The Gospel Of Moralism - New Years Resolutions

January 1 has rolled around again as the perpetual reminder that our finite human existance marches on like sand through our fingers. It was the psalmist who wisely said "teach me Lord to number my days". In the light of eternity we can see the futility of pouring our energy into worldly pursuits. Even botox will not travel into the next life - which must be a shock to some!

But the line in the sand that happens on the first of January each year is also a timely reminder of the futility of moralism and a reminder that Calvin got it right with his doctrine of total depravity. New years resolutions have about as much going for them as Rick Warren's moralistic therapeutic sermons. Fallen men vow anew to change their fallen nature just like the church growth gurus who spend their time week in/week out trying to persuade goats to act like sheep.

The heart of the human problem remains the problem of the human heart. A professing Christian recently handed back a Gospel tract I gave him saying "I'm already a Christian so I don't need that". He would do well to heed the counsel of the Apostle Paul and examine himself to see whether he is "in the faith". We never outgrow our need for the Gospel either as a reminder of our total dependence on Christ or as a reminder of our desperate need for Him. Unless God breathes on our valley of dry bones then we remain but dust! I've never been one for new year's resolutions but I am a passionate advocate of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

Salvation is of the Lord. Without Him we can do nothing. If you must start the new year with a resolution, then meditate on those two thoughts.

Charles Spurgeon Movie

We are now in that strange week between Christmas and new year where many of us find ourselves together with family enjoying some much needed R & R. With so many options that are either expensive or worldly or both I am very excited to solve the conundrum with a great movie for the whole family free of charge. Charles Spurgeon's life is worth remembering, learning from, being inspired by, and comparing with the current state of modern evangelicalism. The Bottom Line proudly presents this wonderful movie on the man they called "The Prince of Preachers"!

The Reason For The Season

The baby in the manger grew up. He came with a mission. He had the power to lay His life down and the power to take it up again. Why was this necessary? The Bottom Line presents to you my Christmas e-card . . .
Click Here To View and be sure to scroll down.

Beware Of Christmas Idolatry

As I prepare for Christmas 2009, I feel the same disturbance in my soul that I felt last year and I want to get at its source. The reason I have put these thoughts down on paper is so they may have the ability to provoke thought in someone who is possibly feeling some of the same unease.

I try to sing Christmas anthems of “joy” and “celebration” with feeling, yet I know that my thoughts are far from jubilation. In fact they dwell in the realm of conviction, guilt and even sadness. I know that in order to fully and joyfully celebrate the incarnation, I can never lose sight of my lost and helpless state before it. In order to praise the value of the virgin’s birth, I must first contemplate the intensity of a wickedness that required the slaughter of the son of God to drag me from the precipice of hell.

Each year it’s getting easier to see, in the Christmas rush, a peculiar blend of self-approval and importance, self-deservedness, self-satisfaction and a good old hearty human ‘pat on the back’. Only now you can find that same attitude telegraphed from the pulpit. A Christmas 2007 address on national tv by Pastor Rick Warren included the idea “God is not mad at you....He is mad about you”. So, with that in mind, I can’t help but share a few reflections that I have had with regards to this Christmas, and the idea that we need to hold our heads high, because our Creator has tremendous faith in the human being.

There is a link between the manner in which mankind carries itself at Christmas, and the increasing idea that God had previously somehow placed enormous worth on sinful man, and I can never put my finger on it. It’s obvious that Christmas is the greatest time of idolatry on our calendar. You can sit at the carols with thousands of people, and most will have created a God in their own image to sing to. That’s why you can be promiscuous on stage and seductive while singing to Jesus. That’s why you can sing ‘O Holy Night’ while your molestation or assault charge is going through the courts.

But God doesn’t stop being God at Christmas and His standards don’t change because we wish to be merry. I never want to see myself as the ‘apple of His eye’. He doesn’t expect big things from me, nor does He need my help to make His message more relevant, and He’s not waiting to see what I can do for Him. He is waiting patiently, withholding Judgement, in order to receive maximum glory in every human life.

God knew that we were the only agents of His creation capable of coming up with such an exquisitely cruel method of putting to death our only Saviour, and the unimaginable daring to carry through with the ultimate betrayal. So, in a sense, I do agree that God did look down from Heaven and see such worth and value in the human being. But only in their worth to bring Him ultimate magnificence by committing the greatest crime of injustice of all time. The reality of the extent of our evil and self-justification vividly beams forth when we suggest that our Lord, the one Adam defied, pictured us with a doting adoration and preciousness, and incredible potential.

We underestimate our potential, but omniscient God certainly doesn’t. He understood the potential for evil for the Roman crucifiers to cast lots for the innocent Saviour’s clothing, while He screamed prayers for them. He understood the potential for one of the disciples to reject and betray his deliverer. He saw the potential of the miraculously rescued Israelite nation to turn their backs on Him during decades of supernatural provision.

