Biblical Creation and Evangelism

To be frank (mind if I call you Frank?), operating an online creation science ministry and writing weblogs gets mighty frustrating. While attacks by atheopaths go with the territory (it is who they are and what they do), unprepared and apathetic Christians are hard to take. I have prayed many times if the Lord wants me to continue. Lack of response by readers is cumbersome, but prophets in the Old Testament were told to preach repentance. Few people listened. We can only speculate on details, but Noah was a herald of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). Noah Offers up Thanks / Joseph Anton Koch , 1814 God promised that he would be saved along with his family in the Ark, which may have been in the back of his mind that preaching repentance was in vain. It is probable that he tried to convince people to repent and come along — there was plenty of room. People were constantly wicked which is probably why there were no takers. Preaching and teaching may appear to be futile, whether repentance to ...

One of the disheartening things about Easter is how the secular world turns the event into a merchandising opportunity, all about selling candies and other stuff. It gets worse every year. Also, uninformed Christians join with professing atheists in wrongly saying that Easter is a pagan holiday . It is of first importance to proclaim the bodily Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Unfortunately, Christians can add to the distractions mentioned above by over-spiritualizing the Resurrection and forgetting about the physical aspects in our blessed hope. Looking outward from the empty tomb, Unsplash / Pisit Heng Sometimes when we write, we word things in such a way as to anticipate skeptics. This is common among apologists. Paul the Apostle added some details and explanations presumably because of heresies that were already developing. In contrast, the Resurrection accounts in the Gospels were straightforward narratives. Also, keep in mind that the disciples clearly believed what they were...

The doctrine of the Trinity is essential, even though the word itself does not appear in Scripture. It has been believed by churches that call themselves Christian for centuries, but less so nowadays because of increasing apostasy. The church fathers also taught this vital doctrine. People like to understand things. The Trinity, where Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one person and not three, is hard to understand. Christians accept it by faith and can see the Trinity is clearly taught in the Bible. However, atheists, people of other religions, and liberal professing Christians deny it. Trefoil (Trinity) symbol image credit: Pixabay /  Philip Barrington There are those who try to justify their unbelief by cherry-picking verses in an effort to use the Bible against itself. Sometimes they resort to ridicule, acting like atheists or flat-earthers. S ome do not think logically, p ossibly because they are emotionally invested in being "right." What follows are links to a two-part ...

There is a question that is common to believers, skeptics, children, and others about how the church got the books of the New Testament. (Someone said that the Bible was written by "old wise men," which shows an assertion based on massive ignorance.) It is also fair to ask what the early church accepted. In the early days, Christians were persecuted and had to meet in secret. There were also false gospels and letters supposedly signed by the apostles that would crop up that had to be evaluated. First page of Genesis, RGBStock /  Billy Frank Alexander With an exception regarding the book of Revelation , almost all of the books in the New Testament were accepted by the early church. When someone came along and dropped a Gospel of Thomas  or a history of the childhood of Jesus (the latter apparently had some pretty wild stuff), for example, those texts were examined for some key details. God inspired the Bible but worked through human authors and copyists who wrote the original ...

A topic that causes a great deal of discussion is the global Genesis Flood, and especially why it happened in the first place. There are many details that can be covered (and have been by others) which would make this post excessively long. I was in a discussion the other day, and the method  of the Judgment caused some speculation. God could have sent a plague, stopped atoms in their paths and everything would instantly disintegrate, or something else. Yet he chose t0 send a global deluge. Noah's Ark, Pixabay /  Jeff Jacobs There were several reasons for the Judgment that can be summed up by saying that humanity had become violently evil all the time. It may be hard for some folks to accept, but God is sovereign and has the right to judge people. He is holy, mankind is sinful. In his mercy, he saved eight people and many critters to start repopulating the world after the Flood. When reading the Old Testament, there are several instances where people set up stones as monuments...

