Yearly Archives: 2006

Go To Heaven!

December 1, 2006

Note: The content of this article was replaced Dec. of 2008. The content of the old one is now modified and expanded into a new article, Salvation Under the Microscope.

Is this all there is? What, if anything, happens after this life?

Some say you just keep coming back in different bodies, maybe even as an animal or plant or rock. Others say you just stop existing or you get absorbed into some cosmic consciousness. But if any of those are true, then it really doesn’t matter how we live, because we won’t remember it.

But what if this life is really just a test, a rehearsal for eternity? Then it really would matter how we live here and now. So how do we find out, or should we just play it safe and pick a belief that seems to offer the best “fire insurance”? The first thing we have to do is decide the best way to determine what is true and real (my personal method is here under The Fountain of Truth). Then we can decide what to do about what we discover.

The fact is, someone called Jesus of Nazareth appeared in history, born as a human but from a virgin mother. He fulfilled hundreds of prophecies, including a manner of execution that hadn’t even been invented when the prophecy was made. But most important of all, Jesus rose from the dead after three days, another fulfilled prophecy. And if you’re thinking that this is all made up from only the Bible, think again; consider the articles Here, Here, and Here, as well as books like Evidence That Demands A Verdict and Who Moved The Stone?

Some brush off all the evidence but blindly accept many other facts without any evidence at all. If the same requirements were made for everything they believe, they would find themselves doubting even their own existence— which many do. So again, it comes back to how you determine what is real, and how consistent you are with that. The bottom line is that no matter how you approach this question, the Bible’s answer is at least as good as any, and has the best number and quality of evidence.

But so what? If the Bible is true and Jesus really is God in the flesh who died for our rebellion against Him, then rose again, why should it matter to us? And what was that all about, anyway?

God originally created humanity with direct, face-to-face communion with Him. But that relationship was broken by the rebellion of the first human, Adam, resulting in mortality and a cursed world. Every person since Adam and Eve has been born into this world of suffering and death, unable to directly relate to God. But God provided a way for us to be reconciled: He Himself would become human and pay the ransom with his own blood to restore that relationship. But just as it takes two to reconcile, and a legally nullified divorce doesn’t guarantee a restored relationship, so also God has made the offer but it’s up to each of us to accept it or reject it. Here is what the Bible says:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
— 2 Cor. 5:17-21

That’s the gospel, the message of salvation, the way to heaven: Be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. And accepting Jesus by faith is the only way that can happen. To put your faith in someone is to have a deep conviction about them, to “put all your weight” on them. You can’t just say the words, “I believe Jesus is God who died for us and rose again”, you have to accept this as a personal conviction. You don’t just believe about him, you believe in him. You want to be reconciled to God.

Once you have as a personal conviction that Jesus is God who died and rose again to reconcile you, you are guaranteed to “go to heaven” after this life. Yes, guaranteed!

Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
— 2 Cor. 5:5
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
— Eph. 1:13-15

There is no other requirement, no hidden fine print, no organization to join:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
— Eph. 2:8-9
Now to anyone who works, their wages are not credited to them as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to anyone who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
— Rom. 4:4-5

But doesn’t this amount to “a license to sin”? Of course not!

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
— Rom. 6:1-4

We wouldn’t dream of living a life that angers or insults a person we claim to have reconciled with, so neither should we do this to God. This isn’t about meeting some minimal requirement to buy our way into eternal happiness, but an honest desire to be reconciled to God; it’s all about the relationship. We have this guarantee of eternal happiness because of the love of God for all the world (John 3:16), so love is the “meat” of that relationship.

Naturally, the next thing to do is to find out more about God, to know what pleases Him and what does not. That means studying the Bible and getting instruction from the spiritually mature, who can be recognized by how well they model the life of Christ and the disciples He chose to write the Bible. Good deeds will follow from the truly transformed life. They can be faked by the lost, and the saved are certainly spiritually “sick” if they have not changed or have fallen back into a life of sin. But we are to focus on our own spiritual health, not on whether others meet our personal level of spirituality. Spiritual maturity is not a means to a high position of rule, but a low position of service, of being an example to others, of slowly becoming like our Master and Savior. One very important factor in our spiritual growth is to hang around with other believers (Heb. 10:24-25). And this is the only way we can use the spiritual gifts God gives each believer (1 Cor. 12:7), since their purpose is to help other believers and be helped in turn by them.

So even though the only requirement to be saved is faith in the risen Jesus, this “rebirth” is not the end but the beginning, the start of a new life. But don’t think that an easy life awaits you. This life is a temporary testing ground, and the test is not always pleasant or easy while you are taking it. But the reward is happiness for the rest of eternity. We live to please Jesus, in gratitude for salvation, to be His hands in this world.

