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Showing posts from February, 2017

Genesis, Foundations, and Persecution

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen As I have stated many times, all major Christian doctrines have their origins in Genesis , which is foundational for the Christian faith. Some folks wave off Genesis and creation as incidental and want to get to what they consider the "good stuff", but they are doing themselves (and others) a tremendous disservice. Of course, atheists, theistic evolutionists, and other owlhoots malign Genesis because it threatens their faith in evolutionism, and they know the importance of Genesis to the Christian faith. Why do we wear clothes? It's found in Genesis. When did sin begin? Genesis. What is first promise of the Redeemer? Genesis, again. What is the foundation for marriage? That's right, Genesis again. The world is increasingly hostile to the truth of Scripture as well as more accommodating to secularism and atheism. Although persecution in the West is mild in comparison to what Christians endure in other parts of the world, it does exist and is

Adam and the Tree of Life

Some folks may miss the important of the tree of life if they're quickly reading the Bible. (It's also very difficult to find a public domain image of it.) This tree first mentioned in Genesis 2:4, along with the one we've heard about quite a bit more, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Adam sinned, death entered the world (Gen. 2:16-17, Rom. 5:12, 1 Cor. 15:22). There are people who will agree with Satan and charge God with lying, because we read in Genesis 2:17, "...for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die", and Adam lived 930 years. That's one of the problems we have with translation, especially ancient Hebrew to modern English: meanings are difficult to communicate and still make the text readable. More literally, it reads, "dying you shall die". Adam and Eve were not going to die, but by eating the forbidden fruit, they began the dying process. Image credit: Pixabay / OpenClipart-Vectors God did not want Adam an

Creation in Evangelism

For Question Evolution Day , I thought it would be helpful to emphasize the importance of a strong position on biblical creation when presenting the gospel message. Some people claim that creation is unimportant in evangelism, it's just a side issue after all, and we should just focus on Jesus. Some who believe that Earth is old, especially theistic evolutionists, spread the falsehood that creation is a hindrance to the gospel. Not hardly! Yes, creation is a sort of " side issue ", but it is still very  important. Image credit: Pixabay / qimono When Peter preached in Acts, it was to monotheistic Jews. Paul preached to pagans, and went back to creation as the foundation. Creation evangelism is important on the mission field  and in paganized evolutionary cultures in western society as well as elsewhere. Genesis is the source of all major Christian doctrines, and it is the most attacked section of Scripture. Atheists and evolutionists have teams hitched up to their

Liberal Theology Fails Churches

Before we saddle up for the journey, I wanted to share some personal remarks from my history. Way back when, my father was the pastor in the liberal United Methodist Church denomination. He denied the inerrancy of Scripture, supported the ordination of women as pastors, and had other unsavory views. (Interestingly, he was against ordaining homosexuals, and was ready to resign if the denomination passed that in a vote. Sad that it was subject to a vote in the first place! He also rejected evolution, and that was before all the evidence we have refuting it and affirming special creation that we have today.) The UMC denomination has become far more liberal after his time. When I attended a Christian high school and learned the truth of the Bible, things began to get my attention, such as the phrase "reach the unchurched". Seemed to me that they were more interested in building up numbers than in reaching the lost with the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Also, after I had left

The Source of True Knowledge

Scoffers are fond of their own wisdom and knowledge, but that is based on worldly standards and comparisons to other people. They presume that the Bible is mostly (or completely) worthless, but therein lies the starting point of all true knowledge and wisdom. Image credit: pazham at FreeDigitalPhotos.net People who deny God usually have a materialistic worldview that has no room for the Creator that they know exists, but suppress that truth. If God did not exist and we were the product of time, chance, random processes and so forth, we would not be able to trust our own reasoning. How do we know that God exists and the Bible is His Word? Many people think God’s existence is just like any other truth claim—a hypothesis we can confirm or falsify by proper reasoning from more certain knowledge. Commonly, people start with the things they know for sure by their own experiences and then reach a conclusion about God’s existence. Perhaps their experience with cause-and-effect leads