No. I should not hold my head a little higher at Christmas. The truth is that while santa rewards people who think they have been nice, God’s righteous fury would boil at the idea of Jesus looking down from the bloodied cross at His murderers and seeing such worth and preciousness in the human “enemy of God”
soul.

Looking at the face that was “marred beyond description” were the agents of their master, the devil. Speaking blasphemies and ridicule against God were the same mouths that cried “Hosanna”.

Christmas is not Christmas without the cross of our Saviour. The incarnation of God Himself, and conception of the creator of the universe to a God hating and lawless human race, cannot be remembered without contemplating the slaying that the helpless babe in the manger would receive a few decades after that silent night in Bethlehem, to seal our redemption.

How can I be happy at Christmas? Not by feeling good about myself. The only way I can feel joy is to concentrate on the fact that Christ’s story was all brought about this way because it was precisely how God will receive His greatest honour. That’s the ‘joy’ that Christ felt as he ‘endured the cross, despising its shame’.

The following hymn reminds me to place complete faith in God the Creator, and brings the correct perspective of our human potential this Christmas:

My Song Is Love Unknown Hymn Samuel Crossman 1664

My song is love unknown,
My Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take, frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed for Christ would know:
But O! my Friend, my Friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
He gave the blind their sight,
Sweet injuries! Yet they at these
Themselves displease, and ’gainst Him rise.
With angry shouts they have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they saved,
The Prince of life they slay,
Yet cheerful He to suffering goes,
That He His foes from thence might free.
In life, no house, no home
My Lord on earth might have;
In death no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say? Heav’n was His home;
But mine the tomb wherein He lay.

Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence by Gerard Moultrie

1. Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
and with fear and trembling stand;
ponder nothing earthly-minded,
for with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand.

2. King of kings, yet born of Mary,
as of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
in the body and the blood;
he will give to all the faithful
his own self for heavenly food.

3. Rank on rank the host of heaven
spreads its vanguard on the way,
as the Light of light descendeth
from the realms of endless day,
that the powers of hell may vanish
as the darkness clears away.

4. At his feet the six-winged seraph,
cherubim, with sleepless eye,
veil their faces to the presence,
as with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

(Article courtesy of Nick Booth)

The Man Who Was Born To Die

My family and I have now arrived safely in Southern California and are excited at the prospect of experiencing Christmas in the USA for the first time. Yes, I know that many outside America bewail the superficiality and consumerism that gets plastered all over their television screens as they experience it from the outside looking in. But being on the inside for the first time I am heartened and greatly encouraged by the large number of authentic Christ centered people we have already met. I have never experienced so much kindness and generosity from strangers and, though we are far from extended family, we have no shortage of families who have invited us to celebrate the incarnation of Jesus Christ next Sunday. This is one of the great things about being a Christian - that we have been adopted into a far greater family that comprises every tribe, race, and tongue. I think this is what Jesus was referring to when He said:

"Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. (Mark 10:29-30)

There is persecution in this life as a Christian. And it is great to have our adopted family around us as we go through it. May we remember those who are persecuted at this time, pray for them, and be reminded that fellowship in Christ's sufferings ultimately points us to Christ's mission - a mission He fully accomplished. May we remember that this Christmas . . . lest we forget.

"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:25b-28)

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:10-14)



That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life — the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us — that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:1-10)

Christopher Hitchens Now Knows That God Is Great

My friend, Joshua Williamson, recently alerted me to the sad news that the famous staunch atheist Christopher Hitchens has died from cancer. What Josh said is worth repeating and a good reflection of the Christian worldview:

Sad news. Leading atheist Christopher Hitchens has died aged 62. He was the author of the book, "God is not great". Mr. Hitchen's now knows that God is indeed great. I hope that Christopher placed his trust in Christ before he died.

It is true that Christopher now knows that God is great beyond his comprehension. Christians led the way during Hitchens' battle with cancer praying for him and writing to him in pleading calls for repentance. Christopher was clearly taken aback by the compassion of Christians who had been the subject of his vitriolic scorn for many years. Hitchens wrote in Vanity Fair in September 2010:

These are my first raw reactions to being stricken. I am quietly resolved to resist bodily as best I can, even if only passively, and to seek the most advanced advice. My heart and blood pressure and many other registers are now strong again: indeed, it occurs to me that if I didn’t have such a stout constitution I might have led a much healthier life thus far. Against me is the blind, emotionless alien, cheered on by some who have long wished me ill. But on the side of my continued life is a group of brilliant and selfless physicians plus an astonishing number of prayer groups. On both of these I hope to write next time if — as my father invariably said — I am spared.

Ultimately none of us are spared from the ultimate statistic - that one out of one people die. I cannot take any moral high ground over Hitchens for all his years of fist shaking at God. I was no better - God's grace to me was unmerited favor so why should I pontificate? Like Josh, in the wake of Hitchens' death we can do nothing else but fly the flag of hope that God can save the worst of sinners at the latest of moments. Death bed conversions should not be treated as normative, nor should we plan on seeking God later in life after we have sown our wild oats. Romans 1 serves as a stern warning against those who persist in sin to the point of God "giving them over" to hearts so hardened that they, like Esau, cannot find repentance.