Here is a handy chart of all the changes that take place spiritually when we place faith in Jesus. It’s good to refer to whenever you may have doubts later on. To quote the disciple John, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13)

What happens the moment we are saved?

declared righteous Romans 3:28, 4:5, 24, 5:1, 9, Gal. 3:24, Phil. 3:9
become children of God Romans 8:14-17, Galatians 3:7, 26
clothed with Christ Galatians 3:27
belong to Christ, not ourselves 1 Cor. 6:19-20
heirs according to the promise Galatians 3:29-4:7
the flesh was crucified Galatians 5:24
redemption through Jesus’ blood, forgiveness of our sins Eph. 1:5
became God’s own possession Eph. 1:11
sealed with the Holy Spirit who guarantees our inheritance 2 Cor. 1:22, Eph. 1:13-14
made alive with Christ Eph. 2:5
raised up and seated with Christ in heaven Eph. 2:6
brought near to God, have peace with God Romans 5:1, Eph. 2:13
citizens of God’s household Eph. 2:19
sealed for the day of redemption Eph. 4:30
buried and raised with Christ Romans 6:4-6, Col. 2:12
made alive and forgiven Col. 2:13
died but life now hidden with Christ in God Col. 3:3
protected from the evil one 2 Thes. 3:3
given eternal life Romans 6:23, 1 Timothy 1:16, Titus 3:7, 1 John 2:25, 5:12-13
set free and purified Titus 2:14
born again Titus 3:5, 1 Peter 1:3,23
given an imperishable reservation in heaven 1 Peter 1:4
ransomed 1 Peter 1:18
kept from falling 1 Cor. 10:13, Jude 1:24
are God’s temple 1 Cor. 3:16
washed, sanctified, justified Romans 3:24, 1 Cor. 6:11
are a new creation 2 Cor. 5:17
Posted in: Salvation – 3 Comments

Crucifixion Chronology

December 1, 2006

timeline

Scriptures Concerning the Time Between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion

Exodus 12:1-8

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household… The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight… That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.

Exodus 12:15-19a

For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.

Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses.

Mt. 26:17-19

On the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples asked Jesus, “Where would you like us to prepare the Passover meal for you?” He replied, “Go into the city to so-and-so and tell him, ‘The teacher says, “My time is near, I am to keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”‘” So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and they prepared the Passover meal.

Luke 22:7-13

Then the Feast of Unleavened Bread arrived— it was the one on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John with the instructions, “Go and get everything ready for us to eat the Passover Feast.”… They left and found everything exactly as Jesus had said, and made the preparations.

John 18:28 (the Last Supper was finished by this time)

Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman Governor’s headquarters. By now it was early in the morning, so the Jews didn’t go in there, to avoid ceremonial uncleanness. This was so they could eat the Passover meal.

Mt. 27:45-53 (Jesus had been put on the cross at about 9 a.m.)

From midday until 3 p.m. darkness covered all the land. About 3 p.m. Jesus called out loudly, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?” … Jesus cried again with a loud voice and gave up the Spirit. And the veil of the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth quaked and the rocks split. The graves were opened and many of the bodies of the people devoted to God who had died were raised up. They came out of the graves after Jesus’ resurrection, and went into the sacred city and appeared to many.

John 19:31 (Jesus was dead by this time)

Now it was the Day of Preparation, and the next day was an important Sabbath. The Jews didn’t want the bodies left on the crosses on the Sabbath day, so they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.

Mt. 27:57-58

When early evening came, a rich person from Arimathea named Joseph arrived. He too had become a disciple of Jesus. Joseph went to Pilate to request Jesus’ body. As a result, Pilate ordered the body to be handed over to him.

My Comments

The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was the Preparation Day. This was to be the 14th day of Nisan. The lambs for the sacrifice were to have been selected on the 10th and observed to make sure they were without defect. Clearly this points to the Lamb of God and his perfection. This feast predicted his coming and the details are very significant. Jesus was “selected” on the 10th (the triumphal entry) and “observed” (watched!) until he was taken into custody. His mock trial lasted through the night, which was still the Jewish Preparation Day.

He was put on the cross around 9 a.m., and from noon to 3 p.m. darkness covered the land. Then Jesus died shortly afterwards. The three bodies hung there until near 6 p.m., which would start the Special Sabbath, Passover. Evening was approaching when Joseph got permission to bury Jesus, so there wasn’t much time. He and Nicodemas got burial spices and cloths, wrapped Jesus “according to Jewish custom”, and laid him in a nearby available tomb because there was no time to go searching. In other words, the hurrying did not make them “cut corners” on wrapping the body, but only narrowed the choice of tombs.

