian history too...

People who mindlessly call the Bible "infallible" are hiding from an obvious fact: even the most devout Christian is forced to look to other sources (including personal experiences and revelation) for a complete world-view. Stretch the Bible to cover -- or pretend to cover -- everything, and all you get is a tissue-thin, and tissue-weak, veneer that holds no weight and covers nothing.

(The Pope calls himself "infallibie," but only when speaking on-the-record about a very narrow and explicitly circumscribed range of subject-matter.)

Besides, how can the Bible be "infallible" when -- being a book written for humans in a human language -- it can't even begin to cover a subject as huge as the desires of an all-powerful and all-knowing God? All of the people who have ever tried to convert me to Christianity understood and admitted that the Bible was merely the first step, a primer to point people in the right direction. Also, isn't there something in Acts about "many other things Jesus did" that even a whole planetful of books couldn't cover?

Posted by: Raging Bee | August 10, 2007 10:07 AM

Great debate!
Fun to read, some well informed folks here! Some useful viewpoints. The violated soldier should write some very telling notes to his own superior officer, the chaplain, his superior's superior (that might be verboten, I'm not in the military) and then offer to write a piece for his local rag. Idiots like the Major like to spew but only as long as he's ranking and feels the power. Unfortunately, people, no matter how religious, are people, and people are infinitely fallible, and as such should understand that no belief they hold will EVER be THE CORRECT answer. I'm an atheist, but like any other atheist, if I end up talking to Saint Pete at the Pearlies, I'll hope the judgement is on how I lived my life and how I helped others.

Posted by: Pete from Ont | August 10, 2007 10:43 AM

"And most of these "born agains" said the most sexual things and thought it was ok because their christians and they just pray and God forgives them."

Of course they do. Antinomianism is firmly welded to the philosophy, and once you have accepted Jesus as your lord and saviour, all sins are on the house. It really is the most amoral philosophy out there. Much moreso than anything that the Godlessimmoralliberals™ have ever come up with.

Posted by: x_eleven | August 10, 2007 1:29 PM

I find it incredibly funny that the poster JWagz insists that since this is a third party story, not reported by the initial participants, it's veracity must surely be suspect. Er.....wasn't the entire Bible written under just such circumstances or even a lot cloudier circumstances? Christian hypocrisy and blinders really boggle the logical mind.

Posted by: Anne | August 10, 2007 3:08 PM

My only comment is that Religion breeds from ignorance and its only purpose is to provide a mostly incorrect explanation for the things we do not understand yet. And about teaching us about love and compassion, those feelings do not need to be taught. I know lots of people who can not read and do not believe in any religion and yet are the most compassionate people I have ever met.

Posted by: ?? | August 10, 2007 4:07 PM

AUTHENTIC RECORD AND GEOLOGY SCIENTIS CAN'T CALCULATE THE AGE OF THE EARTH.
The subject of evolution among those who understand it, must be aware that there is the danger of excessive subjectivity concerning one owns knowledge. This is not healthy, is a means of cultivating the mind with vain thoughts, and be fill with self examination. Is better, to be objective. The subject of evolution is easy to refute but difficult for man to apprehend. Evolution was a psychological, economical, sociological, political, philosophical, atheist; theory that have gotten into the kosmos( world system) is thought everywhere. This theory is having its end in a microscopic world. Darwin called cells and his follower's genes or DNA.
Wiseman said: 'even one who, like myself, has been for many years a convinced adherent of the theory of selection, can only reply: We assume so, but cannot prove it in any case. It is not upon demonstrative evidence that we champion the doctrine of selection as scientific truth; we base our arguments on quite other grounds' (1870).
Jacques Barzun In our century, said: Darwinism has triumphed as an orthodoxy, as a rallying point of innumerable scientific, philosophical, and social movements Mr. Darwin became the oracle, as Barzun suggests, and the Origin of Species the fixed point with which Evolution moved the world`(1930).
Darwinism was accepted by eugenics which was Hitler idealism or dream, never accomplished in Germany but applied in North America, where is up to now working, nevertheless the biggest lied on humanity is ending microscopic world. Evolutionist as well those who support the design theory have fall into this category cells, DNA manipulation, little machines, it can get as little as the micro lenses can get. The fact is DNA manipulation does not exist. In plants where is the effects of manipulating a fruit plant by means of DNA? Why a blueberry is always small, big orange size would be nice. What about the clones like dolly, the fact is that never a clone has taken place.
In the other hand Hawkins http://theatheistofdelusion.blogspot.com/
and his theory that only get as far as the fact of the gap vers.2 of Gn. Chap 1 can get. Please pay attention to this.

