Biblical Creation and Evangelism

The Bible is historically reliable and very specific, such as the Table of Nations in the tenth and eleventh chapters of Genesis. However, prophesy is both specific and hidden at times. It is a tricky thing for several reasons, including the idea that a prophet is always  in the business of telling what is going to happen in the far future. If you study on it, the primary job of the prophet was to speak for the Lord, often calling people to repentance. There are short-term events that may be considered forth-telling, such as when Elisha told Naaman to dip himself in the Jordan seven times so his skin disease would be healed (2 Kings 5:14). Another specific prophesy was that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), but it wasn't apparent that this was Jesus until after the fact. Image credit: Answers in Genesis / Dan Lietha I'm not talking about modern jaspers who call themselves "prophets" and commen ce to making false prop hesies. No, this is about

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Andy Stanley has been disappointing some people, and causing quite a few to be alarmed by his opposition to the authority of Scripture. (Note: Do not be confused.  Charles  Stanley is his father, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and heard on In Touch Ministries . I've found most of his teachings to be doctrinally sound, and he upholds the inerrancy and authority of the Bible.) Unfortunately, megachurch director Andy Stanley has been saying things that are destructive to the truth, including recommending the false teaching of theistic evolution. Gray wolf image credit: US National Park Service While shooting from the hip can be a good thing, someone claiming the title of pastor should reign himself in . Stanley was disrespectful of small churches, then apologized later . In another instance, " What  did he just say?", Stanley may have used a very bad word in a sermon. When the segment was legally posted on YouTube

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen When translating the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible, Jerome had an easy -to-make but serious "oops" with Genesis 3:15, the protoevangelium , the first prophesy of the redemption of man. Most Bibles render it, "... he shall bruise you on the head (or, crush  your head), and you shall bruise him on the heel". But Jerome made it say, "... she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel", as found in the  Douay-Rheims Roman Catholic Bible . The Virgin and Child (The Madonna of the Book) - Sandro Botticelli, 1480 Where can I get a hat like they have? That mistranslation fits in well with Roman Catholic mythology where Mary is the co-redemptrix along with Jesus , which is a blatant violation of Scripture . Although the Vatican's Neo-Vulgate corrected the error , Catholics still managed to force-fit poor Mary into the text, since she gave birth to Jesus. If you study on it for a spell, you'll see th

Scoffers of the Six-Day Creation have been known to say something akin to, "There were no days yet because the sun wasn't created until Day Four". Then they say that the Bible doesn't mean what it says (or just plain wrong), and commence to adding huge amounts of time in their conveniently rewritten or ignored biblical account so they can have an old universe and accommodate evolutionism. Image credit: Freeimages / Juan Ferran When the scoffers add to God's Word like that, they are making serious errors right out of the gate. They are bringing naturalistic presuppositions and imposing them on God's Word, which describes the miraculous, then they judge God by their limited understanding and assumptions. That's a category error, old son. You can't ascribe physical properties to God, who is spirit and outside the confines of time and space. Similarly, I heard a discussion a few years ago on the "Unbelievable?" radio show between an atheis

Adam and Eve were still new in Eden when Satan appealed to Eve's pride. "What's that you say? I can be like God? And that fruit sure looks mighty tasty..." according to my paraphrase. Even though they had direct communication with God the Creator in the very good  creation, they chose to disobey. Evolutionary philosopher Epicurus image credit: Wellcome Images   CC BY 4.0 Since mankind doesn't fancy being accountable to anyone, he has sought to disregard the authority of Scripture, even to the point of pretending that God does not exist. People are arrogant, and are passionate about human "wisdom" and their philosophies. Science is elevated to a supreme authority position, and yet it is a philosophy as well, a means of interpreting observations. Many things that have been considered scientific facts have changed through the years, and the "facts" of evolution are based on tendentious interpretations as well as conjectures asserted as scie

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Generally speaking, Christians believe the Bible is God's written Word to man. For centuries, people have been trying to gain esoteric knowledge by searching for patterns and codes for deeper meanings. Although the Bible can be understood by untrained people for salvation and instruction in righteousness, I'll allow that there are some tricky passages where we need the help of a skilled theologian. A section of the 20th anniversary Dr. Who episode from 1983, "The Five Doctors", comes to mind. The Time Lords are wondering what's happening in a certain area, and one says, "We must know what is happening in there". Extreme sidewinder The Master asks, "Did it occur to you to go and look?" I reckon that's the way some professing Christians act: they want the knowledge of the Bible, but are not bothering with what it actually says. Go and look, what a novel concept! Seems to me that a lot of cults and false tea

Since way back yonder, people have been dreaming up various philosophies to follow. Sometimes they make their own, and other times, they dominate Western culture itself and get labeled. Premodernism began somewhere around 1650, but I doubt that people said, "Why yes, these are premodern times and I'm fully supportive of premodern philosophy". Modernism began to take hold, and lasted about 300 years. Assembled at SignGenerator.org About 1950, the philosophy called postmodernism began to take hold, and it's mighty depressing. One of its key points is one certainty: nothing is certain. While postmodernism contributes to atheism, a consistent postmodernist has disdain for the faiths both atheism and Christianity. To deepen the waters, not only are Christians certain of the existence of God, creation, the deity of Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and bodily resurrection, his return, the Final Judgement, and more, but we have faith. Now, some atheopaths malign