So after Jesus was buried, all Israel ate the lambs they had been slaughtering and the meal they had been preparing the (Jewish) day before. Jesus was thus “in the belly of the earth” when the lambs were being eaten.

The term Passover can mean either the main meal, that whole day, or the whole Feast. So there is no conflict between the Last Supper being called “the Passover” and the fact that the Passover itself was not until the next Jewish day. Jesus also used the term “this” Passover, so it’s possible he was in fact referring to either this particular Passover celebration or that this was to be a new kind of Passover, one that would look back instead of to the future. All who would ever put their trust in Jesus would have “the blood of the Lamb” to cause God’s wrath to “pass over” them.

Scriptures Concerning Jesus’ Burial, and the Purchasing and Preparation of Spices

Mark 15:42-16:2

“It was the Preparation Day (which is the day before the Sabbath). That evening, Joseph of Arimathea, an influential Council member, who himself was waiting for God’s Realm, got up the courage and went to Pilate to ask for Jesus’ body… Joseph brought a piece of fine new linen. He took him down and wrapped him in the piece of fine new linen. Then he put him in a tomb that had been quarried out of rock. He rolled a stone closely up against the entrance of the tomb.

Mary Magdalene and Mary (Joseph’s mother) took careful note of the location he was put. When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary (James’ mother), and Salome brought spices so that they could go and anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they went off to the tomb.”

Luke 23:50-24:1

“There was a man named Joseph, a member of the High Council, an honest civic benefactor who had not agreed with their decisions and actions. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he was waiting eagerly for God’s Realm. He went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down from the cross, wrapped it in linen and placed it in a tomb cut into the rock. No one had ever been put into this tomb. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and looked at the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went back and prepared spices and perfumed oils. They rested on the Sabbath in accordance with the Law of Moses. But on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they’d prepared and went into the tomb.”

John 19:38-20:1

After this Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for Jesus’ body. Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but he kept it secret because he was afraid of certain Jews. Pilate gave him permission. Nikodemos went with him: he was the one who had earlier visited Jesus at night. Nikodemos brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 12 ounces in weight. They wrapped Jesus’ body in strips of linen with the scented herbs and oils, in accordance with the Jewish burial customs. In the place where Jesus was crucified was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb, and no one had been buried in it yet. Because it was the Jewish Day of Preparation, they put Jesus there.

On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the entrance.”

My Comments

Joseph and Nicodemas got spices and linens, wrapped Jesus’ body, placed it in a tomb, and then rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb. The women were watching this, and sometime after it all they “went back and prepared spices”. They saw and therefore knew that Jesus had already been buried “according to custom”. So these spices the women prepared could not have been the ones the men had already used. Instead, there was a need for additional spices, to “anoint Jesus’ body”. (Note: they never got the chance to do this anointing. But remember that Jesus had already been anointed (John 12:7).) All the accounts agree on those facts.

But exactly when were these spices purchased and prepared? There were two Sabbaths that week: the annual “special Sabbath” for the Passover, and then the regular weekly Sabbath. Seeing that the three dead bodies had to be taken down before sunset (before Passover), there was practically no time left between the women observing the stone being rolled in front of the tomb and the end of the day. They could do no work on the Passover, so the spices, even if purchased in that short time, could not have been prepared before Passover. Any preparation would have to wait till afterwards. So there was no time for the women to prepare spices on Preparation Day, and no more Sabbaths to wait for after the regular (second) one.

Although Mark’s account doesn’t say the women did anything on Preparation Day but observe the burial, and only has them getting the spices after a Sabbath, Luke’s account mentions them preparing spices and then resting on a Sabbath afterwards. John’s account says nothing about the spices the women had. And Mark’s account seems to indicate two events: preparing spices after a Sabbath, and then going to the tomb on another day. Putting it all together, the only scenario that fits is that the women bought and prepared spices between the two Sabbaths. Luke’s account is not contradicted by this, since it does not specify exactly how long after Preparation Day the spices were prepared.

Does it matter whether there was a day between the Sabbaths? Yes.

If there was, then we have Jesus in the tomb starting sundown Wednesday and rising either Saturday night or before dawn on Sunday, both of which are properly “the first day of the week”. It gives us “after three days and nights” without a problem. But the downside is that we know Jesus had not yet “gone to the Father” by early Sunday morning, so why had he not gone, seeing that there were likely many hours between his resurrection and early Sunday morning? Yet we have no idea how long it was, or why he appeared to Mary before ascending to the Father at all. We could presume it’s because he had just risen, but we cannot be dogmatic about it. He obviously had his new immortal body before ascending or Mary certainly would have recognized him, especially since his mortal body had been so disfigured by his torture and death.