Rafael.
Nee.
We believe that the entire Bible is the Word of God, and every word of it is inspired. A very grievous thought in the mind of godly ones is that men have despised and opposed His Word. God's children are grieved because men do not respect God's statutes. Among the sixty-six books of the Bible, Genesis has been subjected to the most doubt. Those who oppose the Bible often try to overturn God's clear revelation with geological ages and prehistoric discoveries. The evidences in geology prove to them that the earth has been in existence for tens of thousands of years, and that the record of six thousand years of history in the Bible is untrustworthy. In the name of science, the world hurls its attacks on the book of Genesis. Many dear brothers in the Lord are not that scholarly (the author being one of them) and become lost in this storm. Although geology does not form part of our meditation, for the benefit of all, we will study the Word of God by the Lord's grace at the commencement of our meditation and will consider how perfect is His Word, so that we can silently behold His beauty in His presence. Genesis is God's revelation, while geology is man's invention. God knows the whole truth. As such, His revelation can never be wrong. Man only sees in part. As such, his conjectures are not accurate. When we place Genesis side by side with geology, we should follow Genesis and not geology, because it is God who stands behind Genesis. If there are any basic differences between Genesis and geology, the error must be on the side of geology. The authority of the Bible is undisputed. Everything that is contrary to the Bible is wrong. Thank God our Father that He has given us such a complete revelation. If there are any incompatibilities between God and man, we would rather give up man and accept God. If there is no incompatibility, should not feeble human beings all the more believe in the revelation from heaven? Men often laugh at the ridiculous stories of creation circulated among the Chinese, the Babylonians, and other countries. No scientist has to spend much effort to refute these myths. The reason is that there is not much weight to these traditions. This is why they have not attracted much attention. But men's attitudes towards the Bible are very different. The very fact that they have tried their best to resist the Bible proves the power of the Bible. They cannot treat the Bible the same as the traditions of the nations because they have recognized the extraordinary nature of the Bible. All those who have read Genesis 1 cannot fail to marvel at the beauty of its record. How ordinary it is, yet how marvelous! It is a plain record and contains no theory or arguments to prove its authenticity. The writer of the book was not bound by the book, but was transcendent above its record. The true author of the book is the One who is far above the universe it describes--God. Had the recorder of the book, Moses, written this book according to his own learning and ideas, his thoroughly Egyptian-trained intellect would surely have been influenced by the Egyptian theory of creation. Yet who can detect a trace of Egyptian philosophy in Genesis 1? Why is this? It is because God was the One who inspired Moses to do the writing. Otherwise, how could Moses know that the land came out of the water? This is, of course, a fact established by geology and is a modern discovery. Had Moses not been inspired, it would be difficult to explain this fact. As to the development of life on earth, although the Bible does not support the theory of evolution, it does not altogether reject the fact that there was a progression. First, there were aquatic organisms, and then there was man. Would not a scientist marvel at the record of Moses? The omniscient God must surely have given inspiration according to facts; those who were inspired by such an omniscient God cannot be in error. Yet the Bible is not a textbook of science. Its goal is to guide sinners "unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 3:15). Nevertheless, the Bible does not contain any scientific errors. If there are any contradictions with science, it is either a misinterpretation of the Scripture or a misjudgment of science. Many of the definitive statements by geologists in the past have been overturned! Many of their assertions have been proven wrong. Cummings said, "Geology has made mistakes in the past. It is possible that it will be wrong again. The hasty and loud assertions by those who are not too familiar with its theories may be proved inaccurate again."Since the Bible is not a science textbook, it only mentions the "what's" of creation without mentioning the "whys." Science is interested in the "whys." Of course, in many cases it is successful in doing this. But one must not overturn the "what's" with theoretical "whys" just because man's finite mental research has come into conflict with God's record. What God said are the facts because He knows everything. If the world wants to study what God has said and why He has said it, it must not hold on to its own ideas while rejecting God's authority. It is a good thing to have wisdom, but there is one kind of foolishness which is more blessed. Among Christians, there is a popular theory that Genesis 1:1 is a kind of general introduction, and that the work of the six days is actually an expansion of the record of verse 1. In other words, they consider the words "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" as merely a subject of Genesis 1. They say that in the first sentence the writer wrote down a summary of what he was about to say, after which he went at length into an explanation of this sentence. After telling us that God created the heaven and the earth, Genesis goes on to tell us the condition of the earth after creation, and how He created light, air, the land, the plants, and the animals day by day. This popular theory considers Genesis 1 as a record of the creation of the universe, and that the universe was created out of desolation. If we study the first chapter of the Bible carefully, we will see the error in this supposition! This erroneous supposition, not the Bible itself, has put the church into a great debate with the world. This supposition gives men the excuse to say that Genesis is incompatible with geology and casts doubts in the minds of many young people concerning the accuracy of the Bible. In Hebrew, the original language, there are altogether seven words in Genesis 1:1. Each of these seven words has independent meanings. God's inspired record does not say that at the beginning of time, God molded the heavens and the earth into being, or that He made them out of some elements. It says that the heavens and the earth were created. How clear is the word created! To create is to make something out of nothing; it is to create something out of void. It is not to make something out of some existing elements. The word create is Bara in the original language. "In the beginning , God Bara the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). The word Bara is used three other times in Genesis 1 and 2: (1) "And God created (Bara) great whales, and every living creature that moved, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good" (v. 21). (2) "So God created (Bara) man in his own image" (v. 27a). (3) "In it he had rested from all his work which God created (Bara) and made" (2:3b).To create is to make something out of nothing. The great whales and every living creature do not have an outward body only, but a life-element within them. The only way that this can be done is through God's direct work of creation. This is why it says that God created the great whales and every living creature (1:21). There is a very good reason for the Bible to say "created" instead of "made." In the same way, although man's body was made from the dust, 2:7 tells us that man has a spirit and a soul which cannot be made from any physical material. This is why the Bible says that God created man according to His own image. In Genesis 2 there are three words for the act of creation: (1) Bara, which means to make something out of nothing. We have covered this briefly. (2) Asah, which means to make. This word is very different from the first. Bara is to make something out of nothing, while asah means that there is some raw material first, and then something is made out of the raw material. A carpenter can make a chair, but he cannot create a chair. In describing most of the work during the six days, this word is used. (3) Yatsar, which means to complete, has the sense of a potter molding a piece of clay into shape. This is the word used for formed in 2:7. Isaiah 43:7 shows the relationship between these three words: "Everyone who is called by my name, / whom I have created, formed, and even made for my glory." To create is to make something out of nothing, to form is to mold into shape, and to make is to work from some material. Genesis 1:1 uses the word Bara. The phrase in the beginning is a further proof that God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing. There is no need of any hypothesis. Since God has said this, man should believe. If man wants to fathom God's work in the beginning with his finite mind, he will only expose his own presumptuousness! "By faith we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God" (Heb. 11:3). Furthermore, who can answer God's challenge to Job concerning the creation? God created the heaven and the earth in the beginning. The heaven does not refer to the heaven that surrounds our earth but rather to the heaven of the stars. This "heaven" has not changed since the creation of the universe. Although the heaven has never changed, the condition on earth has changed! If we want to understand Genesis 1, it is very important to differentiate between the earth in verse 1 and the earth in verse 2. The condition of the earth in verse 2 was not the condition at the beginning of God's creation. In the beginning when God created the heaven and the earth, His creation was perfect. God is not a God of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33). Therefore, the condition of void and confusion in verse 2 was not the original condition at the time of God's creation. How could God possibly have created an earth that was void and without form? We can answer this question by reading one verse alone. "For thus says Jehovah, / Who created the heavens-- / He is the God / Who formed the earth and made it; / He established it; / He did not create it waste, / But He formed it to be inhabited: / I am Jehovah and there is no one else" (Isa. 45:18). How clear this is! The word waste in this verse is the same as the word without form in Genesis 1:2, which thou are in Hebrew. Unfortunately, translators of the Bible have not used the same word in both places. "He did not create it [the earth] without form." Why then does Genesis 1:2 say that "the earth was without form"? It is easy to find the solution. In Genesis 1:1, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth that God created then was not void and without form. Later there was a cataclysm, and the earth became without form and void. Verse 3 does not refer to the original creation, but to a restored earth. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and then during the six days, He re-created the world. The world in Genesis 1:1 was the original world, while the world in 1:3 is our present world. Genesis 1:2 describes the transitional condition of desolation after the initial world and prior to our present world. We do not base our explanation on Isaiah 45:18 alone (even though Isaiah 45:18 alone is sufficient as a proof). We have other evidences. According to Bible scholars, in Hebrew the first word in verse 2 is a conjunction, which should be translated as and. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form, and void."The "and," according to Hebrew usage--as well as that of most other languages--proves that the first verse is not a compendium of what follows, but a statement of the first event in the record.
For if it were a mere summary, the second verse would be the actual commencement of the history, and certainly would not begin with a copulative. A good illustration of this may be found in the fifth chapter of Genesis (Gen. 5:1). There the opening words, "This is the book of the generations of Adam," are a compendium of the chapter, and, consequently, the next sentence begins without a copulative. -- G.H. Pember, Earth's Earliest Ages, 1942, reprinted 1975, p. 31.
"Therefore, what follows in Genesis 1:2 is not a detailed explanation of the record in 1:1, but an independent, distinct, and later event". The creation of the heavens and the earth is one thing, and the earth becoming without form and void is another. Later we will explain why the earth became void and without form. About a hundred years ago, Dr. Chalmers pointed out that the word was in "the earth was without form" should be translated became. Dr. I.M. Haldeman, G.H. Pember, and others also pointed out that this word is the same as the word became used in Genesis 19:26. "And she became a pillar of salt." If the same word is translated became in 19:26, why should it not be translated the same way here? Even the word became in 2:7 is the same word as in 1:2. Therefore, it is not hypothetical to translate 1:2 the following way: "And the earth became without form." When God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was not without form and void. Later it became such. Let us read a few more verses:"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is" (Exo. 20:11). Comparing these two verses, we can see that the world in Genesis 1:1 was very different from the world in 1:3. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, but in the six days, God made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. There is a vast difference between create and make. One is to have something from nothing, while the other is to improve the things that are in existence. The world can make, but it cannot create, while God can both create and make. This is why Genesis says that "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Later because of the cataclysm, the earth became desolate, and "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is" (Exo. 20:11).Second Peter 3:5 through 7 says the same thing. The heavens and the earth in verse 5 are the heaven and the earth in Genesis 1:1. Verse 6 speaks of the world flooded with water, which is the earth that was without form and void and that was under the water in Genesis 1:2. "The heavens and earth now" in verse 7 is the restored world after Genesis 1:3. There is a clear difference between God's work in the six days and His work of creation at the beginning. The more we read Genesis 1, the more we will see that our explanation above is the proper one. In the first day light was called into being. Before the first day there was already land, but it was "without form and void" and was buried in the deep under the water. On the third day God did not create the land; He merely caused it to appear. F.W. Grant said that the work of the six days merely put a new order to the earth; it did not create something out of nothing. The earth was there already. The Bible never says that the earth was created during the six days. Grant also said, "At which point did the first day begin? Some may think that it began from desolation. Yet this is not true. The `evening' on the first day indicates light had been there since the beginning. `The darkness he called Night,' yet the `evening' is a darkness that is already under the control of light."In the first day God did not create the light; He merely caused the light to appear on the darkened earth. In the same way in the second day, He did not create the heaven. The heaven there was not the heavens, but the atmospheric "heaven" which surrounds the earth. This was not created then. Where then did the atmosphere come from? Our answer is that it was created in verse 1. Therefore, there was no need now to create; there was only the need to restore."In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." There is no detailed discussion here. We do not know if the primordial world was created in an instant or became what it was through an endless period of time. We do not know if it was completed in a few thousand years or millions of years. We do not know the shape and the size of it. All that we know is that "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." We do not know how many years there were between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1. We do not know how long ago God created the heaven and the earth, and we do not know how many years after the creation of the primordial world did the desolation of verse 2 occur. But we believe that there was a long period of time between the perfect creation at the beginning and the later change into something that was without form and void."In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." How much later was it that "the earth became without form and void"? We cannot