Spurgeon once preached to his congregation on why he believed the Bible contains only one death bed conversion - that being the thief on the cross. Spurgeon suggested that God only included one of these stories in the Bible to remind the complacent that it is very rare, and remind the hopeless that we are never without hope.

I do hope to see Christopher in heaven. God derives great glory from saving the worst of sinners. How do I know this? Because He saved me!

A Great Christmas Gift Idea For Emergents

Excitement, Anxiety, And Everything In Between

Last Monday I posted my letter of application to The Master's Seminary where John Macarthur is president. As you read this today, I am on a plane with my family flying from shivering Denmark to sunny Los Angeles. A letter of application and then next week I'm on a plane. Was it really that simple? Of course not, you just got the highlights package without the long drawn out process of phone calls, paperwork, packing, and moving a lot of furniture.

Right now I don't know how often I will be able to post on this blog as I enter into a period of intense academic study, but I hope that you, the reader, will come along for the ride anyway.

Please pray for my wife and three children as we embark on this seismic shift in our lives. Please pray for me that I will have the wisdom and aptitude to succeed academically (when I have never studied at this level before, or at any level!), and to balance that with my responsibilities as a husband and father. Please also pray for the pioneering church planting work going on in Denmark with our beloved brothers and sisters at Kristuskirken Reformed Baptist Church. Like I said, excitement, anxiety, and everything in between!

The next post you read will be from southern California. Maybe we can commemorate it with donuts, a traffic jam, and some out of work actors!

Paul from Adelaide has already exposed me as an 80's tragic. So I will unashamedly indulge a little and post this Neil Diamond song because it is on topic and my mum is a big fan! Love you mum!!!!

China: Bible Exhibit Protested

A Chinese theology student wrote an essay recently explaining why a group of Chinese Christians protested a Chinese Bible exhibit in the United States this year. The traveling exhibit was sponsored by the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Church in China, the communist committee that oversees China’s official church.

The Bible exhibit, titled “Thy Word Is the Truth: The Bible Ministry Exhibition of the Protestant Church in China,” was displayed in Washington, D.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas, Texas; and Chicago, Ill. According to an online article by The Christian Post, the exhibit shows how the Bible was spread throughout China. Rev. Bao Jiayuan, associate general secretary of the China Christian Council, a co-sponsor of the exhibit, told The Christian Post, “We hope to build mutual understanding between American Christians and Christians in China.”

In his essay, the Chinese student attempted to clarify true church-state relations in China and to explain some common misconceptions about the Three-Self Movement and the reasons why Chinese Christians protested the Bible exhibit. The anonymous writer said Chinese believers opposed to the Three-Self Movement are not necessarily opposed to churches within the movement, emphasizing that many members of the body of Christ belong to Three-Self churches.

“Since it is acceptable to expose the China Red Cross Society’s embezzlement and corruption and its monopoly of charity work, so we can likewise criticize the Three-Self for being politicized, for not being separate from the state and for controlling and restricting the church,” the student wrote. “In any case, when the government violates biblical principles, the church, as the vanguard of society and its conscience, has the responsibility to criticize and to bring up biblical truths.”

The student discredited the idea that Three-Self churches are full because they are successfully preaching the gospel. In China, only one Christian church is allowed per area; therefore, the only Christian church permitted is a Three-Self church. “Just imagine if in all of Shanghai (or Chicago) there were only five gas stations. Each would be jammed with customers,” the student wrote. “So the fact that there are so many people at these churches that meet openly isn’t because they are doing such a great job, but rather is due to the irregular religious policy and the Three-Self’s control and restrictions.”

The student also claimed that the Bible exhibit did not paint a true picture of the availability of Bibles in China. He pointed out that Chinese customs officers still seize Bibles when they are brought into the country in quantities. Several pastors are in prison for printing the Bible without permission, and Bibles in China are sold only in churches belonging to the Three-Self organization.

The exhibit displayed Bibles that Chinese Christians copied during the Cultural Revolution and at other times when Christians were widely persecuted in China. “Yet no mention was made anywhere of who was persecuting the church and [who] had made it impossible for Christians to buy Bibles, or who helped the government forcibly take over the church, or the fact that the Three-Self monopoly on Bible distribution brooks no interference,” the student wrote. “What they are trying to do is to dress up a religious policy that is wrong and not free and the Three-Self’s history of controlling and persecuting the church so as to create the illusion of religious freedom in China and the Three-Self as an organization that loves the Lord and loves the church.”

According to the essay, overseas organizations cooperating with the Three-Self have underestimated the potential consequences of working with them. “Consider this: If the Three-Self wins the support of the overseas mainline churches, and then, in the name of ‘orthodox Christianity,’ begins large-scale persecution of house churches, the harm to the work of the Gospel far exceeds the little bit of ministry that they [the foreign groups] can do.”