If there was not, then we must assume that the women did all their buying and preparing on Preparation Day and simply carried the finished product to the tomb Sunday morning. Then we have to account for “after three days and three nights”, a phrase Jesus’ enemies were paranoid about, and so were very intent on preventing his disciples from faking his resurrection. But the only way to get “after three days and nights” is to count the last 3 hours of daylight on Preparation Day as “day one”, and to make Jesus’ resurrection exactly at dawn on Sunday (to avoid a fourth full day. After all, if the partial day of Jesus’ death must be counted as a full day, then so must the day he arose).

The bottom line is that nobody can prove any contradictions in the Bible, and a Friday crucifixion is pretty well ruled out. But both a Wednesday and Thursday crucifixion can be supported.

Posted in: Bible Text – No Comments

Adam, Eve, and Rotten Apples

November 11, 2006

Genesis 3:6 TNIV

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. “

If Adam had “authority” over Eve, then he shirked his responsibility and was therefore sinning before Eve did. He also proved his unworthiness as a leader because of his silence. This puts a major damper on the idea of a man “covering” a woman, since it did not prevent sin or protect the woman in any way. In fact, Adam later would try to shift the blame to her, showing that he was not only unable but also unwilling to protect her.

On the other hand, Adam’s silence more likely means that he HAD NO AUTHORITY over Eve in the first place. After all, there is not one hint of his having authority over Eve anywhere in the Bible. Like the Calvinistic assumption of the alleged death of mankind’s spirit, the pronouncement of Adamic authority over Eve is conspicuous by its absence.

But you will object: “Look at verse 16!”

To the woman [God] said, “A snare has increased your sorrow and sighing, in sorrow you will bring forth children. Your turning will be to your husband, and he will rule over you.”

Tell me, is this a commandment or simply a prediction? Let’s look at the very next verse for help:

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’

Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

By the “logic” that takes God’s alleged curse on Eve as a commandment, then it follows that God also commanded Adam (and ONLY Adam, not Eve) to work the ground, eat its produce through painful toil all his life, eat plants, sweat while eating (must have been spicy plants!), and return to the dust. Keep in mind that none of this applies to Eve— right?

Not!

It should be obvious that both Adam and Eve have had to work, suffer, eat, and return to dust. Granted that only women can give birth, but the point is that this is a prediction and not a commandment. And as a prediction, it cannot be held out as “the natural order of things”. God never spoke of humans ruling over other humans until sin entered the world at this point. And both Adam and Eve had previously been given dominion over the earth and animals. So the reason men have dominated women is not some divine sanction or alleged inferiority of women, but the result of sin and corruption. Like suffering, domination of man over woman is a BAD thing!… unless you’d like to argue that suffering was something God wanted and meant for mankind.

Now let’s tie this in with today.

In Genesis 3:15 we see that God would someday provide a descendant of Eve (not of Adam!) that would “crush the serpent’s head”. That was Jesus. Although “struck in the heel” as this verse said, he sealed Satan’s doom. This ushered in the current age of the “church”, or assembly of believers in the Messiah Jesus who took away sin by his sacrifice and rose again. In this “church”, the effects of the Fall are beginning to be reversed. No more is mankind “thrown out of the garden” but can return to the presence of God as before, by faith in Jesus.

The apostle Paul had this to say about what has changed as a result:

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28 TNIV)

And James said:

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor person in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the one wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the one who is poor, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:1 TNIV)

Although the immediate context there is about fawning over the rich, showing favoritism is clearly wrong for Christians. This certainly applies to how one race treats another, and also how men treat women. So both Paul and James are telling Christians that because we are saved, we must not act like the cursed world any more. Combined with the fact that Jesus had women as disciples and showed mercy and kindness to them in spite of “the time in which he lived” (a common excuse for bad behavior), the Bible clearly teaches us that women are not subhuman or under any man’s rule. Another log on the fire is 1 Peter 3:7:

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

No one should treat a “joint heir” as an inferior! What the NT says to Christians it says to all of them, not just this group or that group. It is a fact of American history that “Christians” once tried to justify slavery of blacks from the Bible. It is these very same arguments that are still used to enslave and repress women.

When will the church wake up? When will those who love patriarchy/hierarchy more than love and justice and fairness confess their sin? It is the sin of Pride that is behind the male supremacists’ unwillingness to pry their power-grubbing fingers off the wheel. Rather than being a case of women wanting to “usurp power”, it is these men who are guilty of this. They try to stand in the place reserved only for Jesus, who is the Head of the church. Like “proud Diotrephes” (3 John 1:9) they “throw some believers out” and cling to power, refusing to give it up.