tell. But we know one thing: there was a long gap between the two expressions. This long gap between the first two verses of Genesis covers the whole prehistoric period. But from verse 3 until now there are less than six thousand years. Since we have proved that there is a big gap between the first two verses of the Bible, all the years which geology demands to exist and all the geological periods associated with these years can fall within this period. We do not know how much time passed on the earth and how many changes occurred on the earth's surfaces and in the atmosphere before there was the condition of void and formlessness; the Bible does not say anything about it. But we can say for sure that the Bible never says that our earth is only six thousand years old. The Bible only testifies that there are six thousand years of human history. If the Bible has not said something, science can conjecture all it wants. But science cannot form conjectures on what the Bible has already said. After we understand the first two verses of the Bible, we can be assured that there is no contradiction between the Bible and geology. All the attacks by geology on the Bible are beating the air. How wonderful is the Word God has written! We are not saying this to please science. God's revelation never wavers before man. We do not give up the Bible's authority in order to accommodate man's inventions. If there are any contradictions between the Bible and science, (and we would expect there to be some, because fleshly man is always at enmity with God), we have no intention to reconcile and annul these differences. The above assertion was not proposed after some geological discoveries, in an effort to reconcile the Bible with science. There were men in the ancient church who spoke about this. At that time, geology was not yet in existence! When men like St. Augustus interpreted Genesis, the world did not yet have the term geology! A Christian does not trust in human wisdom, but in God's Word. We need nothing other than the sure rock of the Bible. As long as we have the "it is written" (Matt. 4:6) in the Scripture, everything is solved. Unfortunately, many apologetics have forgotten their ground; they change the words of the Scripture to accommodate man's teaching. An example is given by A.W. Pink, who noted that after the translation of a certain Assyrian tablet, the apologetics enthusiastically reported that much of the Old Testament history was verified! This turns things upside down! Does the Word of God need verification? If the record on the Assyrian tablet coincides with that of the Bible, it only shows that the Assyrian tablets have no historical error. If they do not agree, it merely proves that the tablets are in error. Worldly men and vain scientists will of course scorn at our logic. But this only goes to demonstrate God's Word which says, "But a soul's man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he is not able to know them because they are discerned spiritually" (1 Cor. 2:14). We must never lower ourselves to appease men. It seems like a good idea to change the Bible to suit man's taste, but doing so changes the true nature of the Bible. How wonderful is Genesis 1! It devotes only one verse to the description of the first creation! It uses only one verse to describe the desolation of the world! This is far less than the thirty or so verses that describe the restoration of the world! Who can come up with a composition that matches the record of Genesis 1? The subject is difficult, yet the explanation is clear; the facts span a long time, yet the description is simple. It does not talk about science, yet it is scientifically accurate. Who except God can compose such writing? The reason God did not say more than this is that He only intended to show man His own relationship with man. J.N. Darby said: This revelation from God is not a history by Him of all that He has done, but what has been given to man for his profit, the truth as to what he has to say to. Its object is to communicate to man all that regards his own relationship with God...But historically the revelation is partial. It communicates what is for the conscience and spiritual affections of man...Thus no mention is made of any heavenly beings...Thus also, regards this earth, except the fact of its creation, nothing is said of it beyond what relates to the present form of it. -- The Synopsis of the Books of the Bible, reprinted 1970, p. 9.Indeed, God's revelation is not given to satisfy human curiosity, but to manifest His Godhead, the world's sinfulness, the way of salvation, and the coming glory and judgments. The present worldly knowledge is indeed dangerous. Unless God bestows grace on man, man would boast in himself and use the knowledge he acquires as a basis to oppose God. How difficult it is for an intellectual person to humble himself! Man can search for knowledge as much as he wants. But God will not supplement this with His revelation. This is why He does not say much in Genesis 1. Our present need is not more science, but deeper spiritual fellowship. Only this will reap real fruit in eternity. We have to praise God the Father because He is full of love! He not only created us, but re-created us, and made us a new creation in the Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus! How sweet is this name! God has given us His Son. What a marvelous grace this is!
THE ORIGINAL WORLD AND AFTERWORDS DESOLATION
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth perfect. Later, after an unknown period of time, the earth which was originally good became waste and empty, without any life whatsoever. God then rose up to recreate the world; He restored the desolate world in six days. In the next chapter we will study the work of the six days. Now we will consider why the world became desolate. How could God allow the work of His hands to be destroyed? Why did such a catastrophe come upon the once beautiful earth? There is probably no other reason besides sin. The question we are considering has no perfectly clear explanation in the Bible. Nevertheless, we can find many shimmering lights in the Word of God which will enlighten us concerning this question and which will enable us to have a little more understanding concerning the former world and the cause of its desolation. Only the Word of God can guide us and our thoughts. The understanding of His Word, regardless of the question being discussed, always brings us edification. The greatest vanity is the reasoning's in man's mind which do not rest on the foundation of God's Word. Although in reading Genesis 3 we cannot find Satan's name, we all know that the serpent was Satan's vessel and perhaps was even the embodiment of the devil. Revelation 12:9 say, "And the great dragon was cast down, the ancient serpent, he who is called the Devil and Satan, he who deceives the whole inhabited earth." Genesis 1 gives no record of the creation of Satan. Where did he come from? This is a problem. Furthermore, we can see many evil spirits in both the Old and New Testaments; we meet them even more frequently in the Gospels. Where did they come from? We also do not see the creation of angels in the six days of work in Genesis 1. Where, then, did the angels who are frequently mentioned in the Bible come from? These questions are all related to our subject. Since the creation of the angels and the other supernatural beings is not recorded in Genesis 1, which covers the work of God during six days, we know that they were not created during that time. Since they were not created within these six days, when were they created? The only explanation is that they were creatures of the former world--the original, perfect world. As the fossil remains clearly show, not only were disease and death--inseparable companions of sin--then prevalent among the living creatures of the earth, but even ferocity and slaughter. And the fact proves that these remains have nothing to do with our world; since the Bible declares that all things made by God during the Six Days were very good, and that no evil was in them till Adam sinned...Since, then, the fossil remains are those of creatures anterior to Adam, and yet show evident tokens of disease, death, and mutual destruction, they must have belonged to another world and have a sin-stained history of their own, a history which ended in the ruin of themselves and their habitation. -- G. H. Pember, Earth's Earliest Ages, 1942, reprinted 1975, pp. 34-35.By reading Jeremiah 4:23-26, we see the reason why the earth became waste and emptiness. Verse 26 says that it was due to "His [Jehovah's] burning anger." Why was the Lord so angry? It was probably because of the sin of the creatures at that time. Isaiah 24:1 says that "Jehovah now makes the earth desolate." Why would the Lord destroy the earth of His original creation? Judging from the history of our own world, we can answer that it was probably because of the sin of the earth's inhabitants which forced God to judge them. We have said before that when we read Genesis, we do not see the origin of Satan. As we look into the cause of earth's desolation in the beginning, our mind will naturally think "an enemy has done this" (Matt. 13:28). Other than attributing the cause to Satan, it seems that we cannot find any other clues in the Bible. We will study a portion of the Bible which seems to tell us the origin of God's enemy and thereby we may know the condition of the former world and the cause of its becoming desolate. Let us now read Ezekiel 28:1-19. These nineteen verses are divided into two sections: (1) verses 1-10 concern the prophet's warning to the prince of Tyrus, and (2) verses 11-19 concern the prophet's lamentations upon the king of Tyrus. The first section, a word to the prince of Tyrus, is easy to understand. He was exalted with pride, considered himself God, and thought that he was wiser than Daniel. Due to his progress in commerce, he became puffed up. Therefore God punished him, causing him to be slain and destroyed by the terrible of the nations. Soon after this prophecy, Nebuchadnezzar of the Chaldeans came and destroyed Tyre. Josephus believed that the prince of Tyrus was Ithobalus, who was called Ithobaal II in the history of the Phoenicians. Since we know that this prophecy has already been fulfilled, it is not difficult for us to interpret verses 1 through 10. But when we read on from verses 11 through 19, we find many places that we do not understand. Since this portion of the Word is very much related to the subject which we are studying now, we quote the text in full: Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou seals up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covered; and I have set thee so: thou was upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more (Ezek. 28:11-19).This section is indeed hard to understand, for it contains many expressions which cannot be applied to any mortal man. If the "king of Tyrus" were only a mortal man, how could we explain the things in verses 11 through 15? How could the king of Tyrus have been in the Garden of Eden or upon the holy mountain of God? How could he have been the anointed cherub that covered the ark? None of the things mentioned here had been the experience of the king of Tyros'. We cannot explain this section simply by spiritualizing it. It is unfair if we spiritualize the interpretation of a section when we encounter difficulties in it. I believe that the first section (vv. 1-10) addressed to the prince of Tyros' was a word spoken to King Ithobalus II, and the second section (vv. 11-19), the lamentation upon the king of Tyros', denotes the coming Antichrist. Verse 2 of this chapter speaks of Tyro "in the midst of the seas." By reading Daniel 11:41-45, we know that when the coming Antichrist will be in Palestine, perhaps he will dwell at Tyro. That is why he was called the king of Tyro here. Moreover, Antichrist is Satan incarnate; therefore, numerous expressions in this section refer to Satan himself. Mr. Darby said, "Verses 11-19, while continuing to speak of Tyro, go, I think, much farther, and disclose, though darkly, the fall and the ways of Satan, become through our sin the prince and god of this world." Dr. A. C. Gaebelein also said that the king of Tyro is a type of the last great sinner (Antichrist), that behind this evil king, we see another power that is Satan; Satan was the power behind the king of Tyros' then, and he still is the god of this age now, who rules the nations of this world. If we have studied the Scriptures carefully, we will realize that the justification for merging Satan and Antichrist in this passage into one being is not contrary to the general teachings of the Scriptures. We know that, although human beings have their own will, their walk is either directed by God's operating (Phil. 2:13) or by the operating of the evil spirits (Eph. 2:2). Human beings are never totally free. Ordinarily, human beings are under the control of the evil spirits. Sometimes, in important matters, Satan himself, in addition to the working of evil spirits, will also participate in the work. Hence, we see him personally coming to tempt Christ in the wilderness. Later, in trying to hinder Christ from going to the cross, he personally used Peter. After that, in attempting to destroy Christ, he entered into Judas. Eventually, on the world stage he will be united to Antichrist. Scripture says that the works of Antichrist are "according to Satan's operation" (2 Thess. 2:9); it is Satan who "gave him his power and his throne and great authority" (Rev. 13:2). Since Antichrist is the incarnated devil, the Holy Spirit speaks of him together with Satan in this passage. In these few verses, the superhuman aspects all refer to Satan himself, and the remainder to Antichrist. Since our purpose is not to study the question of Antichrist, but to know the creatures of the former world and the cause of its desolation, we shall put aside the verses in this portion concerning the Antichrist and concentrate on Satan, who is related to our subject. Now let us consider the words that refer to Satan. Ezekiel 28:12 says that Satan (Note: "Satan" is the name used after he had sinned; he was called the "son of the dawn" and also "Daystar" or "Lucifer" (Isa. 14:12) before his fall. "Satan," which means "adversary," is his name after the fall. For the sake of convenience, we shall call him Satan in the following paragraphs.) "Sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty." This depicts his condition before he had sinned. He was superior to all the other angels. Phrases like "sealest up the sum," "full of," and "perfect" reveal that he was the greatest of all the creation. God had put him above all the creation. Being "full of wisdom" probably refers to his understanding of God's will; if this is true, he might have had the office of a prophet already. The first part of Ezekiel 28:13 says, "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering." When we read Genesis 3, we indeed see Satan there. However, he was not being covered by "every precious stone"; he was tempting Adam and Eve. Hence, the two gardens of Eden are not of the same time. In Adam's Garden of Eden, Satan had fallen, whereas here, it clearly depicts the situation before his fall. Hence, the garden of Eden here must be earlier than the one at Adam's time. If so, then it must not have belonged to the present world but to the previous one. This Garden of Eden, like the coming New Jerusalem, had many precious stones, such as sardius, beryl, etc. The Garden of Eden where Adam lived was not like this. The Bible focuses only on the trees and does not say anything concerning their being covered with precious stones. Hence, the Garden of Eden here must be different from that of Adam and is much earlier. His being covered with the precious stones reminds us of the precious stones on the priest in Exodus. He probably had been appointed by God to be a priest. The latter half of the verse says, "The workmanship of thy tablets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee." In the Bible musical instruments are used by kings. We see how David played the harp for king Saul. When the king of Babylon was destroyed, the sound of his lutes were said to be brought down to Sheol (Isa. 14:11). And when the king of Babylon was pleased, various musical instruments were played (Dan. 3). Satan was a king at that time and these musical instruments were given to him by God. The first half of Ezekiel 28:14 says that he is "the anointed cherub that covered." Anointed indicates that he is consecrated. The work of the cherubim is to lead men to worship the Lord (Rev. 4:9-10; 5:11-14). Therefore, his work in the beginning was also to lead the creatures at that time in the worship of God. This also refers to his priesthood. The latter part of verse 14 says that he was "upon the holy mountain of God" and had "walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire." The holy mountain of God probably is the place where God's glory is manifested. As the priest of God, he would, of course, stand before