The student suggested that if foreign churches want a part in ministering to Christians in China, they should do so by working directly with local governments, training house church preachers and translating Christian literature, rather than working with the government organization. Foreign churches can contact China’s local churches, including churches within the Three-Self, and establish a relationship. “All these would be much better than helping the Three-Self in its propaganda efforts.”

Sources: China Aid Association, The Christian Post

Exposing And Expelling Heretics (Part 19)

Today we pick up from where we left off last week on our expository journey through the Epistle of Jude having finished looking at the four characteristics of apostates that Jude outlines in verse 8 - that they appeal to their own revelations, are carnal, insubordinate, and blasphemous! Today we will move on into verse 9 which is both an example of how not to be an apostate, but also an intriguing story by itself! This is a part of my verse by verse exposition through the Epistle of Jude for our church plant in Denmark (Kristuskirken).

1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. 8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. (Jude 1-13)

My charismatic background exposed me to a lot of what they called "spiritual warfare". Telling Satan off on a regular basis was par for the course for any self respecting arm waving charismatic. Singing militant songs was also thought to scare the devil away - you might remember this classic:

Well, I went to the enemy's camp and
I took back what he stole from me (x3)
I went to the enemy's camp and
I took back what he stole from me

You know
He's under my feet (x6)
Satan is under my feet

We also see examples in Scripture of irreverent fools playing fast and loose with Satan:

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims." Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?" And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. (Acts 19:13-16 v13)

We would do well to follow Michael the Archangel's example in Jude verse 9 who dared not bring any accusation against the Devil other than telling him "the Lord rebuke you"! Bob De Waay who was in deliverance ministry for many years arrived at this conclusion – the best way to fight spiritual warfare is to preach the Gospel. That the Holy Spirit may come and dwell in a person when he is converted.

But what of this strange story that only appears here in Scripture. This fascinating little window into the Spiritual world where Michael has an argument with Satan. Satan who is described as the Prince of this world - it would seem he had some knowledge of people and their deaths. But with the death of Moses there was obviously some information concealed from him. Something was different about the death of Moses and where his body was. This is a fascinating mystery and I will now give my opinion (there are good scholars who disagree with me on this - just giving my five cents worth - please don't stone me if you disagree) on what I think this is about.

The first five books of the Bible were written by Moses but the last chapter of the fifth book tells us about his death. So one mystery is who wrote Deuteronomy chapter 34. Let's take a look at some of it:

And the LORD said to him [Moses], "This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, 'I will give it to your offspring.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there." So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD, and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. (Deuteronomy 34:4-7)

There are four mysteries in these verses:

1.How did Moses die?
2. Who buried him?
3. Where was he buried?
4. Why does it say that in Moses' death “His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated.”

Go forward now to 2Kings 2:9-11:

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you." And Elisha said, "Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me." And he said, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so." And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. (2 Kings 2:9-11)

Go forward now to Zechariah:

And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, "What do you see?" I said, "I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left." . . . Then I said to him, "What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?" And a second time I answered and said to him, "What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?" He said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" I said, "No, my lord." (Zechariah 4:1-3,11-13)

Go forward now to Luke 9:28-31:

Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. (Luke 9:28-31)

Go forward again to Revelation 11:3-12:

And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here!" And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. (Revelation 11:3-12)

My opinion is that like Elijah, God is actually keeping Moses to return as one of the two witnesses to Israel to preach the Gospel together during the end times and rise of the Antichrist. Anyway, that is my view on what the Scriptures may well teach on this subject. I cannot be 100% certain about this, there are many better Bible teachers who would disagree, and we need to remember that this is not a doctrine of first importance. It is something we can agree to disagree on. But Jude 9 is todays text, so today I give my understanding of this subject.

In Revelation 12:7 Michael and his angels are waging war with Satan and his angels. And, of course, Michael and his angels defeat Satan and his angels and throw them out of heaven and throw them down to earth. He is, then, a powerful heavenly holy angel. He knew Lucifer. He knew him when he was the son of the morning, when he was the anointed cherub, when he was around the throne, when he was the heavenly choir director. He knew the other demons, all of them being created together at once. And when they fell, he knew they fell and he did battle with them and was part of the force that threw them out of heaven. He knows he has power over Satan then, he knows Satan is fallen. And yet he has respect for those angelic enemies of God and even though he is a powerful holy angel, he knows that there are limits to his power and there are limits to his knowledge. His name Michael, means “who is like God”. Michael is not omniscient, nor is he omnipotent. His power as a holy angel is delegated and his function is to do whatever God tells him to do and not act independently on his own. He will not usurp divine authority. He will not exercise his own will over Satan. He will not on his own blaspheme even Satan. God has His plans for Satan and God knows what they are and Michael will carry them out but he will not act independently (John Macarthur).