Is it possible to be a nice slave-driver, or a kind bigot, or a gentle and wise overlord? No. Neither is it possible to be a good Christian while oppressing women or any other group of people, since they are spiritual equals. I’ve said before that Jesus told us that if he could serve us lowly humans, that we have no right to mistreat each other on the basis of imaginary authority. Even if you never actually practice domination, you are guilty of it if you believe it to be God-ordained.

Male supremacists, do you understand it yet? You are not the ruler over any woman. You cannot “gently and wisely” sin against God! A wife does not need any “covering” but Jesus, and she too has the Holy Spirit, and in no lesser degree. You are not her priest or dictator or owner or superior. You are not more like God than she is. Conceit is not a virtue! Drop the pride in man and see all people as God does, as equals.

Posted in: Organization, Salvation – No Comments

God vs. the Flying Spaghetti Monster

November 1, 2006

One of the more popular items on most atheists’ list of handy phrases to use against Christians is, “Prove that the flying spaghetti monster does not exist”. There’s even a website called the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and other similar sites. (I’ll abbreviate it to FSM)

Basically, their logic (I use the term loosely) is that they can invent a deity out of thin air and use it to show the alleged absurdity of belief in any deity at all. But in the process they commit volumes of logical fallacies which only prove that atheists apparently have nothing better to do all day than rage against a God they don’t even believe exists. They never stop to ask themselves why it should matter whether people believe in anything or nothing, why there should be any reason to get upset over religious belief of any kind. If evolution/naturalism is true, then who cares about anything at all? We’re all just pond scum with eyeballs anyway, so why spend so much time fighting against religious faith?

And to be fair, atheism is a religious belief itself. Of course atheists disagree, pointing out that “atheist” means “not believing in a God”. But this is not equivalent to saying they don’t have a religious belief. They have an active disbelief in God; they assert that no God exists. You could call it “anti-God-ism”. This is not at all the same as the agnostic view, which makes no statement either way. But since atheism makes an assertion, it is a philosophical statement, one which is not based on proof. Even atheists know that it is impossible to disprove the existence of God, and this is the basis for the FSM. Yet in making an active assertion of God’s non-existence, they make a statement indistinguishable from the FSM or any other religion.

Usually, the FSM card is played whenever a Christian states that it is impossible to disprove the existence of God, which both sides agree to. By responding with FSM, the atheist hopes to deflect attention away from this truth by making an absurd statement. Obviously, the FSM argument really is not a counter to the Christian’s statement, but a diversion. It says “Since the existence of God cannot be disproven, then we can believe in anything at all. So belief in God is nothing special.” For some odd reason, they consider this a “show stopper” and some kind of profound insight. It must be terribly vital to them or there wouldn’t be so many websites about it.

The fact that they spend so much energy raging against all things religious is proof of their religious zeal for their philosophy. If they truly were not religious, they wouldn’t give a hoot about FSM or Christianity or whether people believe in the tooth fairy.

In atheism, there is no truth, no right and wrong, nothing at all beyond our senses, but they scream if anybody disagrees with them. They would even like to live in a God-free utopia and spend great amounts of effort to make that dream a reality. Not a religion? Actions speak louder than words. Just look at the juvenile mockery, the straw men, the hatred they show for all who do not belong to the religion called Atheism. Those sites are filled with this crap, yet they think themselves to be rational and intelligent.

So what’s the best way to respond to FSM or other similar diversionary tactics?

Personally, I don’t even waste my time on people with such distain for science, truth, and objectivity. They really don’t want to discuss anything, just bash Christians. No matter how good your logic is, they won’t get it; it’s over their heads. Most of them travel in gangs because they rely on quantity over quality and win others to their side by sheer numbers. Rare is the atheist that works alone. But if you must engage them in mud-wrestling, here are some suggestions. Overall, I’d recommend taking the offensive instead of playing their games according to their rules and allowing them to do all the attacking.

Point out that FSM just confirms the fact that the existence of God cannot be disproved. It does not show that belief in things that can’t be disproved is ridiculous. They probably won’t see the distinction, but at least you will have tried. You might also try reminding them that much of their belief system relies on hypothetical entities in physics (which means blind faith in theories that can’t be proved). For example, the Big Bang theory is coming under increasing criticism by a growing number of scientists, most of whom are atheists. Atheists were not there to see the BB yet they have absolute blind faith in it, even when many of their own ‘high priests’ have abandoned it.