Christians refer to something called original sin, but that expression is not in the Bible. (Some uninformed people believe that sex is the original sin, but even a cursory reading of the opening chapters of Genesis will erase that idea.) It goes back to Adam and Eve. Made at TombstoneBuilder.com Atheists and other anti-creationists point to Genesis 2:17 and say, "God said they'd die when they ate the forbidden fruit, and they didn't. Therefore, it's an allegory or just a fairy tale!" Instead of listening to sidewinders like that, people should dig a little deeper. The literal translation is, "dying you shall die". That is, spiritual death happened then, and physical death came later, as well as affecting all of creation (Romans 8:22, Romans 5:12, 1 Corinthians 15:21-22). Old Earth creationists, theistic evolutionists, and other compromisers reject the truth that tampering with Genesis affects the gospel message. A series of compromises must

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen To borrow from Chris Rosebrough (who is linked below), I'm not asking people to read this or watch the video with open minds, but to have open Bibles. My opinion and yours are not worth a whole lot, nor are our traditions. Only God's Word matters (Isaiah 40:8, Mark 13:31). Way back yonder, I was a follower of "Word of Faith" heretic Kenneth Copeland and some of his gang, but I didn't go whole hog on his teachings. Still, I accepted too much at the time. One of several things he said that I rejected out of hand was his affirmation of the "gap theory", where there are supposedly millions of years between the first two chapters of Genesis. I disremember why he wanted to use this gap eisegesis , especially since there is nothing to support it in the rest of Scripture, and I don't think there's anything about it in church history, since an old Earth is a relatively new phenomenon in liberal Christian thinking. Mrs

Mankind has exhibited pride and a desire to be in control since Eden (Gen. 3:6), and that pride was manipulated by the serpent's deceit, that they would "be like God" (Gen: 4-5). While being inquisitive and investigative is a gift of God, people have elevated their own wisdom to a lofty perch and have disdain for the wisdom of God, preferring scientism and evolutionism to truth. And yet, we seem like idiots to them . Greek philosopher Epicurus, evolutionist and hedonist (public domain image, modified) The "wise" philosophers of the ages have sought to answer the mysteries of life, and some have made religious out of esoteric knowledge. Whether the views are secular or form some kind of religion, they try to supplant the Word of God . God has given us true wisdom in his Word (Prov. 1:7, Prov. 2:6, Rom. 11:33, 1 Cor. 1:23), which is far above the false wisdom of the world (1 Cor. 1:20, Isaiah 55:8-9). The Bible is a very binary book. It does not wallo

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen There are some professing Christians who will say that since the Bible does not give a direct date of creation, they can gallop the Eisegesis Trail and shove millions or billions of years into the Bible. It doesn't work that way. Not only are they showing their bent toward compromise, but their lack of biblical knowledge, and essentially calling Jesus, Paul, Peter, and others liars.  There is a right way to interpret Genesis , and it's a good idea to believe what Jesus believed and taught . Many serious problems arise when people play fast 'n' loose with Scripture. The Penitent Apostle Peter  by Anthony van Dyck, 1618 The Old Testament is extremely important for understanding the New Testament. We were told that scoffers would come, and there would be apostasy. Peter referred to Genesis several times, and made it clear that not only was there a judgement by global Flood at the time of Noah, he likened it to the coming Judgement by fire. M

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen This article has two parts. I was going to present some musings that had built up in my mind, made some notes about this on Friday — and something very serious came to my attention on Saturday that fits right in . Kind of strange when those things happen. My concern is how Christians turn their prayers and worship into something resembling spells, forget that God is our loving Father, and act like the Bible is a kind of occult manual. First, a personal problem. Although it's good to be specific in prayer and even pour out your heart to God, I'll allow that I get a mite over-specific. F'rinstance, I'll pray for my wife's safety for the work day. So, I'll pray for her safety to, from, and during work. I realized that I needed to rein up because I was insulting God at full gallop and didn't even realize it! God is infinitely wise, and knows what we mean. Indeed, he helps in our prayers (Romans 8:26-27). I'm thankful that he'

One area where professing atheists are painfully correct is that too many people who call themselves "Christians" are ignorant of what is in the Bible they profess to believe. (My father facetiously said, "To thine own self be true. John 3:16". He knew full well that it's in 3 Peter 2:11.) Then they act like atheists, twisting Scripture to manipulate or condemn Christians. That's not the way it works, old son. We need to know what the Bible really teaches, and how to use it properly. Modified from an image found at Pixabay by Dowdster People are fond of their religious traditions and opinions, and seek to justify them. When something is clear-cut, that's one thing. But sometimes owlhoots take verses are taken out of context (and especially using the King James Version's terminology that has changed over the years) to club people over the head because they're not being legalistic enough.  Years ago, I approached Pastor Dourface about taki