Most importantly, we need to understand that we should not play around with authorities that are way more powerful than us. We need to remain in Christ, Who is our strong tower and more powerful than everything in the universe. Everything in the Bible revolves around the Gospel because it reminds us of how weak we are and how we need to depend on the certain saving power of Him Who fulfilled the law, took our sins upon Himself, took God's wrath in the place of helpless sinners, graciously gives the sinner His righteousness, and proved it by conquering the grave. He came as a Lamb the first time, but He is coming again as a warrior king to destroy all his enemies. Whether we go to Him or He comes to us, we need to be clothed in His righteousness that we might be spared from the wrath to come.

Go Back To Part 18
Go Back To Part 1

Closing Remarks - Evolution Debate (Part 12)

Here is a video from an honest evolutionist.



Summary of implications of modern evolutionary biology (as quoted by evolutionist naturalist William Provine who is a world famous evolutionary professor at Cornell University):

1. No gods or purposive forces
2. No life after death
3. No ultimate foundation for ethics
4. No ultimate meaning in life
5. No free will (determinism)

(Interesting sidenote: Provine does not believe in prisons)

In contrast to the evolutionary worldview, Biblical Christianity says that:

1. You are created in the image of God
2. You will live eternally in heaven or he'll
3. All morality comes from God and is written on our consciences
4. You exist for the purpose of glorifying God and enjoying Him for ever
5. Your decisions have consequences in this life and the next

We are talking about the most important subject in the universe here and that is the ultimate message of evolution. If I am wrong then I am wasting my life and if you are wrong then you will be judged by the God Who made everything including yourself. He knows everything you have ever done, ever said, and ever thought. The God Who made your eyes sees everything.

I am going to admit one thing to you about the Bible. There is one big problem in the Bible. It happened when God spoke to Moses:

The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty (Exodus 34:6b-7a)

God is kind and loving, slow to anger, and rich in mercy. But he cannot let the guilty go free. No good judge lets criminals go free. And God's righteousness demands that he must punish you for every single sin you have ever committed. Every time you have broken His Law. Here is the greatest problem in the Bible. How can God show you His great mercy and kindness and love and still be a righteous judge at the same time. There was only one way and that is why He is the only way. God became a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and lived a perfect sinless life fulfilling every law that you have ever broken so that He could be our representative. He then went to the cross and died a horrific death and more than that, suffered under the wrath of God that is meant for sinners like you . . . and me. From now on, every time you see a cross on a church building remember this: That God treated Jesus Christ as if he lived your life, so that He could treat you as if you lived His life! That way God can demonstrate His great mercy and kindness to you without leaving the guilty unpunished. And if you love science and like to deal with facts here is the greatest fact of history - that Jesus rose from the dead proving that God was satisfied with His payment in the place of sinners.

So who are you going to believe? Those who tell you that everything came from nothing, everything is random and meaningless, there is no right and wrong, and death is the end. Or are you going to believe the guy who says that everything is a creation of God, the whole universe is an amazingly designed operating system, everything has purpose and consequences, that you know right from wrong and you do what's wrong anyway, that each and everyone of us will stand before Almighty God - alone - and answer to Him for every thought, word, and deed in our lives and that God in His great love sent a Savior to rescue us from the wrath to come.

Do you really have enough faith to believe in the religion of evolution. The Bible tells me the reason why people reject the One true God of the Bible - and like evolution it has nothing to do with science. Jesus said it best:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3:16-20)

God calls on you to repent and believe the Gospel. My evolutionary friend, this is not about science, this is about morality. What is the sin that you love so much that you will not repent and believe the Gospel? Turn to God, put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is kind and merciful to those who humble themselves and repent of their rebellion and false religion.

Go Back To Part 11
Go Back To Part 1

Dear John Macarthur

Well, this isn't really a letter to John MacArthur specifically . . . but it is my application to enroll in the seminary that he is president of. I cannot think of any better place in the world to be trained as an expositor of God's Word than The Master's Seminary and to apply for their Masters of Divinity program required that I write a letter of application outlining the major reasons why I want to attend TMS. What follows is that letter of application:

WHY I WANT TO ATTEND THE MASTER'S SEMINARY AND MY MINISTRY GOALS – CAMERON BUETTEL

I have spent too much of my Christian journey in the kind of fellowship that Dr. John Macarthur would describe as a “church of the tares”. Coming out of this and discovering the gospel truths that the reformers recovered has been like coming out of the desert and taking a drink from a fire hydrant.

I believe my conversion did actually occur in 1989 even though my first ten years of church life were in a “church” that was typical of the modern evangelical landscape – moralism, self esteem, success, and superficiality. In spite of this climate, I found myself to be a strange animal in this world. Conviction of sin and gut wrenching repentance (though I was not able to articulate these terms) were experiences that I knew but were completely foreign to others. Sometimes a blind squirrel finds a nut and by God's grace I became acquainted with the glorious truths of God's sovereignty, man's depravity, the miraculous nature of regeneration, and the breathtaking doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement.

This has cultivated an insatiable longing to proclaim this once for all delivered faith wherever and whenever I can. Defending and contending for this glorious gospel is what consumes my thinking. Reading Calvin's Institutes, A.W. Pink, and Systematic Theology are now pleasurable pursuits for a man who once despised reading. Even Scripture has taken on a whole new level of meaning as I have learnt to study it as the seamless story of Christ rather than a smorgasbord of moralisms.