Another idea is to list the many evidences that there must be a God, as opposed to the FSM. The fact that anything exists at all is proof of the existence of an intelligent entity that is not subject to the laws of physics and is eternal and uncaused. Otherwise they have to explain how the universe appeared out of nothing without a cause. It is scientifically and philosophically impossible for anything to cause itself to exist, because it would have to exist before it exists! Now that’s ridiculous! And not only does the running-down universe exist, it is ordered. It is not simply a formless blob of matter and energy, but an incredibly complex machine.

You also might try giving them some brain teasers of your own. For example, which came first, the laws of physics or the matter they act upon? How did physical laws develop, and why does everything obey them? If all life evolved, and living things are dependent upon each other, then how did they all evolve in perfect balance? This takes more blind faith than anything most other religions ask for.

Another tool in the atheists’ bag is to make up rules for debate that tilt the game in their favor. They’ll insist that you can’t use the Bible in any of your arguments, yet they’ll use their own religious writings which assert that naturalism is true. Naturalism is an interpretive philosophy, not a science. So they want you to first agree to naturalism which guarantees their victory. They get to operate on the basis of their biased world view while banning yours. So before the debate even begins, make sure they realize that naturalism is a philosophy and is therefore no more objective than yours. It is a logical fallacy to use the conclusion (there is no God) as the most basic premise! (circular reasoning)

The FSM and other absurdities are built upon ignorance. Atheists ignore the flaws in their own religious beliefs and make up straw men for others’ beliefs, then burn them down. They also love to get you mired in endless bickering over things like alleged vestigial organs, but you can stop that before it starts by hammering at their foundational axioms, their assumptions and biases. This is not between science and religion at all, but between two opposing religions, two worldviews, two philosophies. Don’t let them move on to anything they want to discuss until they admit the religious nature of their beliefs. An excellent resource for philosophy is Ex-Atheist.com, which contains rebuttals to many other stupid atheist ploys.

To make a long story short, God vs. FSM is like Godzilla vs. Bambi.

Posted in: Apologetics, Nature of God, Other Religions – No Comments

Out of the Frying Pan

October 1, 2006

… and into the fire

You may have heard of the recent Barna polls showing the mass exodus from organized religion. Barna calls it The Revolution, and the IC (Institutional Church) is screaming. They have a vested interest in the status quo, going back two thousand years, and they don’t like people writing about how great it is to leave the IC.

But it really is a good revolution. As I’ve written about elsewhere, the IC was never what Jesus and the apostles intended. It is clear from their writings and statements that true Biblical Christianity was to be internal, individual, and borderless. In other words, there were no buildings, no prescribed rituals, no hierarchical priesthood/laity class distinctions, no enslavement to the old laws. Spiritual training was to be patterned after Jesus’ example of an apprenticeship, not the old Prussian militaristic indoctrination model.

“Sunday School” was never really much different from the world’s group therapy sessions and has been practically indistinguishable from any given country club. The IC has its lingo, potluck dinners, bylaws, committees, procedures, and fundraisers. It has memberships, statistics, motivational speakers (aka preachers), sound systems, and properties. None, absolutely none, of these things is found in the New Testament in any form.

What’s wrong with all that, you may ask? Plenty. The System fosters spiritual discrimination, legalism, oppression of non-conformists, etc. But the most glaring problem is that in spite of all the organized effort to educate, most people never graduate from Sunday School, and if they did, they’d still know little more than when they entered “first grade”. This is a perpetual parent-child relationship; the children never grow up.

So what’s this “fire” that those who leave the IC are jumping into?

Contemplative Prayer (CP), or whatever one of the many names it goes by you choose. It’s a mystical religious practice that comes straight from Hinduism. It is New Age for Christians. Those who promote it always insist that this is not true, but if you compare the core teachings of both, you’ll see an undeniable parallel. The methods and practices by which they enter this alleged higher plane are exactly the same as those used by mystics for centuries. Even when they admit this, they say “What’s wrong with mysticism? After all, some of the ‘church fathers’ practiced it.”

Couple of problems: For one thing, being a ‘church father’ means nothing. While the apostles were still writing the New Testament, they said that “after my departure ravenous wolves will come and scatter the flock”. Much of the NT is dealing with such false teachers, who were trying to subvert the new faith at its very inception. So just because someone lived in the first century or was close to an apostle doesn’t guarantee that person’s doctrinal purity or even their salvation. Beware of ‘church fathers’!

Another problem is that there is not one hint of CP in the Bible. Some try to wrench verses out of context to support it, but the most outrageous statement I’ve come across in defense of it is “Well, Paul didn’t write about CP because everybody already understood it and practiced it.” In other words, Paul’s silence means he was cool with it! With “logic” like that, it’s no wonder there are so many cults in the world.