Him to minister. What does it mean to walk "up and down in the midst of the stones of fire"? Ezekiel 1:26 reveals that the position of the cherubim is below the throne. Now when Moses took seventy of the elders of Israel up the mountain of Sinai, "they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness...And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount" (Exo. 24:10, 17). The paved work of sapphire stone in the appearance of devouring fire probably was "the stones of fire." This indicates that Satan enjoyed a very high place, right below the throne of God, and was very intimate with God. Verse 15 says that he was perfect in his ways from the day that he was created, but that later God found iniquity in him. All of God's creation was perfect; God is not the author of sin. Iniquity was initiated by the archangel who sinned. He was created and given a free will by God just as we were. Unfortunately God's created angel abused his freedom! And how many people are still following his footsteps! The first part of verse 16 says that by the multitude of his merchandise they have filled his midst with violence, and he has sinned. We may refer this word solely to Antichrist. During the end time commerce will be very prosperous (Rev. 18). Many sinful things will be brought in because of this. This can be proven by history.Nevertheless; the same clause may be applied to Satan. Mr. Pember points out that "the word translated `merchandise' may also...signify `detraction' or `slander'; and we know that the very name `Devil' means `the slanderer,' or `malignant accuser'" (Earth's Earliest Ages, p. 52). Thus, we can find out the meaning here. We see how Satan accused Job and tried to destroy him with insidious acts. Also in Revelation 12:10 we read, "Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ, for the accuser of our brothers has been cast down, who accuses them before our God day and night." The casting down here probably corresponds to the casting of Satan out of the mountain of God in Ezekiel. The reason for the casting out in Ezekiel and in Revelation is one and the same, that is, accusation (or slander). Perhaps what was recorded in Ezekiel was the conviction of Satan by God and what was written in Revelation was the sending of Michael by God for the execution of that conviction. Then why would God still allow Satan to remain in the heavens? The reasons seem to be: (1) the time of God has not yet come, and (2) His own children need the furnace to purge away the dross still in them. Ezekiel 28:17 reveals the cause of Satan's fall. His heart was lifted up because of his beauty, and his wisdom was corrupted by reason of his brightness. The king of Babylon as described in Isaiah 14:12-14 bears much resemblance to this verse. Many servants of God believe that the Holy Spirit is not only pointing out the king of Babylon, but in a deeper sense, the cause of the fall of Satan who was behind the king of Babylon. In my view, the record in Ezekiel reveals the cause of his pride, while in Isaiah it shows the manner in which he exhibited his pride. It is probable that after comparing himself with God's other creatures, his heart was lifted up. In the end he tried to exalt himself to be equal with God and thus suffered God's judgment. "How you have fallen from heaven, / O Daystar, son of the dawn! /...But you, you said in your heart: / I will ascend to heaven; / above the stars of God / I will exalt my throne. / And I will sit upon the mount of assembly / On the sides of the north. / I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; / I will be like the Most High" (Isa. 14:12-14). Since he was so proud, God punished him. His authority in the heavens was removed and abolished by God. The remaining part of the prophecy in Ezekiel is not relevant to our subject, and we shall stop here. From the prophecy contained in this passage in Ezekiel, if our interpretation is correct, we can see how God created Satan the fairest and wisest of all His creatures in the former world and made him their leader. God placed him in the garden of Eden, which was long before the Eden of Adam. The things in the former garden, if not altogether different from those of the latter garden, were at least more numerous than the latter. They resemble the future New Jerusalem. He was a prophet there, teaching all the inhabitants of the earth with his wisdom to know how to serve God. He was also there as the priest of God, directing them in the worship and praises of God. He was also the king among the creatures, having been placed in a position that was above all the creation. He must have been in such a condition for a lengthy period of time (v. 15), but because of his sin, he became the greatest enemy of God. So far we have covered the origin of Satan. We shall now proceed to cover Satan's angels and demons, which are under him, and to investigate how they fell and how this affected the earth, causing it to become waste and void. From the New Testament we see that under the hand of Satan there are two living beings: (1) angels and (2) demons. Let us first look at the angels. Matthew 25:41 speaks of "the devil and his angels." Revelation 12:4 says that the dragon's "tail drags away the third part of the stars of heaven, and he cast them to the earth." The stars denote the angels (Rev. 1:20). Therefore 12:9 says, "And the great dragon was cast down, the ancient serpent, he who is called the Devil and Satan,...he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him." These angels were probably the ones established by God in the beginning to assist Satan to rule the world. They were "the congregation of the mighty" and "the gods" in Psalm 82 (cf. John 10:35). When Satan fell, they either conspired or sympathized with him. Therefore, they fell together with him and became today's "rulers," "authorities," "world-rulers of this darkness," "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenliest" (Eph. 6:12). Note that the numbers are plural. These angels are not disembodied demons; they have ethereal bodies. This is why the Lord promises that the children of resurrection will be like the angels in the heaven. Satan has another class of subjects, the evil spirits. Demons and the evil spirits (or filthy spirits) are the same. We can tell this by checking with the translation of the Mandarin Bible. In Matthew 8:16, it firstly mentions the demons, then the spirits. But the Bible translators, seeing that the Holy Spirit used the words "demon" and "spirit" interchangeably, translated both into "demons." In Luke 10:17 the word "demons" is in the original language, but in verse 20 the word "demons" should be "spirits." In these two verses of the Bible we see the Lord Jesus acknowledged the "demons" and the "spirits" to be the same and thus the Chinese Bible translator again translated both as "demons." Matthew 17:18 speaks of the Lord casting out a demon, yet Mark calls this demon an unclean spirit and dumb spirit (Mark 9:25). Demons and spirits are the same. These demons, or spirits, probably were the race who lived in the former world. They helped Satan in his sinning; or, perhaps after Satan sinned, they followed him rather than forsaking him and obeying God. Therefore, they were cut off by God and their bodies were removed from them. Hence, they became disembodied spirits. Although we cannot find any clear evidence in the Bible to confirm this theory, we can find some clues. In Matthew 12 we see the situation of a demon when he left the human body. He became helpless and wandered about. Besides the human body, he could not find another resting place. Therefore, he eventually returned to his original place, the human body. If they were not disembodied spirits, why did they have to enter into man's body? As we read Luke 8, we see how the legion of demons was unwilling to leave the human body. When they had no way to remain in the human body, they even entered the bodies of the swine. Presently in the world they still cling to human bodies. Even some believers are unconsciously possessed by them. They are different from Satan and his angels who do not like to enter human bodies. Satan and his angels still have a spiritual body, but the demons do not. Their character and liking seem to prove that they are the disembodied spirits. Since they are disembodied spirits, where were they when they were disembodied? We know that the spirits of all the dead are in Hades. So, where do these spirits come from? They must have come from the former world. While they were alive, their habitation was probably the former world where Satan exercised his rule. In the Bible we can find another clue that tells us that there were inhabitants in the pre-Adamic world. Isaiah 45:18 shows that the world created by God in the beginning was not waste and empty. Since this verse speaks of the original world, one expression suggests to us the existence of mankind in the previous world. It says, "He is the God / who formed the earth... / He did not create it waste." This clearly refers to the original creation. Following this it says, "He formed it to be inhabited." This seems to clearly tell that the earth then was inhabited by some race. As we read the Bible further, we find clues which indicate that there is a detention place for the demons now. The legion of demons in Gadara must have known this. They were in great fear and begged the Lord that He would not "order them to depart into the abyss," (Luke 8:31) because they would be tormented there (Matt. 8:29). Mr. Pember says that this "abyss" in the original language is abussos; and that "in some passages, such as the ninth chapter of the Apocalypse, this term is evidently applied to a fiery hollow in the centre of the earth: but it is also used for the depths of the sea, a meaning which accords well with its derivation" (Earth's Earliest Ages, p. 60). In the future Satan will be detained in a bottomless pit in the center of the earth. This is revealed in the book of Revelation. The demons are also detained in an abyss now, yet some of them still have freedom. We must wait until God's appointed time comes for them to be completely shut inside. This abyss is probably different from the one in the heart of the earth; it is in the sea. Furthermore, at the final judgment (Rev. 20:11-15) when all the prisoners will have been thrown into the lake of fire, there will be no more sea in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1). However, there may be only one abyss that is divided into two parts. There are other clues concerning the sea being the place of detention for demons. In the Septuagint Bible, the word "deep" in Genesis 1:2 is the same as "abyss" here. We have said that these demons are probably created races that lived in the first world. This corresponds to what we read in Genesis 1:2 because they originally lived on the earth. After sinning, their bodies were destroyed by God; their habitation was judged by God and became without form and void. The whole earth was covered by water and was characterized as "the deep." It follows then that the spirits of the races at that time were in this "deep"! Finally, on the third day when God restored the earth, He commanded the earth to come out from the water and called the gathering of the waters the sea. This earth was prepared for mankind in the new world. Where then have the former demons gone? We can spontaneously answer that they went into the sea. As we read Revelation 20:13, we often do not understand why the sea will give up the dead which are in it. It is understandable to say that death and Hades will deliver up the dead which are in them, but why will the sea give up the dead who are in it? The common interpretation is that the sea surrenders the bodies of those who are drowned. If so, then the earth should also give up its dead because there are more bodies buried in the earth than in the sea. Yet the earth does not give up its dead. Therefore, the sea will give up the spirits of the imprisoned ones and not the bodies of the dead. Men's spirits are in death and Hades; the Bible does not say that the spirits of man are kept in the sea. Then whose spirits will the sea give up? It will give up those who are from the other world, that is, the former world. The sequence here indicates this. "The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them." Those who lived in the former world died first. Therefore, they will be the first beings to be given up; then, we who are of this world will follow after because every man will be judged in his own order. Thus far we have seen the probable origin of Satan, his angels, and the demons. As to how man lived on the former earth, this is something beyond our knowledge. However, we can see some hints in the Bible. Many Bible scholars, Dr. Scofield being one of them, believe that Jeremiah 4:23-26 refers to the condition of Genesis 1:2, in which the earth was without form and void. Although the context of this passage is the desolation of Judah, these few verses of the Scripture have a notably broader view, as if God caused the prophet to view the desolation of the earth in the beginning. If our belief is accurate, then we know that in the former world there was "the fruitful land" and "its cities" (v. 26). The inhabitants then dwelt in cities and some took up farming as an occupation. When they were deceived by Satan, the burning anger of Jehovah came upon them (v. 26) and the earth became "waste and emptiness" (v. 23).From these biblical clues we see the original situation of the earth, the races who dwelt on the earth, the paradise, and the princes, etc. If we are not mistaken in our meditation, we can draw a conclusion concerning the first world and the cause of its desolation as follows: In the beginning of "time" (as opposed to eternity) God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was not waste (Isa. 45:18) but very beautiful and perfect. On this earth there were inhabitants and the number of the inhabitants was great. Before God created the earth and human beings, He had created the angels (Job 38:6-7). He assigned Satan, whom He created, as the leader to be above all the angels. Satan, the most beautiful and wisest of all, the prime of all God's creation, dwelt in the Garden of Eden. God made him the ruler of the world; therefore, he was called "the ruler of the world" (John 14:30). Many angels were under his rule, and these angels shared in ruling with him. Then, because of his position and honor, he became proud. Due to pride, he rebelled and lifted himself up to be equal with God. He was not satisfied with being a creature, but desired to be the Creator. Therefore, he slandered God before the people and accused the people before God. God found out his iniquity and condemned him. When the time comes, he will be cast to the earth. One third of the angels (Rev. 12) followed him in rebellion and, therefore, became the angels of the devil. God has prepared hell for them (Matt. 25:41), and when the time comes, Satan will be cast into it. In the former world, the inhabitants of the earth, being under Satan and his angels' rule, were also deceived and filled up with sins. (We can readily understand this when we consider our world situation today.) Therefore, God's anger was fierce, and He completely destroyed the earth and all the races therein and locked up many spirits in the abyss in the sea. These evil spirits, angels, and Satan himself formed the kingdom of darkness. We do not know how long this period lasted. Later, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters again, and the Triune God began His restoration work on the world. After His restoration of the world, He created Adam and his wife and asked them to guard it, so that there would be man on the earth to cooperate with Him in heaven to stop Satan's power. Perhaps God used Adam to test Satan to see whether he would repent. However, he came to tempt Adam; therefore, God cursed Satan. Because Adam fell, he could not bring the world which was under Satan's rule back to God. On the contrary, the world Adam received from God's hand was given anew to Satan. Since angels and mankind had failed, God came in the person of the Son to be a man, the last Adam. The Lord Jesus became God's prophet, priest, and king. When He was on this earth, He was God's prophet without blemish. When He was about to die, He was able to say, "The ruler of the world is coming, and in me he has nothing" (John 14:30). At His death all who are in Adam were crucified in Him. He was able to include all of the old Adamic creation in His crucifixion because He is God, and He is able to continue on as the new man. His human living had nothing to do with Satan. Through His death and resurrection, He regained the world lost by the first Adam. Every sinner, who is destined to die in the old Adam, can return to God and be saved if he rejects the first Adam through the death of the last Adam and joins himself to Christ in life. This is the meaning of believing in the death of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, whoever believes in the Lord Jesus becomes