I realize that the engine room at the heart of God honoring defending/contending/proclaiming is sound biblical exposition. I live in the ruins of the once great reformation. Living in Denmark is a harrowing experience due to severe lack of fellowship and the lack of godly men to be trained by. By the grace of God we have pioneered a church plant, an evangelism ministry, and an annual reformation conference, through seat of the pants learning via the internet. These are endeavors that I am completely untrained to do, and would gladly relinquish to someone more qualified. But with a boldness that comes from the knowledge that I could not possibly make things worse, coupled with the intense grief of never finding a single sound biblical church in the entire country, has given the energy to embrace this labor.

The rampant apostasy of the cowardly and compromising shepherds in the land of Denmark is nothing short of disgusting. I realize that the greatest need in this climate is men who are governed by God's Word, men who are passionate proclaimers of the one true Gospel, men who fear God but have total disdain for the prevailing cultural views, and men who know when to associate and when to separate. I want to dedicate the remaining years of my life to this task – this is what consumes my thoughts!

Through my own experiences attending two Shepherd's Conferences, acquaintances who have studied at TMS, meeting lecturers, and the goldmine sermon archive at www.gty.org , I am thoroughly convinced that The Master's Seminary is the best place to be trained as one of these men.

It is a seminary where:
The lecturers understand that they are gatekeepers and guardians of truth which is necessary to avoid the slide into liberalism.
The literal view of Genesis chapter one sets the tone for the other 1188 chapters.
The goal of interpreting Scripture is to find the authorial intent – not to “re-imagine it”.
Our labor is seen as a matter of life and death, heaven and hell.
There is reformed soteriology without the paedo-baptism.
There is little or no contamination of the 21st century sensibility which causes good theologians to lose their minds by being civil and tolerant toward heretics.
There is an In'N'Out burger joint on the same street.

The Master's Seminary is where I earnestly desire to be trained and ultimately deployed from. Thank you for considering my application, and more importantly, thank you for being steadfast in a world full of “climate change”.

Exposing And Expelling Heretics (Part 18)

Today we pick up from where we left off last week on our expository journey through the Epistle of Jude having finished looking at the four characteristics of apostates that Jude outlines in verse 8 - that they appeal to their own revelations, are carnal, insubordinate, and blasphemous! Today we will move on into verse 9 which is both an example of how not to be an apostate, but also an intriguing story by itself! This is a part of my verse by verse exposition through the Epistle of Jude for our church plant in Denmark (Kristuskirken) and I must give much credit to John Macarthur's teaching on the Epistle of Jude which has been my major source of commentary.

1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. 8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. (Jude 1-13)

Based on the behavior of apostates as outlined in verse 8 the question still remains as to how we should treat these purveyors of false Christianity. John gives us the answer in his second Epistle:

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. (2 John 9-11)

Strong words there. Not the sort of thing you would find in a church growth manual. But a stark warning as to the immense danger of contamination via contact with these people and also the reproach on Christ brought about by association with apostates - oh wow, was that an elephant that just walked into the room? Anyway, moving on to verse 9 in Jude we see the stark contrast between the behavior of an archangel and the blasphemous contemptuous behavior of apostates:

But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." (Jude 9)

Does anybody remember that old song that was really popular in the Charismatic churches:

I'm goin up to the high places
I'm goin up to the high places
I'm goin up to the high places
and gonna tear the devil's kingdom down

Or how about that other spiritual warfare classic:

Well, I went to the enemy's camp and
I took back what he stole from me (x3)
I went to the enemy's camp and
I took back what he stole from me

You know
He's under my feet (x6)
Satan is under my feet



Nope, definitely could not see any archangels in that crowd!

Kenneth Hagin also weighed into the discussion with this theological insight:

That’s the way you have to deal with the devil — just tell him to shut up!

Somehow I don't think Michael the Archangel would have been too keen on any of these strategies or patterns of speech!

God is Sovereign and rules over all things including Satan. We see in the book of Job that Satan can do nothing without God's permission. Newsflash, we are not God, and Satan is not powerless. Michael the archangel understands this point but Kenneth Hagin clearly didn't!

More to come next week . . .

Go Back To Part 17
Go Back To Part 1

Questions For Evolutionists - Evolution Debate (Part 11)

What follows is some of the questions I had prepared to ask my evolutionary opponent in my recent debate.

Are you familiar with the word "genome"? For those of you who are unfamiliar, genome is the word biologists use to describe the entire genetic code in a living thing. It is what is found encoded in it's DNA. For evolution to be true it requires genetic mutations that cause genome information to increase. Let me be specific here, I am not talking about an increase in the chances of survival because that can come through a loss of information.

Question 1: Has there ever been a genetic mutation observed where it has increased the genome information?

The world's most famous evolutionist got asked this question and this is what he had to say . . .