What we need here is balance. Doctrine and spirituality are two sides of the same coin. They do fit together and they need each other. Doctrine alone is cold and legalistic; spirituality alone is gullible and spineless. So let’s leave the IC but also stay away from CP. Let’s just take God at his Word and live the teachings. Don’t let anyone tell you that you must do this or that, whether they are from the IC or CP. Listen to God.

Posted in: Christian Living, Organization, Other Religions – No Comments

Oil ~Refined~

September 5, 2006

As a follow-up to the earlier post on Oil, read this Sept. 5th news article.

LARGEST US OIL RESERVES DISCOVERED IN A GENERATION!
Proves Oil Did Not Come from Dinosaurs

Not since the Alaskan shelf was discovered over a generation ago has there been such a huge US oil reserve discovery. The new Chevron oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico could boost US oil and gas reserves by as much as 50%! (–AP)

Furthermore, this Gulf discovery could bring whole new meaning to dependence on ‘Gulf’ oil!

But the sheer size alone is not what makes this find so special. What’s so extraordinary is that the oil was found 35,000 feet underground.

But one person who is not baffled by the deep oil find is Craig R. Smith, co-author of the book, ‘Black Gold Stranglehold’ who predicted big finds like if people would only dig deep enough.

The premise of Craig’s book is that oil is NOT made from dinosaur remains. Rather, it is produced from deep inside the center of the earth and that there is a virtually limitless supply of the ‘black gold’ for hundreds of years to come!

During your Talk Show interview with Craig, he will amaze your audience as he ‘connects the dots’ of the oil business in simple terms that most anyone can understand— except for the so-called ‘peak oil experts’ who have been playing the same old tired song of ‘oil is running out so the prices have to stay high’ song for generations.

“Tests of a deep-water well in the Gulf of Mexico could indicate a significant oil discovery, three companies announced Tuesday”, reports AP.

“Chevron’s find in the Gulf of Mexico validates Craig Smith’s argument in Black Gold Stranglehold that oil did not come from the remains of ancient plant and animal life but is made naturally by the Earth — and the Gulf is a huge resource for finding oil and natural gas,” said Craig R. Smith.

Smith continued, “If U.S. proven oil reserves can be increased by 50 percent with one deep-earth oil find in the Gulf of Mexico, who knows how much oil might be found as the technology of deep-water drilling advances and becomes even more economically feasible?”

Craig R. Smith will be delivering a keynote speech Sept 6 at the 13th annual Las Vegas Hard Assets Investment Conference, at the Mandalay Bay Resort on the topic of “Oil, Gold and the Iranian Wildcard.”

According to Mr. Smith, “Oil rich countries have latched onto the ‘peak oil’ theory and are now using it against us. Why in the world would they want to sell their oil for a penny less than what the market would bear, if the earth is in fact running dry of oil as the Peakers suggest?”

“Guess what?” Mr. Smith continues. “That’s exactly what the oil producing countries have embraced and that’s why many are now looking to be paid in the Euro, Yen, or gold — or any other form of money that doesn’t have a portrait of a dead U.S. President on it.”

“Chevron’s find in the Gulf of Mexico validates our argument in Black Gold Stranglehold that oil did not come from the remains of ancient plant and animal life but is made naturally by the Earth — and the Gulf is a huge resource for finding oil and natural gas” concluded, Craig R. Smith.

About Expert Guest Craig Smith…

Craig R. Smith is the president and CEO of Swiss America Trading Corporation, one of the largest and most respected investment firms in the U.S. Smith is an author of Black Gold Stranglehold and collaborator on the book Atomic Iran. Craig is a commentator and economic analyst who instantly engages audiences with his common-sense perspective on national and global economic trends. Over the past two decades he has been interviewed on over 1,500 radio and TV programs including: FOX News, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, TNT, CBN, TBN, Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek and World Net Daily. He currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona.

The following article may be helpful for show prep:

Massive oil field
found under Gulf
Reserves south of New Orleans could rival
North Slope, boosting U.S. supplies by 50%
September 5, 2006

Oil-drilling platform in Gulf of Mexico

Chevron and two oil exploration companies announced the discovery of a giant oil reserve in the Gulf of Mexico that could boost the nation’s supplies by as much as 50 percent and provide compelling evidence oil is a plentiful deep-earth product made naturally on a continuous basis.
Known as the Jack Field, the reserve — some 270 miles southwest of New Orleans — is estimated to hold as much as 15 billion barrels of oil.
Authors Jerome R. Corsi and Craig R. Smith say the giant find validates the key thesis of their book, “Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil,” that oil did not come from the remains of ancient plant and animal life but is made naturally by the Earth.
“We have always rejected the theories that oil and natural gas are biological products,” Corsi told WND. “Chevron’s find in the Gulf of Mexico validates our argument that the Gulf is a huge resource for finding oil and natural gas.”
The Wall Street Journal reports today the find could boost the nation’s current reserves of 29.3 billion barrels by as much as 50 percent.