an enemy of the devil. In everything he attacks us, and in everything we resist him, his angels, and the demons. This is God's purpose in saving man, and this is a real spiritual warfare. Satan was judged once on the "holy mountain of God," and he was judged again on the hill of Golgotha. He has been convicted, yet his judgment has not yet been executed. When the time comes he will be cast down from heaven and when the Son of God returns to this earth, he will be cast into the abyss. After one thousand years he will forever suffer in the lake of fire. Now the Lord Jesus holds the authority which Satan had abused, and He will hold it until all traces of rebellion disappear. He has brought His own blood into the Holy of Holies and has cleansed the heavens; He is now a Priest of God. When He returns, it will be the time of the restoration of all things. He will be a King, ruling this world from heaven with all the overcoming saints, in the same way that Satan ruled with his angels in the former time. At that time He will teach the inhabitants of this earth to know God's will and to worship God, in the same way that Satan did in the former days. The situation in the millennium will be like the situation in the world before Satan sinned. Christ will restore all things to the condition in the "beginning" in order to accomplish God's original purpose. After this He will burn up the whole world, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which the righteous will dwell. Therefore, as God's children we ought to have a deeper enmity for the devil. For thousands of years God's only purpose has been for man to be joined with Him to destroy Satan's authority. Our God is a law-abiding God. He will not take back by force the world which was lost through man. Therefore, He sent His Son to become a man in order to regain what man had lost. We, men who have been saved, ought to cooperate with the unique "Man," the Lord Jesus. In our life, in our work, in our environment, in our dwelling, and in the world, we should resist the works of the devil. Our resistance is in firmness of faith (1 Pet. 5:9), and not by means of fleshly weapons (2 Cor. 10:4), which is the way of social reformers who are being utilized by the demons. Satan was wise and beautiful! But because of his pride, he ended up in complete ruin. It is dangerous for frail mortals to esteem themselves wise and beautiful! Beware, lest being lifted up with pride, you fall into the judgment of the devil (1 Tim. 3:6). Being self-exalted with pride is not a blessing to man; wisdom rests only with those who fear the most high God Jehovah.
THE EARTH RESTORED THE RECOVERY OF THE EARTH IN SIX DAYS
We have seen that in the beginning God created a perfect world. Later, because of the sins committed by Satan and those who dwelt on the earth, they and the earth were judged by God, and the earth became without form and void. Now we will see God's work of restoring the earth. In the book of Job, Job mentions the failure of Satan's rebellion in order to show that it is foolish to dispute with God. "He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered? which removed the mountains, and they know not; which overturned them in his anger; which shakes' the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble; which commanded the sun, and it rises not; and sealed up the stars" (Job 9:4-7). When did God do this? When did He shake the mountains and the earth, and alter the position of the celestial bodies due to man's stubbornness towards Him? Since the time of Adam, such an act of God in the world has not been seen. This passage must be a description of God's judgment on Satan and on the earth under his dominion when he rebelled. At that time God shook the earth and overturned the mountains. The calamity came so swiftly that the mountains were overturned unnoticed. In addition to the earth, the positions of the celestial bodies were also affected. Because of God's judgment, the sun disappeared completely and the stars did not shine. The world was plunged into darkness. There was no sun and no heat was produced. Consequently, this led to the glacial epoch on this earth. Then, after a long period of time, possibly due to internal heat at the earth's core (Rev. 9:2), the ice gradually melted. However, the sun had not yet appeared and the stars were still "sealed up." When the Spirit of God began to move, there was the deep, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. Job not only mentions God's judgment, but also His work of restoration. He says, "Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, / and treadeth upon the high peaks of the sea; / which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, / and wonders without number" (Job 9:8-10, Heb.). The phrase "spread knows? / Or who hath stretched the line upon it? / Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? / Or who laid the corner stone thereof; / when the morning stars sang together." No matter which earth is referred to here, whether the original created earth or the restored earth on the third day, one thing is definite: before the earth was formed, the stars already existed. As the earth was being formed, morning stars were there singing together, praising the work of God. In Genesis God was only rearranging the stars that were there before. After He had gathered the light into the sun and had made it the great light, He restored the stars and made them appear in the sky to meet the needs of the earth. The Holy Spirit inspired Moses to describe God's work with human words because the Bible is written for man. He did not speak of the positions and functions of the sun, moon, and stars, but only mentioned their relationship to the earth and man. Although seasons, days, and years have to do with other creatures, the use of the celestial bodies "for signs" is specifically for man, since no one besides man is able to observe the motions of the celestial bodies in order to make signs. God only speaks about the positions and functions of the sun, moon, and stars according to man's viewpoint. He does not mention other matters. In man's eyes the sun is the greatest light, the moon is the second, and the stars are still smaller lights. Is it not wonderful that God has prepared such an immense universe for men as small as we? On the fifth day, after the dry land and the celestial bodies had been restored, God prepared to create living organisms to inhabit the earth. "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven" (v. 20). God's commandment expressed God's purpose. "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moved, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind" (v. 21). God created these things out of nothing. We do not know what materials God used to make fish and aquatic life. As for the birds, 2:19 tells us that they are made out of the ground. Science tells us that living organisms first existed in the water, then on the ground. Aquatic organisms are the most primitive species among all the animals. Even today, the ocean is still home to the majority of the living creatures. Birds, on the other hand, are the most primitive species of all warm-blooded animals. We can see how closely science resembles the description in the Bible. Although science proves these words, faith believes without the help of science! On the sixth day God went on to create the beasts, the cattle, and the creeping things. Finally, He created man in His own image. We will discuss the creation of man in more detail in later messages. Here we will deal only briefly with the subject. Chapter one covers the creation of man in a brief way to show us man's position among the creatures, while chapter two describes the origin of man in detail to show us man's relationship with God. We should notice that man was "created" by God (v. 27). Man did not evolve from a lower class of animal. The word "creation," as we have mentioned, means the making of something out of nothing. It is a special work of God and not a natural process of evolution. The Bible does not give credence to the theory of evolution, which will forever be a vain idea! On the third day God ordered each type of vegetation, the trees, grass, and vegetables, to yield seed after its kind. Grass cannot change into a tree, neither can one tree change into another kind of tree. On the fifth day aquatic life and birds were all after their kinds. On the sixth day the beasts, cattle, and creeping things were also after their kind. Every creature is after its kind. The Bible does not tell us how these kinds were classified, yet the words "after his kind" is sufficient proof that in those days every creature was of a different kind. Since God has said that everything was "after his kind," the boundary of each kind was set by God. There is absolutely no possibility for one kind to evolve into another kind. Plants cannot change into animals; even one kind of plant cannot change into another kind of plant, neither can one kind of animal change into another kind of animal. We Christians believe in the Word of God. Anything beyond "thus saith the Lord," we will not believe. How much less should we listen to a theory that is contradictory to the Word of God? The Word of God is sufficient to solve all the problems. The world may be scornful of our logic, but we are satisfied with God's Word. Pitiful mortals do not believe in our God. As a result, they drift aimlessly and devise theories for themselves on which to base their faith! They think that it is too incredible for God to bring something out of nothing into being, and to make man out of the dust of the earth. To us, however, for a tiny embryo of one kind of animal to undergo the numerous processes of evolution to become a monkey, and then after many more steps of evolution, to change from a monkey into a man, is something that is far more incredible. Just for a monkey to evolve into a man is incredible. It is much more incredible than God creating man! I warn my readers not to believe such end-times nonsense. Not only should we not believe such talk; we should not even listen to it. We should not read magazines or books that contain these kinds of theories. We thank God that His words are clear and easy to understand. He said, each "after his kind," and all around us we see all animals and plants behaving according to this word. Formerly, evolutionists said that man's ancestors were some sort of animal many thousands of years ago. Now they tell us that after many more thousands of years, our descendents will be formless animals without fingers or toes. They are talking things that belong to many thousands of years ago or many thousands of years in the future, things which we will never see or be able to hold up for questioning! Our Bible is a book of the present. At present, all creatures multiply after their own kind. The Bible does not make irresponsible statements! As noted by many previous writers, "Elohim," one of the names for God in the original Scriptures, is plural in number. However, in Genesis 1:26 the verb used after God is singular in number. It seems incompatible to have a plural noun with a singular verb. However, this indicates that God is three-in-one and one-in-three. Since there is more than one person in the Godhead, the noun does not have a singular designation. Neither are there two persons. Hence, the designation is not dual. Rather, there are three persons. Hence, there is the plural designation "Elohim." Although there are three, there are not three Gods. For this reason, the verb is not plural, but singular. This reveals that God is triune. Although the Bible does not explicitly state that God is triune, we can find many proofs and indications of this fact in the Bible. There is no doubt that the doctrine of the Trinity is indeed a great doctrine in the Bible. Furthermore, the word "us" in verse 26 indicates the plural number in the divine Persons, while the verb "make" indicates the oneness of God's purpose. In chapter one, the words "God said" are used thirty-one times. What God said was God's Word. When we read the Gospel of John 1, we see that all things were made by the Word of God. Genesis 1 alludes to the work of the Lord Jesus in creation. In this way, the Triune God works together in creation. We have "God," "God said," and "the Spirit of God." The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all here. Before God created man, He paused and had a discussion within the Godhead, saying, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion." As we meditate on this discussion, we realize that God was very serious about this matter. This seems to indicate that our previous exposition is correct. Satan, as well as the previous inhabitants of the earth had already failed. God restored the earth and heaven, and made them fit for human habitation. All the living creatures were ready. The Godhead seemed to be taking a pause to talk among them, "Behold, We are going to create man now!" This is the spirit of this passage. Here God tells us His purpose in creating human beings, "let them have dominion." Satan had been defeated. Under God's judgment, he could no longer have dominion over the world. Although in reality he was still free, the judgment on him had already been pronounced. The earth restored by God has nothing to do with Satan; everything on this earth is the expression of a new order. Although Satan still retains his title of "the ruler of this world," the man created by God is endowed with a free will; he has autonomous power. God established man, apart from the authority of Satan, to have dominion over the newly created living creatures and plants, and over all the earth. If man had been able to carefully guard his God-given rights and power, Satan would have held "the ruler of this world" as an empty title only. God wants to annul the authority of Satan since He has already been judged. For God to have ejected Satan would have been quite easy; but for reasons unknown to us, He wants man to be His co-worker to destroy the work of the devil. Therefore, God created man and let him have dominion. This was the position Satan had once held, but lost. Unfortunately, soon afterward man failed. Man lost his right, and Satan regained his power and dominion as ruler of the world. This we will see when we come to chapter three, but let us be clear about one thing: all of God's plan and work in this world has one goal, the elimination of the power of Satan. The Lord Jesus called him the enemy (Matt. 13). Therefore, we believers, as God's chosen people, should constantly bear this purpose of God in mind--the destroying of the power of the devil. In everything we do, we should not ask whether something is good or bad, but how it would benefit God and destroy Satan. If our efforts cannot affect the kingdom of darkness and cause the devil to suffer loss, then we should not do it. In all our work for God, we should not look for superficial results. Rather, we should consider who will profit and who will suffer in the spiritual realm. This is a spiritual warfare and not a struggling in flesh and blood. One day, our judgment before the judgment seat will be measured by this standard. Whether our work will remain or be consumed by fire depends on how much it helps to accomplish God's purpose. The best way to fight against the power of darkness is, on the one hand, to resist in our spirit the work of Satan, not agreeing with his winning, and on the other hand, to use prayer as our weapon by asking God to destroy Satan's work and scheme. At the same time, we should obey God's will practically. Each time we obey God's will, Satan suffers defeat. Man was made firstly in God's image, and secondly after His likeness. This does not refer only to man's physical body. "In God's image" means that man represents God on earth. "After His likeness" means that man is after God's kind; in other words, His race (Acts 17:28). Morally and intellectually, there are similarities between God and man, so that man can know God and fellowship with Him. Unfortunately, man has sinned and lost God's image and likeness. Now man's ignorance in matters concerning God is beyond imagination. Therefore, unless a man is born again from above, he does not know how to fellowship with God. Paul told us that man is "God's image and glory" (1 Cor. 11:7); God made man to express His own glory. God wants to display His glory to Satan in the air. However, the first man failed. Yet the second Man did not fail. He was the express image of God's person (Heb. 1:3, KJV), and He was able to fully express God."And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed,...and every tree, in the which is the fruit...to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast...every fowl...and to every thing that creepeth...I have given every green herb for meat" (Gen. 1:29-30). In the world before sin came, there was no eating of flesh. Eating flesh is a thing of the sinful world. In the coming new heaven and the new earth there is no mention of any eating of flesh; the only thing worthy of eating will be the fruit of the tree of