Question 2: How can DNA develop through evolutionary processes?



Question 3: Where did life come from?

Once again, here is Dawkins' "scientific speculations" on the subject during an interview with Ben Stein . . .

Unfortunately this video cannot be embedded onto my blog but it can be viewed here and is well worth the watch for its comedic elements alone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5FTyZ732lQ

Question 4: "Haeckel's Embryos"


Do you recognize this picture? Perhaps you have seen it in one of your modern scientific text books. Can you tell me if it is a drawing or a picture? Do you know why it is a drawing? Because this is a completely fraudulent attempt to show fabricated similarities between a wide variety of living things at the embryonic stage. It is a fraud that was exposed over 100 years ago. Haeckel even confessed to it. My question is why is this fake picture still allowed in scientific text books?

Michael K Richardson, Professor of Evolutionary Developmental Zoology at Leiden University said:

This is one of the worst cases of scientific fraud. It's shocking to find that somebody one thought was a great scientist was deliberately misleading. It makes me angry ... What he [Haeckel] did was to take a human embryo and copy it, pretending that the salamander and the pig and all the others looked the same at the same stage of development. They don't ... These are fakes.' (Michael Richardson, in an interview with Nigel Hawkes, The Times (London), p. 14, August 11, 1997. )

Question 5: How can something as complex as an eye evolve?

For an eye to be able to see, the 40 or so basic components which make it up need to be present at the same time and work together perfectly. The lens is only one of these. If all the other components, such as the cornea, iris, pupil, retina, and eye muscles, are all present and functioning properly, but just the eyelid is missing, then the eye will shortly incur serious damage and cease to carry out its function. In the same way, if all the subsystems exist but tear production ceases, then the eye will dry up and go blind within a few hours. How could an eye evolve when it requires all 40 parts to be working or it cannot function?

To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.

Do you know who said that?

Charles Darwin (From the Origin of Species, CHAPTER VI - DIFFICULTIES OF THE THEORY "Organs of extreme Perfection and Complication).

The only difficult part in preparing questions for my opponent were which ones to leave out considering there are so many. Evolution is a theory about as watertight as my screen door!

Go On To Part 12
Go Back To Part 10
Go Back To Part 1

The Anti-Biblical Teachings Of Biologos

Biologos is a relative newcomer to the "battle for the beginning". They are an organization devoted to the oxymoronic notion of "theistic evolution". Their professed goal is to harmonize science with Scripture but their track record is one of continually contorting Scripture to try and fit it into the prevailing evolutionary paradigm. This has become a very disturbing development in recent times, most notably because of Biologos' ability to gain acceptance with Christian leaders who cherish "academic respectability". Ken Ham from Answers In Genesis recently gave this lecture exposing Biologos for what they are:

Kazakhstan: New Anti-Religion Laws

The government of Kazakhstan enacted two new laws on Oct. 24, 2011, further restricting freedom of religion. All registered churches must now re-register with the government, and only churches meeting new criteria will be registered.

As churches begin the rigorous re-registration process, organizations and human rights defenders from around the world are strongly criticizing the new laws. Jens Eschenbaecher, spokesperson for the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), told Forum 18 News, “The legislation appears to unnecessarily restrict the freedom of religion or belief and is poised to limit the exercise of this freedom in Kazakhstan.”

Both laws force churches to compile documentation and re-register with the government. Forum 18 News reports that the first law, The Law on Religious Activity and Religious Associations, imposes a complex registration system, bans unregistered religious activity, enforces greater religious censorship and requires both central and local government approval to build or open new places of worship. Any current church that does not re-register faces court liquidation. The second law amends nine existing laws and legal provisions, according to Forum 18 News. One provision prohibits inviting children to participate in religious activities if their parents object. According to Mission Network News (MNN), some fear this provision could shut down summer camps and other children’s events.

Nazgul Yergalieva, head of the Legal Policy Research Center in Kazakhstan, told Forum 18 News, “Strict regulation and limitation of fundamental rights, such as freedom of religion, by governments has already proved to be a dangerous path, leading to social tension and resentment.” Please pray that Christians in Kazakhstan will remain courageous and strong as they face increased government pressure.

Exposing And Expelling Heretics (Part 17)

Today we pick up from where we left off last week on our expository journey through the Epistle of Jude. Verse 8 of Jude's Epistle gives four characteristics of apostates that infiltrate the church. Last week we looked at the third of these, which is that they "reject authority", they are people who want to live outside the realm of accountability and submission. Today we will look at the fourth characteristic in verse 8 which is that these false teachers "blaspheme the glorious ones". This is a part of my verse by verse exposition through the Epistle of Jude for our church plant in Denmark - Kristuskirken.