Certain sky watchers are looking for trouble from asteroids, and they sound the alarm if some look like they will track too close to the earth. A big 'stroid giving us a near miss will still cause a passel of problems. A direct impact would spoil your day Remember Apophis? No, not the false Egyptian god that shares the name, but the 'stroid that got people agitated. Some Christians thought it fit Bible prophecy about the last days. They were wrong . Now 2024YR4 is coming around, and we know how some religious folks will act. Asteroid and Earth, FreeDigitalPhotos / Idea go Let's face it, there are many professing Christians who are not grounded in the Word. In addition, prophecy gets attention — and money. There are people who actually reject how God required  a perfect record from prophets in the Old Testament: If their prophecies did not come true, they deserved the death penalty! Today, "Thus saith the Lord" claims are swallowed, even though the "prophet...

There are professing Christians who claim to believe the Bible, then try to find ways to get out of believing the first eleven chapters of Genesis are written as history. When they claim that it is something else such as allegory or pseudo-history, they are rejecting and undermining the authority of Scripture. Pseudo-history is something written as history but is actually fictitious. Some people may say that the Bible contains stories intended to teach us something. So what? We can do that with many books, so the Bible is not so special in that view. Bible and note-taking, Unsplash /  Fa Barboza There are those who relegate Genesis 1-11 to story or allegory status, but they have some problems. First, why aren't the later chapters of Genesis also pseudo-history? Further, these blackguards are calling Jesus, Paul, Peter, and others liars because they refer to Genesis as real history and authoritative. By the way, drop Exodus 31:17 and Exodus 20:11 on them — those verses will show the...

We hear about races and racism all the time, and some folks seem to be extremely race conscious — thinking of their race as a priority. They even intertwine their personal identities with their race. It may come as a shock, but races do not exist ! From a biblical standpoint, there is only one race. (Nations, ethnic groups, and other distinguishing characteristics, sure.) Another startling fact is that racism accelerated under Darwinism. The Bearded Buddha hinged his evolution story on his own racism. Different ethnic hands, Pixabay / Rhythm_In_Life People who have paid attention to American political news have probably noticed the accusations that Donald Trump is a racist and so are those who voted for him. (How they deal with Blacks for Trump and similar groups is unclear.) Leftist women seek to punish their men who voted for him, and sore losers rail against Trump supporters, sometimes with violence. And yet, none of their accusations have merit. Angry leftists "think" wit...

There are Christians who insert millions of years between the first two verses of Genesis, and it is truly baffling as to why. Perhaps they want it both ways by believing in deep time like secularists but can also claim to "believe" the Bible. Or they may think evidence for a young earth is lacking. Maybe some other reason. One version is that God created everything but Satan and his minions rebelled, so God sent a global flood. Then God recreated the world. Also, some just insist on deep time without "Lucifer's Flood." Standley Chasm, Unsplash / Stephen Mabbs Biblical creationists have filled the gap (heh!) numerous times over the years, but it keeps returning. If those who believe in some kind of gap theory are attempting to impress secular folks, this backfires in a big way. It is untenable according to both secular and creation science interpretations. Worse, it requires massive eisegesis and Scripture twisting — there is no  support for this position in the...

This is being written for the fourteenth annual Question Evolution Day , which is something that any  biblical creationist can support. Involvement levels can be very basic, such as simply sharing a post online with a #questionevolutionday hashtag. More involved: writing weblog articles, having an event at a church, etc. One big reason to get involved at all is to support intellectual and academic freedoms, and especially freedom of speech. We show that atoms-to-atheist evolution is not supported by evidence, which instead supports special creation. There is a surprising similarity between that day and the walls of Jericho. Jericho, Unsplash / Valdemaras D. Don't be riding off in a cloud of dust, hear me out. The Bible records how Joshua led the Israelites as directed by God to destroy Jericho. It must have seemed like a massive undertaking, as a siege could have taken months or years . The Israelites were obedient to God's instructions, the walls fell, and the Israelites were...