life. In the present order of things, God's opinion is that "every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified through the word of God and intercession" (1 Tim. 4:4-5). In a world that is full of sin, if we try to abstain from meat (4:3), we are denying the fact that the present world is under a curse!"God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). God did not make anything that was not good. Bad things came as a result of sin; they were not creations of God. In this sinful world, we should not murmur against God, because in Him there is no evil, and what He made is all good. God has treated us mortals graciously. He first created various forms of vegetation on the third day and then prepared them as food for the animals. After this He created the fowls on the fourth day, land animals on the fifth day, and man on the sixth day. He set up the whole environment in a good order before He put man in it. If we truly believe this fact, what a consolation it will be to us! God always makes preparations for His creatures this way. For the growth of grass, He first prepared the land; for the support of animal life, He first prepared vegetable life. But because we often fail to see this fact with our naked eyes, we become worried. Blessed are those who have faith to see God and His work! Nothing will shake such a heart! The first three verses of chapter two should belong to chapter one. On the seventh day God did not do any work. He rested on this day. One thing we should notice is that this rest is God's rest and not man's. The Bible tells us that this was God's Sabbath. God worked for six days and then He rested. This rest is not a physical rest, because with God there is no fatigue. "Do you not know, / Or have you not heard, / That the eternal God, Jehovah, / The Creator of the ends of the earth, / Does not faint and does not become weary" (Isa. 40:28). What is the meaning of this rest? This is not a physical but a spiritual rest. God was satisfied. He saw everything that He had made was very good, and He was satisfied. Every careful reader of the Bible will see that this is the meaning of God's rest. God did not ordain the Sabbath here for man to observe. Man had not done any work, so he did not need any rest. It was only after Adam fell that he had to work (Gen. 3:19). At this point, Adam had not sinned. Therefore he did not need to rest on the seventh day. For this reason, we should not consider this Sabbath as something of Jewish law (which we do not need to keep), but rather as the Sabbath in God's creation. We should remember that God did not give the Sabbath to man as just a day to keep. For the period of two thousand five hundred years after that day, there is not one mention of the word "Sabbath" in the Scripture! We should notice one more thing. After the first six days, the phrase "and the evening and the morning'' is included. However, after the seventh day, the Sabbath, there is not such a phrase! After God worked, He rested in the eternal brightness of the night less day! This day of rest is a type of the coming day of rest for God's people mentioned in Hebrews 3 and 4, when the co-workers of God will rest for eternity with Him in a night less day. When we think of that day, does our heart not rejoice?
eth out the heavens" indicates God's work on the second day. God divided the waters with a firmament in their midst and this firmament was called Heaven. So the "high peaks of the sea" probably indicates the waters above the firmament. The phrase "maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades" indicates God's work on the fourth day. The word "maketh" does not mean creates but fashions. God did not create stars at this time, but He fashioned anew the existing stars. In Job 9:7 it says, "Sealed up the stars." This shows that the stars already existed. Genesis 1:16 says, "He made the stars also." This was a restoration to their condition before they were sealed. Having read Job's word, we are more convinced that our exposition is correct. In Genesis God began His work of restoration. He called out for light because the face of the deep was dark, and this light divided the light from the darkness. There was light before, and now light came back. Some mockers have said, "How could there be light without the sun?" However, science no longer laughs at this kind of record in the Bible, and recently science has proven Moses' words to be correct. The record here is "non-science"; it is not "anti-science." The book of God is not intended as a science textbook, yet the word of God is not erroneous according to science. Man now understands that besides the sun there are other sources of light. Light is an energy from an unknown source that produces vibrations of the ether around the universe. This vibration is beyond human imagination. (Of course, the light that we now see relates to the burning of the sun as well as other sources of light.) But scientists cannot tell us about the sources of this energy. Concerning this point, they are fully in darkness; but faith knows. "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. 1:3). It is most pitiful that while there is God, who is the source of all positive things, and in whom everyone should believe, people still reject Him and prefer to grope in the dark, considering it unscientific and superstitious to believe in God's Word! But we are so happy that we not only have God, but that He is also our Father. It does not say that light was created or brought into being by God on the first day. Light has not existed for merely six thousand years. Before light came, darkness was confined to one place, the face of the deep (i.e., the whole earth). Darkness was confined to this one assigned place. When light appeared, it appeared in the same dark place, the whole earth. When God said, "Let there be light" (v. 3), the whole universe was not in darkness. God was merely commanding the light to appear on the surface of this earth. In Moses' time, science did not know of other sources of light besides the sun (such as the Aurora Borealis, the northern lights). But Moses still recorded that God called out the light first, and then made the sun to appear. If this was not a revelation of the Holy Spirit, how could he have made such a statement? Thank God that He is not limited by the ignorance of people. The more the scientists understand the natural laws established by God, the more they realize that the Word of God is worthy of all acceptance."And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day" (v. 5). God did not create the light here because it had existed for a long time; He just called out the light. When did the first day start? Someone said it was from the time when the earth was "without form and void" (v. 2); however, that is not the meaning here. "And the evening and the morning were the first day" (v. 5). "Morning" was the time when the light of the first day appeared. If there were no light before the first day, then the "evening" mentioned here does not make sense. The "evening" came first, and then "the morning." If the morning indicates the time when the daylight first appeared, and if there was no light before the first day, then the evening would indicate the darkness before the light, which would be the prolonged darkness mentioned in verse 2. If that were the case, would not the first evening have been too long? If the evening of the first day was the darkness in verse 2, then the first day would have started from the darkness of the formlessness and void. But Genesis clearly does not consider the formlessness and void as the first day. Hence, before the "evening" of the first day, there was light already. However, this light was not shining on the earth. God called the darkness Night, but "the evening," being different from the night, was darkness under control of the light. For this reason, light existed before "the evening" of the first day; otherwise, how could we differentiate between the evening and the morning? Furthermore, the Bible does not say that God created light on the first day; He just commanded light to appear. Where was the light from? If it was not from the earth which was without form and void and in entire darkness, it must surely have been from the beginning when God created the heaven and the earth. This is a further proof that the world we are in now is a restored world. We should know that each of the six days is a twenty-four hour day. In the Bible a day is often used to represent a period of time, such as "the day of the Lord," etc. But the six days are not six periods. No reader without preconceived opinions would consider these as periods of time. Whenever the Bible uses "day" to stand for a period, there is no numerical indication associated with it. If there is a number before the day, it must indicate the time of one revolution of the earth. Furthermore, it clearly states "the evening and the morning were the first day" (v. 5). Combining evening and morning as the first day is an indication of a twenty-four hour day. Moreover, God later established a Sabbath, according to His own rest on the seventh day. The Sabbath in Exodus 20 is a twenty-four hour day. If the seventh day is a twenty-four hour day, then the six preceding days must also be twenty-four hour days. Again, if we consider these six days as six geological periods, then what corresponds to the "evenings" of these geological periods, and what corresponds to the "mornings" of these periods? Furthermore, if these six days correspond to six geological periods, there would have been no grass or trees on the earth before the third period, and there would have been no animal fossils on the earth before the sixth period. But this is not the case, because there is no separation between animals and plants in the geological strata below the surface of the earth. If the six days were six long periods, then Adam, who was created in the sixth period, would have had to live a long time in paradise before he could have committed sin. Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis, had no thought of using days to represent periods. We must not twist the Word of God to fit our own concept or to lessen people's attack. If we explain the Bible according to our own idea, we will be blamed by others and also put the Holy Scripture in jeopardy. With these proofs we must conclude that these six days were just six days and not six periods. Our God is almighty; one day is sufficient for Him to restore. There is no need for six periods. But since it pleased Him to restore the world in six days, we need to humbly observe God's work and praise His greatness. Why should we adapt ourselves to the opinion of unregenerate people? We know that if geology is correct, the period between verse 1 and verse 2 is long enough to produce all the geological formations of the earth. On the second day God commanded again. God put air in the firmament to divide the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. God separated the waters on the earth from the moisture of the atmosphere. Again, the scientists ought to praise this beautiful record. This is just the phenomenon of the expansion of the air, separating the water in the atmosphere from the water below; and yet the boundary is not immovable. The atmosphere above us can be filled with moisture as recorded in the Bible. This atmosphere is not a solid reservoir to reserve water in the heaven, because verse 20 mentions "fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven." This open firmament is a region or sphere in which fowl could fly around."And God called the firmament Heaven" (v. 8). This "heaven" is different from the "heaven" in verse 1. "Heaven" in verse 1 denotes the whole universe with all its contents. The "heaven" in verse 8 is the "heaven" of this earth. The "heaven" in verse 1 did not deteriorate; only our earth and its celestial position were changed from its original condition due to God's judgment. God saw His works and considered that they were good on five of the six days. After the second day, the words "and God saw that it was good" were not mentioned. Does the Word of God overlook this day? No, the words which God omits are just as meaningful as the words He speaks. Every word and every phrase of the Bible is inspired by God. This omission has something to do with Satan. He is the ruler of the authority of the air (Eph. 2:2). The demons under him are the "spiritual forces of evil in the heavenliest" (Eph. 6:12). God probably saw the air as the dwelling place of Satan and his demons. That is why He did not say that it was good. Some may ask, "How could the evil spirits (Eph. 2:2) ascend to the air?" We have said that their prison was the deep sea which was the "deep" that covered the whole earth. While God was separating the waters, they probably took the chance to escape out of their prison by attaching themselves to the upper waters, and thus they migrated to the heaven where their ruler stayed. This is why we have records in the New Testament of evil spirits existing in heaven and working on earth. Although they are fugitives, God has temporarily allowed them to stay there until the time for them to be thrown into the abyss. Since the air is the headquarters of the kingdom of darkness, most of Satan's work starts from the air. Therefore, when we come together to meet or pray, we should ask God to cleanse the atmosphere with the precious blood of the Lord, in order that we may not be oppressed by Satan. On the third day, although the water was separated, there was still water covering the whole earth and there was no dry land. God commanded again, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear" (Gen. 1:9). What is spoken of here matches what we have already explained. God commanded, "Let the dry land appear," so there was land buried beneath the water for a long time which did not reappear until then. God did not say "Let the dry land come out of nothing." He simply commanded the waters to withdraw, allowing the land which was originally created by Him to reappear. This further proves that the six-day work of God was one of restoration rather than creation. Psalm 104:5-9 speaks about how God created the earth in the beginning, how He then judged the earth, and how He finally rebuked the flood (the third day's work in Genesis) to restore the earth. Jehovah "laid the foundations of the earth, / that it should not be removed for ever" (v. 5). This was God's original creation. "Thou coverers' it with the deep as with a garment: / the waters stood above the mountains" (v. 6). This was the condition after God's judgment over the various creatures then on the earth; this was the water that covered the earth in Genesis 1:2 (compare with 1:9). "At thy rebuke they fled; / at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. / They go up by the mountains; / they go down by the valleys / unto the place which thou hast founded for them. / Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; / that they turn not again to cover the earth" (Psa. 104:7-9). This was God's work on the first half of the third day. "Rebuke" and "thunder" corresponds to God's command in Genesis 1:9. "Fled" and "hasted away" describes how the waters were "gathered together unto one place." "They go up by the mountains, / and they go down by the valleys" does not refer to the creation of mountains and valleys because the mountains were present in Genesis 1:6 already. Rather, it refers to the reappearance of the preexisting but submerged mountains and valleys, after the withdrawal of the waters. It is a description of the mountains and the valleys when "the dry land" appeared after the waters subsided. "Unto the place which thou hast founded for them.
/ Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; / that they turn not again to cover the earth" (Psa. 104:8-9). These few verses explicitly tell us how the waters under the heaven were gathered together into one place to let the dry land appear. Thus we firmly believe that the world we are now in is the result of God's restoration work. The earth coming out of water has also been proven by science. Geologists believe that all geological formations were formed under water. Many people are not clear about the foundations of the earth, as mentioned in Psalm 104:5. We can find out the meaning of the foundations from Genesis 1:10 which says that "God called the dry land Earth." The foundations of the earth refer to the dry lands of the earth, and not to the whole globe. On the third day God had still more work. The land had emerged out of the water, but there was no vegetation. So God came in to adorn it. On the fourth day the restoration of the dry land was complete, so God came in to restore the celestial bodies. Since He had called out the light on the first day, He now made luminaries in the firmament of the heaven and put light into them. The light of the first day had divided the day from the night (vv. 4-5). Now the luminaries also divided the days from the nights; in some respects, the "light" on the first day is similar to the "luminaries." Probably the light of the first day shone on one side of the earth for half a day and then on the other side for half a day. In this way there was day and night on the first day. On the fourth day, God made the luminaries and put the light of the first day into them. As the earth and luminaries rotate around one another, they not only divide the days from the nights, but also become "for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years" (v. 14).The greater light that God made was the sun. Genesis 1:16 does not say that God created the sun because the sun was created in the beginning. God was only doing a work of restoration. The sun was probably a luminary in the pre-Admit world, but after Satan's rebellion, it was also affected and lost all its light, being enveloped by darkness. In spite of this, earth was probably still rotating around it. On the fourth day when God restored the sun, He caused it to receive and emit light again and thus became a luminary once more. Scientists tell us that the moon is a dead and desolate wilderness. If that is the case, it is quite conceivable that after Satan's revolt, the sun, the moon, and the stars were all affected. After God made the two great lights, He also made the stars. We should again note that the stars were not created then, because they existed long before. Job provides evidence. In Job 38:4-7 Jehovah said, "Where waste thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? /...Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knows? / Or who hath stretched the line upon it? / Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? / or who laid the corner stone thereof; / when the morning stars sang together." No matter which earth is referred to here, whether the original created earth or the restored earth on the third day, one thing is definite: before the earth was formed, the stars already existed. As the earth was being formed, morning stars were there singing together, praising the work of God. In Genesis God was only rearranging the stars that were there before. After He had gathered the light into the sun and had made it the great light, He restored the stars and made them appear in the sky to meet the needs of the earth. The Holy Spirit inspired Moses to describe God's work with human words because the Bible is written for man. He did not speak of the positions and functions of the sun, moon, and stars, but only mentioned their relationship to the earth and man. Although seasons, days, and years have to do with other creatures, the use of the celestial bodies "for signs" is specifically for man, since no one besides man is able to observe the motions of the celestial bodies in order to make signs. God only speaks about the positions and functions of the sun, moon, and stars according to man's viewpoint. He does not mention other matters. In man's eyes the sun is the greatest light, the moon is the second, and the stars are still smaller lights. Is it not wonderful that God has prepared such an immense universe for men as small as we? On the fifth day, after the dry land and the celestial bodies had been restored, God prepared to create living organisms to inhabit the earth. "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven" (v. 20). God's commandment expressed God's purpose. "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moved, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind" (v. 21). God created these things out of nothing. We do not know what materials God used to make fish and aquatic life. As for the birds, 2:19 tells us that they are made out of the ground. Science tells us that living organisms first existed in the water, then on the ground. Aquatic organisms are the most primitive species among all the animals. Even today, the ocean is still home to the majority of the living creatures. Birds, on the other hand, are the most primitive species of all warm-blooded animals. We can see how closely science resembles the description in the Bible. Although science proves these words, faith believes without the help of science! On the sixth day God went on to create the beasts, the cattle, and the creeping things. Finally, He created man in His own image. We will discuss the creation of man in more detail in later messages. Here we will deal only briefly with the subject. Chapter one covers the creation of man in a brief way to show us man's position among the creatures, while chapter two describes the origin of man in detail to show us man's relationship with God. We should notice that man was "created" by God (v. 27). Man did not evolve from a lower class of animal. The word "creation," as we have mentioned, means the making of something out of nothing. It is a special work of God and not a natural process of evolution. The Bible does not give credence to the theory of evolution, which will forever be a vain idea! On the third day God ordered each type of vegetation, the trees, grass, and vegetables, to yield seed after its kind. Grass cannot change into a tree, neither can one tree change into another kind of tree. On the fifth day aquatic life and birds were all after their kinds. On the sixth day the beasts, cattle, and creeping things were also after their kind. Every creature is after its kind. The Bible does not tell us how these kinds were classified, yet the words "after his kind" is sufficient proof that in those days every creature was of a different kind. Since God has said that everything was "after his kind," the boundary of each kind was set by God. There is absolutely no possibility for one kind to evolve into another kind. Plants cannot change into animals; even one kind of plant cannot change into another kind of plant, neither can one kind of animal change into another kind of animal. We Christians believe in the Word of God. Anything beyond "thus saith the Lord," we will not believe. How much less should we listen to a theory that is contradictory to the Word of God? The Word of God is sufficient to solve all the problems. The world may be scornful of our logic, but we are satisfied with God's Word. Pitiful mortals do not believe in our God. As a result, they drift aimlessly and devise theories for themselves on which to base their faith! They think that it is too incredible for God to bring something out of nothing into being, and to make man out of the dust of the earth. To us, however, for a tiny embryo of one kind of animal to undergo the numerous processes of evolution to become a monkey, and then after many more steps of evolution, to change from a monkey into a man, is something that is far more incredible. Just for a monkey to evolve into a man is incredible. It is much more incredible than God creating man! I warn my readers not to believe such end-times nonsense. Not only should we not believe such talk; we should not even listen to it. We should not read magazines or books that contain these kinds of theories. We thank God that His words are clear and easy to understand. He said, each "after his kind," and all around us we see all animals and plants behaving according to this word. Formerly, evolutionists said that man's ancestors were some sort of animal many thousands of years ago. Now they tell us that after many more thousands of years, our descendents will be formless animals without fingers or toes. They are talking things that belong to many thousands of years ago or many thousands of years in the future, things which we will never see or be able to hold up for questioning! Our Bible is a book of the present. At present, all creatures multiply after their own kind. The Bible does not make irresponsible statements! As noted by many previous writers, "Elohim," one of the names for God in the original Scriptures, is plural in number. However, in Genesis 1:26 the verb used after God is singular in number. It seems incompatible to have a plural noun with a singular verb. However, this indicates that God is three-in-one and one-in-three. Since there is more than one person in the Godhead, the noun does not have a singular designation. Neither are there two persons. Hence, the designation is not dual. Rather, there are three persons. Hence, there is the plural designation "Elohim." Although there are three, there are not three Gods. For this reason, the verb is not plural, but singular. This reveals that God is triune. Although the Bible does not explicitly state that God is triune, we can find many proofs and indications of this fact in the Bible. There is no doubt that the doctrine of the Trinity is indeed a great doctrine in the Bible. Furthermore, the word "us" in verse 26 indicates the plural number in the divine Persons, while the verb "make" indicates the oneness of God's purpose. In chapter one, the words "God said" are used thirty-one times. What God said was God's Word. When we read the Gospel of John 1, we see that all things were made by the Word of God. Genesis 1 alludes to the work of the Lord Jesus in creation. In this way, the Triune God works together in creation. We have "God," "God said," and "the Spirit of God." The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all here. Before God created man, He paused and had a discussion within the Godhead, saying, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion." As we meditate on this discussion, we realize that God was very serious about this matter. This seems to indicate that our previous exposition is correct. Satan, as well as the previous inhabitants of the earth had already failed. God restored the earth and heaven, and made them fit for human habitation. All the living creatures were ready. The Godhead seemed to be taking a pause to talk among them, "Behold, We are going to create man now!" This is the spirit of this passage. Here God tells us His purpose in creating human beings, "let them have dominion." Satan had been defeated. Under God's judgment, he could no longer have dominion over the world. Although in reality he was still free, the judgment on him had already been pronounced. The earth restored by God has nothing to do with Satan; everything on this earth is the expression of a new order. Although Satan still retains his title of "the ruler of this world," the man created by God is endowed with a free will; he has autonomous power. God established man, apart from the authority of Satan, to have dominion over the newly created living creatures and plants, and over all the earth. If man had been able to carefully guard his God-given rights and power, Satan would have held "the ruler of this world" as an empty title only. God wants to annul the authority of Satan since He has already been judged. For God to have ejected Satan would have been quite easy; but for reasons unknown to us, He wants man to be His co-worker to destroy the work of the devil. Therefore, God created man and let him have dominion. This was the position Satan had once held, but lost. Unfortunately, soon afterward man failed. Man lost his right, and Satan regained his power and dominion as ruler of the world. This we will see when we come to chapter three, but let us be clear about one thing: all of God's plan and work in this world has one goal, the elimination of the power of Satan. The Lord Jesus called him the enemy (Matt. 13). Therefore, we believers, as God's chosen people, should constantly bear this purpose of God in mind--the destroying of the power of the devil. In everything we do, we should not ask whether something is good or bad, but how it would benefit God and destroy Satan. If our efforts cannot affect the kingdom of darkness and cause the devil to suffer loss, then we should not do it. In all our work for God, we should not look for superficial results. Rather, we should consider who will profit and who will suffer in the spiritual realm. This is a spiritual warfare and not a struggling in flesh and blood. One day, our judgment before the judgment seat will be measured by this standard. Whether our work will remain or be consumed by fire depends on how much it helps to accomplish God's purpose. The best way to fight against the power of darkness is, on the one hand, to resist in our spirit the work of Satan, not agreeing with his winning, and on the other hand, to use prayer as our weapon by asking God to destroy Satan's work and scheme. At the same time, we should obey God's will practically. Each time we obey God's will, Satan suffers defeat. Man was made firstly in God's image, and secondly after His likeness. This does not refer only to man's physical body. "In God's image" means that man represents God on earth. "After His likeness" means that man is after God's kind; in other words, His race (Acts 17:28). Morally and intellectually, there are similarities between God and man, so that man can know God and fellowship with Him. Unfortunately, man has sinned and lost God's image and likeness. Now man's ignorance in matters concerning God is beyond imagination. Therefore, unless a man is born again from above, he does not know how to fellowship with God. Paul told us that man is "God's image and glory" (1 Cor. 11:7); God made man to express His own glory. God wants to display His glory to Satan in the air. However, the first man failed. Yet the second Man did not fail. He was the express image of God's person (Heb. 1:3, KJV), and He was able to fully express God."And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed,...and every tree, in the which is the fruit...to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast...every fowl...and to every thing that crept...I have given every green herb for meat" (Gen. 1:29-30). In the world before sin came, there was no eating of flesh. Eating flesh is a thing of the sinful world. In the coming new heaven and the new earth there is no mention of any eating of flesh; the only thing worthy of eating will be the fruit of the tree of life. In the present order of things, God's opinion is that "every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified through the word of God and intercession" (1 Tim. 4:4-5). In a world that is full of sin, if we try to abstain from meat (4:3), we are denying the fact that the present world is under a curse!"God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). God did not make anything that was not good. Bad things came as a result of sin; they were not creations of God. In this sinful world, we should not murmur against God, because in Him there is no evil, and what He made is all good. God has treated us mortals graciously. He first created various forms of vegetation on the third day and then prepared them as food for the animals. After this He created the fowls on the fourth day, land animals on the fifth day, and man on the sixth day. He set up the whole environment in a good order before He put man in it. If we truly believe this fact, what a consolation it will be to us! God always makes preparations for His creatures this way. For the growth of grass, He first prepared the land; for the support of animal life, He first prepared vegetable life. But because we often fail to see this fact with our naked eyes, we become worried. Blessed are those who have faith to see God and His work! Nothing will shake such a heart! The first three verses of chapter two should belong to chapter one. On the seventh day God did not do any work. He rested on this day. One thing we should notice is that this rest is God's rest and not man's. The Bible tells us that this was God's Sabbath. God worked for six days and then He rested. This rest is not a physical rest, because with God there is no fatigue. "Do you not know, / Or have you not heard, / That the eternal God, Jehovah, / The Creator of the ends of the earth, / Does not faint and does not become weary" (Isa. 40:28). What is the meaning of this rest? This is not a physical but a spiritual rest. God was satisfied. He saw everything that He had made was very good, and He was satisfied. Every careful reader of the Bible will see that this is the meaning of God's rest. God did not ordain the Sabbath here for man to observe. Man had not done any work, so he did not need any rest. It was only after Adam fell that he had to work (Gen. 3:19). At this point, Adam had not sinned. Therefore he did not need to rest on the seventh day. For this reason, we should not consider this Sabbath as something of Jewish law (which we do not need to keep), but rather as the Sabbath in God's creation. We should remember that God did not give the Sabbath to man as just a day to keep. For the period of two thousand five hundred years after that day, there is not one mention of the word "Sabbath" in the Scripture! We should notice one more thing. After the first six days, the phrase "and the evening and the morning'' is included. However, after the seventh day, the Sabbath, there is not such a phrase! After God worked, He rested in the eternal brightness of the night less day! This day of rest is a type of the coming day of rest for God's people mentioned in Hebrews 3 and 4, when the co-workers of God will rest for eternity with Him in a night less day. When we think of that day, does our heart not rejoice?