Chevron discovered the field by drilling the deepest to date in the Gulf of Mexico, down 28,175 feet in waters nearly 7,000 feet deep, some seven miles below the surface of the Earth.
The second biggest source of oil in the world is Mexico’s giant Cantarell field in the Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula. It was discovered in 1976, supposedly after a fisherman named Cantarell reported an oil seep in Campeche Bay.
In March, Mexico announced the discovery of a field that could be larger than Cantarell, the Noxal field in the Gulf of Mexico off Veracruz.
In “Black Gold Stranglehold,” Corsi and Smith argued the theory developed in the Soviet Union in the 1950s by Prof. Nikolai Kudryavtsev that oil is a deep-earth, abiotic product. The theory, the authors wrote, “rejected the contention that oil was formed from the remains of ancient plant and animal life that died millions of years ago. According to Kudryavtsev, oil had nothing to do with the unproved concept of a boggy primeval forest rotting into petroleum. The Soviet scientist ridiculed the idea that an ancient primeval morass of plant and animal remains was covered by sedimentary deposits over millions of years, compressed by millions of more years of heat and pressure.”
Instead, the abiotic theory argued “oil should be seen as a primordial material that the earth forms and exudes on a continual basis.”
Corsi and Smith directly challenge the “peak oil” theory advanced in 1956 by Shell Oil’s M. King Hubbert.

In an interview with WND, Smith posed the following question: “If U.S. proven oil reserves can be increased by 50 percent with one deep-earth oil find in the Gulf of Mexico, who knows how much oil might be found as the technology of deep-water drilling advances and becomes even more economically feasible?”
In “Black Gold Stranglehold,” Corsi and Smith note the importance of the abiotic theory:
The thought that oil might be naturally produced on a regular basis, that oil itself might be a renewable resource, is very threatening to those who have invested their minds into believing that oil is fossil fuel. The logical consequence of the fossil fuel theory of oil has always been that we will run out of oil. After all, there could only be a finite number of ancient forests available to rot into oil. Ancient forests, even if once plentiful, are a finite resource that by definition will become exhausted after they are fully explored and their oil harvested. The logic of the fossil fuel theory is that inevitably we will run out of oil.
Corsi and Smith note the power of the abiotic theory: “Could it be that oil is abundant, nearly an inexhaustible resource, if only we drill deep enough?”
Prior to the Jack Field discovery, the largest U.S. oil find in the Gulf of Mexico has been the Thunder Horse, about 125 miles southeast of New Orleans. British Petroleum holds a 75-percent interest with ExxonMobil to develop the Thunder Horse. This field, too, is deep-earth oil, with BP and ExxonMobil finding oil under one mile of water and five miles below the seabed.
Scientists believe Mexico’s richest oil field complex was created when the prehistoric, massive Chicxulub meteor impacted the Earth.
“Could it be that the Chicxulub meteor deeply fractured the entire bedrock under the Gulf of Mexico?” Corsi asked in a WND interview. “If so, we might find abundant oil wherever we look as we begin to explore the deeper waters of the Gulf.”

Earlier this year, Cuba announced plans to hire the communist Chinese to drill for oil some 45 miles off the shores of Florida. This move was made possible by the 1977 agreement under President Jimmy Carter that created for Cuba an “Exclusive Economic Zone” extending from the country’s western tip to the north, virtually to Key West, Fla.
“If Cuba and communist China believe they too can find oil in the Gulf, we should pull out all stops,” argues Smith. “We may be able to bring the price of gasoline down under two dollars a gallon if oil can be found in these huge quantities within our territorial waters. It’s crazy to think we should be dependent on foreign oil when we’ve made Mexico our number two supplier of oil with the reserves Mexico has found in the Gulf.”
“Thomas Gold should feel vindicated today,” Corsi added, referring to the Cornell University astronomer who in 1998 published “The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels,” a book that also challenged the conventional wisdom on the origin of oil.

“As an astronomer reading spectrographs,” Corsi noted, “Gold knew that hydrocarbon products such as methane are abundant in our solar system. Gold knew that the abundant methane on Titan, the giant moon of Saturn, did not get formed by little dinosaurs up on Titan, or by any other kind of biological material. So far as we know, nothing living has ever been found on Titan.”
©2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Posted in: Science – No Comments
« Older posts
Newer posts »