When someone says, "I do not believe there is a God," they often act like the matter is unimportant to them. The most frequent excuse given is that there is no evidence that God exists. There is abundant evidence, and someone who makes the "no evidence" claim is, to be blunt, dishonest. The most egregious example of intellectual dishonesty in my experience is from a professing atheist who insisted that Christians do not provide evidence that God exists. When it is given, he refuses to look at it. Than he repeats his lie that Christians give no evidence! Walking in snow at night, Unsplash / Roan Lavery Worse than the above example is that many professing atheists  are lying to themselves . They may not be actively attempting to deceive the Christian they are conversing with. Also, when Bible believers say that everyone knows  that God exists, they get their hackles up and say, "Nobody knows what I believe better than me." It sounds plausible at first, and a...

We know it is human nature to want to learn more, or even fill in the blanks of a story with our own conjectures. People want to learn about enigmatic  Melchizedek , and Scripture almost teases us with references to him. Abram had been called and blessed by God. We read that he was a wealthy and powerful man. There was a war going on (Gen. 14), and Abram's nephew Lot was living in Sodom. He was one of the people carried off in a raid, and Abram took his own men in battle against several kings! The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek , Dirk Bouts, 1465 After the victory, the king of Sodom met with Abram, but Abram wanted nothing to do with him. Also, Melchizedek met with Abram. Mel wasn't some guy who ran a diner in Phoenix, but the king of Salem and a priest of God . He blessed Abram, and Abe gave him a tenth of everything (Gen 14:18-20). After this encounter, a few references in the Bible explain that Melchizedek was a type of Christ. People have run several ideas up the flagpo...

Professing atheists are found in several types, ranging from those who simply do not care about God to those who want to exterminate Christians. In my experience, they deny being religious because they do not worship a deity. Those are disingenuous because they ignore the other dictionary definitions of religion. One of the forms their religion takes is Scientism . This is all about knowledge through science and reason, but cannot be lived consistently. Beauty, love, logic and other things cannot be consistently lived through atheism. Especially morality and ethics. Many smugly claim to be "good without God." 1889 guy colorized, then run through FotoSketcher What is their standard? Some will trumpet the things they never do, such as steal, lie, cheat on their spouses, and other things. They may also follow up with their good works. They can be good without God, so we should all grow up and leave God behind. However, we do not know if such braggarts are being truthful. More im...

The secular press builds up the secular science industry with promoting evolution, misrepresenting the Bible, and so on. They mocked the Biblical account of the Canaanite city of Hazor but were proven wrong . Speaking of, the press humiliated themselves with their claims about the demise of the Canaanites in the Bible . Do y'all wonder why, in their rush to mock Scripture and Christians, secularists conduct shoddy research that is parroted by the uncritical press? Those of us who read our Bibles know what is going on. Sea of Galilee, Unsplash / Chris Gallimore To degrade the of God, scoffers often resort to mockery, which frequently involves misrepresentation. Miracles? Naa...there's a naturalistic explanation. In the miracles involving fish (the great catch and the feeding of thousands on two separate occasions), the secular miracle of conditions causing massive fish die-offs occurred. Never mind the text, and ignore the fact that there were fishermen involved who know about s...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  On Christmas Eve 2024, I attended the evening church service. Scriptures read, songssung, sermon preached. The conclusion brought everything home to the attenders, as on the way in, we were given small candles with clear plastic cups as shields. The lights were dimmed and the pastor took his flame from the Advent candle. He then lit the candles of other people. It did not take long before the sanctuary had many glows, then we sang "Silent Night." But there was almost a problem. Candle at Christmas Eve service (cropped), Unsplash / Zac Cain Having a view from the balcony, I saw that someone below was having a problem. Her light was dimming and there would be no flame in just a few seconds. She was given help from the person next to her, and I saw an illustration of something that should be  a major part of every Christian's life. Centuries ago, I heard a sermon that exhorted Christians to be "need meters." Aside from the silly mental image...