Posted by: rafael | October 17, 2007 10:32 PM

rafael, your acceptance of ignorance is overwhelming.

Posted by: Some Random Dude | December 10, 2007 4:00 PM

THE MEANING OF LIFE

1. THE PURPOSE OF MAN'S EXISTENCE
Who we are? Why are we in this world? Where are we going?
Have you ever asked yourself why this questions and what the meaning of the human life is? No matter what type of person you are or what your profession is, there are a few things which you, like most people, would agree with, that is:
Money cannot satisfy man; neither can education satisfies man, nor can
Pleasure do not satisfy man, Nor can success satisfy man.
WHY?
Because you have not yet realized:
2. GOD'S PLAN
God has a plan. Which is to deposit his life into man his plan has everything to do with man? In the bible there are tree different words in Greek to designated the word "life"
1. Bios referring to the biological life our body
2. Psycho referring to the soul logical means study. The word Psychology means the study of the soul, emotions, mind and will.
3. There is another word for life that is Zoe the highest life. Whenever the bible speaks of eternal life speak of Zoe. In a Greek dictionary you will find the distinction.
This is the reason why, Gods plan with the man he created , in first place is not to bring him to heaven, neither to save Him from hell. But to receive the life that was not created. God's life.
His plan with man is complete, from creation, while living in earth, and the future.
This is the reason why God created man different than the rest of his creation
1. MAN HAS GOD'S IMAGE
Please read the following verse:
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...."Genesis 1:26a
God's creation of man is different from His creation of all other things. He created man in His own image. A glove is created according to the likeness of a hand with the purpose of containing the hand.Likewise, man was created in the image of God with the purpose of containing God.
2. MAN IS A VESSEL
Now read the next verse:
God "should make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy...even us."Romans 9:23-24
We are vessels of God. God wants to be our content. As bottles are made to contain water, we are made to contain God.
It is no wonder that knowledge, wealth, pleasure, and accomplishment can never satisfy you, for you were created to contain God!
3. THE PARTS OF MAN
Please continue by reading the next verse:
"May your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete?"1 Thessalonians 5:23
Man is God's vessel. The Bible divides this vessel into three parts--the spirit, the soul, and the body. See diagram below:

The BODY is simply the physical body, belonging to the physiological level, contacting the things of the material realm, and is the most superficial part.
The SOUL is the mental faculty, belonging to the psychological level, contacting the things of the mental realm, and is a deeper part.
The SPIRIT is the deepest part of man, belonging to the spiritual level, and contacts the things of God.
For problems of the body one may see a doctor. For problems of the mind one may visit a psychiatrist. Yet only God can solve the problems of the spirit.
4. GOD'S ECONOMY
God wants to enter into man's spirit, to become his content and his satisfaction.
This is the purpose of human existence! You are not merely created to contain food in your stomach, or to contain knowledge in your mind, but you are created to contain God in your spirit.

1. THE TWO NATURES OF MAN
Since man was made in the image of God, he possesses a good nature that matches God's nature, with virtues such as truthfulness, goodness, loveliness, wisdom, kindness, and valor.
However, there is also an evil nature in man which wars against his good nature. The Chinese met physicists refer to this war as a battle between reason and lust. Throughout history, both in the East and West, those who understand human nature acknowledge the existence of this evil nature which the Bible calls:
2. SIN
Because sin is in man, he is unable to carry out his good intentions.No one likes to be greedy, jealous, or murderous. No one likes to be boastful, arrogant, or deceitful. No one likes to be irritable, licentious, or lustful. No one likes to murmur, complain, or curse.
Nevertheless, man cannot escape his evil nature. Please read the following verses:
"For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but to do the good is not."Romans 7:18
"But if what I do not will, this I do, it is no longer I that do it but sin that dwells in me."Romans 7:20
This is a portrait of man.
3. THE FALL OF MAN
Sin entered into man and caused him to fall. See diagram below:
(1) Sin caused man's spirit to be deadened:
"And you, being dead in your offenses and sins."Ephesians 2:1
(2) Sin caused man's mind to rebel:
"And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by evil works."Colossians 1:21
(3) Sin caused man's body to sin:

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to obey its lusts."Romans 6:12
The fallen man is like: A damaged and untunable radio which cannot receive and play music, but rather meaningless noise. He is also like:A cup that has fallen into the gutter still having its original fine form but now covered with mud.
4. MAN CANNOT SAVE HIMSELF
Throughout history, man has tried every possible way to escape sin, but he has found that:
Good works cannot save him from sin. Education cannot save him from sin. Ethics cannot save him from sin. Chanting cannot save him from sin.Religion cannot save him from sin.
This picture of man simply depicts the battle between his good nature and his evil nature.

1. WHO IS CHRIST?
Christ is the Savior sent from God to the world to solve the problems of human life.
He is the embodiment of the Triune God.
"For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."Colossians 2:9
He is also God incarnated:
"The Word was God...the Word became flesh and tabernacle among us...full of grace and reality."John 1:1, 14
Therefore, He is both the complete God and the perfect man. See the following diagram:
He is more than a good man! He is more than a great man! He is more than moral man! He is more than a holy man! He is the God-man!

2. THE DEATH OF THE GOD-MAN
This God-man was nailed to the cross to accomplish the work of redemption. He died with three statuses:
(1) As the Lamb of God, He died to take away man's sin.
"...the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."John 1:29
(2) As the brass serpent that had been lifted up, He died to crush the old serpent, Satan, and to deal with the serpent's poison within man--his sinful nature.
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."John 3:14
(3) As a grain of wheat, He died to release the divine life.
"...a grain of wheat...dies, it bears much fruit."John 12:24
NOW:
His death has taken away the sin which man has but should not have!His death imparts into man the life which he needs but does not have!

1. THE TWO BECOMINGS OF CHRIST
God became flesh, born as a man called Jesus. Please read the following verse:
"The Word became flesh and tabernacle among us."John 1:14
The Lord became the Spirit called the life-giving Spirit by His resurrection from the dead. Read the following verse:
"The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit."1 Corinthians 15:45
Since this Spirit is the life-giving Spirit, He dispenses God with His life into His believers.
Hence, the Bible says:
"He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."1 John 5:12
2. REGENERATING MAN
In his first birth, man obtains a physical life.
When man receives God's life through Christ, he experiences a second birth, which the Bible calls regeneration.

"God...has regenerated us...through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead."1 Peter 1:3
Jesus said, "Unless a man is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."John 3:3
A pig cannot participate in the sheep's kingdom and live a sheep's life by education, improvement, or regulation; it must possess the life of a sheep.
Similarly, man cannot participate in God's kingdom and live a divine life by education, improvement, or regulation; he must receive the life of God!
3. THE MEANING OF BEING A CHRISTIAN
A Christian is one who receives God's dispensing. God first dispenses Himself into our spirit and then spreads from our spirit into our soul. Finally, He fills and saturates our spirit, soul, and body with Himself. The Bible calls this final stage glorification.
"And whom He predestinated, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified."Romans 8:30
Through this, we can be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ.
"Because whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son."Romans 8:29
This is the purpose of human life!This is the meaning of being a Christian!This is what God has planned for you!

WHAT MUST YOU DO NOW?
Now that you have realized God's plan, you should do four things:
1. TURN YOUR HEART TO GOD--REPENT
Repentance is not to be remorseful. Repentance is neither to turn over anew leaf. Repentance is to have a change in mind.
Previously you had your back towards God. Whether you were doing good or evil, you were turned away from God. Your mind was turned away from God. Now listen to what the Lord Jesus said:
"Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near."Matt. 4:17
2. BELIEVE--RECEIVE
To believe is not to nod your head, nor to agree, nor merely to be appreciative.
If someone gives you a watch, it is not enough for you just to nod your head in agreement and admire the watch. You need to receive it. Believing is just receiving. Read the following verse:
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name."John 1:12
3. CONFESS--CALL
Being a Christian is an open matter. God requires that your heart believe and that your mouth confess.
If your heart does not believe, you cannot be saved.
If your mouth does not confess, neither can you be saved. But:
"...if you confess with your mouth, Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from among the dead, you shall be saved."Romans 10:9
4. BE BAPTIZED--TESTIFY
Baptism is a testimony before men. All believers should be baptized in order to be saved not only before God, but also before men.
The Lord Jesus said:
"He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned."Mark 16:16
Through baptism, God transfers us from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God. For this reason, the Lord Jesus said:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."John 3:5
NOW PLEASE PRAY:
"Lord Jesus! I am a sinner. I need You. Come into my spirit. Take away my sin. Fill me that I may have the life of God. I receive You right now as my Savior and life. I give myself to You. I ask this in Your name, Amen!"
Now you are clear about the meaning of human life! May the Lord bless you and cause you to continue living in God's plan!
Now, pray often, read the bible, you are the church, the church is not a physical building, neither an organization is the body of Christ Ephesians 1:22, we are the house of God Hebrews 3;6 we are Gods temple I Corinthians 6:19 and in eternity we will be the bride of Christ Revelations 21:2 . But after Eternity we will return to the source and origin of all things God the Father, Colossians 3: "a renewal in which is not distinction between Greek and Jews, circumcise or uncircumcised, barbarian or Scythian, slaves or free man but Christ" Galatians 3:25 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave or free man, neither male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" This Christ Jesus is the new man Ephesians: 2:15 " By abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contain in ordinances , the in Himself He might make of the two one new man" This new man said in John 20:17 "I ascend to my Father and your Father" By him we became the many brothers of Christ and He is not ashamed to call us his brothers Hebrews: " for this reason He is not ashamed to call us brothers" He is our older brother Romans 8:" That He might be the first born among many brothers" Our older bother Christ is our Wisdom, He is Our Physician , our light, and the one whom together with us his young brothers He will give all the infinite universe even us to the Father so that God the Father ICo 15:29 " God maybe all and in all" the whole universe will return to Him and he will be in the all universe and in us". God the Father since we were created He has place in us the desire of have Him. Regardless you are a believer or unbeliever, moral or immoral, wise or fool, He is waiting for you and He will run to you as soon you look for Him.

Posted by: rafael | January 4, 2008 1:27 PM