The Bible makes it very clear that nobody can earn salvation, it is a gift of God. Otherwise, we would have to constantly strive to meet an unknown standard, never knowing when we have attained it — or how to keep it. Faith plus add-ons like baptism, praying to saints, following man-made rules of conduct, being a member of the "right" church — these are usually stumbling blocks. However, baptism is not a requirement for salvation, but an outward expression of obedience to Christ. But salvation and repentance are often used together in Scripture, which can be confusing. Young Man at Prayer , Hans Memling (1475) Unfortunately, there are some people who claim that if one believes in evolution, he is not saved. That cannot be supported by Scripture. However, believing in evolution raises questions about that person's understanding of and commitment to the Word of God, and understanding of actual science. The Bible uses repentance and salvation together quite often. To repent...

Several times, whether in weblogs on on social(ist) media, reviews of spurious books and things have been presented that are useful in addition to what is being reviewed. In cases like the one featured below, the book is irrelevant and the rest of the article takes on theistic evolution (TE). As I have stated several times, I think most TEs profess to be Christians but are actually Deists. They show disdain for the Bible. A sanitized version of evolution is presented and its flaws are omitted. For some reason they want an atheistic philosophy to supercede Scriptural authority. Jesus statue facepalm, Pixabay /  Hans_Hofer A Timeline of Origins—Toward Better Integration of the Bible and Science by Michael Russell is something I don't want to waste my time with thanks to the review. Interestingly, Russell uses the Genesis Flood as the way God brought Noah from the other  world to this one. So, integrating the Bible and science means fiction presented as — what? Theology? Apparen...

A few months ago, I posted " Inner Knowledge of the Creator " on another site. Professing atheists often claim to "lack belief" that God exists because there is supposedly no evidence. Christians who play their game and let them judge the Creator of the universe to see if he is worthy of their  worship offer evidences. Those are rejected. Leaving the Word of God out of such a discussion is wrong — in fact, it is sinful. Not only is the evidence for God abundant (Rom. 1:18-23), they have an inner knowledge. Onteora Lake, Unsplash / Cowboy Bob Sorensen Everyone has what is called general revelation , knowledge about God available to everyone. We are also given special revelation . This is the written Word of God, which obviously goes deeper and shows us the way of salvation. The Bible is the final authority, not the opinions of scoffer and other nay-sayerks. It has been discussed here and elsewhere that to interpret Scripture (as well as refuting scoffers, compromiser...

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  A big red flag for many Christians is when someone says, "God gave me a message for you." Not hardly! I do not think I am being hypocritical going down from that a notch and saying, "God gave me an inspiration for an article," however. Just after the church service, I got a scam text message. Some scammers are very sophisticated, even using artificial intelligence to record someone's voice and then call a friend or relative. (Also, never  answer the phone with "yes".) I have enough knowledge to laugh at this one. Aside from not having such an account, I've had other scam text messages that even had the name of the company wrong. Let's just pretend for a moment that you get an alarming text or email from a company you have an account with. Never click or tap on a link. Instead, call the company from a number on file, or go to their site without clicking a link the probably scammer provided. Deal with genuine customer serv...

Before we get into the main topic, I need to point out something. People tend to say that someone is honest or intelligent because that person is not antagonistic toward their point of view. Dr. Todd Wood has confused people about his stance on evolution , saying it has "gobs of evidence." Atheists said he is "honest" — implying the rest of us are not. Frankie the Rock (I mean, François de La Rochefoucauld) said, "We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us." Try admiring the intelligence of an opponent sometime. Be honest. Crowd of people, Pixabay / Keith Johnston (modified) Sometimes professing atheists will say good things about the Bible, Christianity, Christians, and so on. They are honestly expressing views that obstreperous atheists would find repugnant. C. Richard Dawkins made a rather startling statement that a Designer is a scientific hypothesis , yet remains an atheist. Also, he said that Christianity is " a bulwark ag...