1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. 8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. (Jude 1-8)

The fourth characteristic of apostates that Jude lists in verse 8 is that they "blaspheme the glorious ones". They have contempt and carelessness for anything that warrants fear or reverence. These are people who shoot from the hip in their speech about "spiritual warfare", Satan, and God Himself. They continually play with fire without any regard for the impending peril they open themselves and their followers up to. John Macarthur had this to say:

The Greek is doxasfrom which we get doxology, it's a word that means glory. They blaspheme glories. And it could refer to the glories of God, it could refer to the glories of Christ. It could refer to the glories of divine truth. But I'll tell you this, the word "blaspheme" is clear enough in its intention to be identified with anything that is holy, or sacred. To blaspheme is to basically curse what is sacred. They're irreverent. I get sometimes squeamish when I hear certain so-called clerics or biblical scholars talk about Jesus in a blasphemous fashion. I literally feel sick when I see Jesus misrepresented in some stupid fashion in a ridiculous movie which takes away His glory. These people who claim to represent Christ and claim to be the scholars of the New Testament who are going to help us find the real Jesus, are really blasphemers. Certainly the angels did that. They blasphemed the glories of heaven. Certainly Sodom and Gomorrah did that, they blasphemed the very holy angels. Certainly Israel did that, they blasphemed God when they made that idol and worshiped it. Very serious.

Jesse Duplantis is one of the worst examples of this sort of behavior.



The teaching in this video is so stupid and blasphemous of God's character and nature that it does not even warrant a response. I'll include just one more short clip because it serves as another great example of this idiotic biblically incompetent behavior:



Jesse, you are going to find out how wrong you are! The Apostle Peter described this behavior when he said:

then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction (2 Peter 2:9-12)

Here is one more clear example of this. Aside from the very obvious reason why Joyce Meyer should not be calling HERself a Bible teacher, there are other alarm bells we should be hearing. Even though Jude points out in verse 9:

But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." (Jude 9)

Joyce seems to think that she can take these matters into her own hands.



If Michael the archangel refused to take a shot at Satan, but rather appealed to God and His authority, how much more should we. We'll talk more about this intriguing encounter between Michael and the Devil next week!

Go On To Part 18
Go Back To Part 16
Go Back To Part 1

Newsflash! - Evolution Debate (Part 10)

Religious evolutionary fanatics like Kristoffer Haldrup insist that there is absolutely no evidence for the global flood of Noah. Not a single scrap of evidence. The following article here (published just two days ago) is another great example (in the long line of examples) of why evolutionary scientists say there is no evidence . . . because they start with the presupposition that there is no evidence and that their theory must be right - therefore they impose their theory on the evidence and come up with their own set of fabricated facts.

Is it just possible that this recent discovery of a massive whale graveyard high up and a long way from the ocean could be evidence for the ocean once covering this piece of desert? Is it just possible that the mass of perfectly preserved skeletons (including two adult whales with a juvenile between them) in a small area points to a sudden cataclysmic event? Why aren't they surprised to find that these whales which are "millions of years old" are mainly identical to the whales we find in the water today? Why do they consider the possibility of lagoons high up in the desert, and tsunamis that washed a massive number of whales into one spot on a hill in the desert but not even mention the possibility of a cataclysmic global flood like the Bible says? Answer these questions and then maybe you will have the answer to the question as to why religious evolutionary fanatics desperately cling to their assertions that there is "no evidence for a global flood". Because this discovery screams a ton of consistency with a global flood (my comments in italics).

GIANT WHALE GRAVEYARD FOUND IN CHILEAN DESERT!
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 12:35pm by Liz Klimas

SANTIAGO, Chile (The Blaze/AP) — More than 2 million years ago, scores of whales congregating off the Pacific Coast of South America mysteriously met their end. Today, they have emerged again atop a desert hill more than a kilometer (half a mile) from the surf, where researchers have begun to unearth one of the world’s best-preserved graveyards of prehistoric whales.

A paleontologist from the museum prepares a whale fossil at the site where many prehistoric whale fossils were discovered in the Atacama desert near Copiapo, Chile. But how did they get there? That’s the question paleontologists are trying to figure out.

Yes, it's a difficult question, when you are committed to denying the obvious!

Maybe they became disoriented and beached themselves. Maybe they were trapped in a lagoon by a landslide or a storm. Maybe they died there over a period of a few millennia. Somehow they ended up right next to one another, many just meters (yards) apart, entombed as the shallow sea floor was driven upward by geological forces and transformed into the driest place on the planet.

Yes, these are all well thought out scientific theories when you consider how difficult it is to think with your head shoved in that desert sand.

Chilean scientists together with researchers from the Smithsonian Institution are studying how these whales, many of the them the size of buses, wound up in the same corner of the Atacama Desert. “That’s the top question,” said Mario Suarez, director of the Paleontological Museum in the nearby town of Caldera, about 700 kilometers (440 miles) north of Santiago, the Chilean capital.

Pick me, pick me! I can answer that question and save you a whole lot of money in research grants in the process.

Experts say other groups of prehistoric whales have been found together in Peru and Egypt, but the Chilean fossils stand out for their staggering number and beautifully preserved bones. More than 75 whales have been discovered so far — including more than 20 perfectly intact skeletons.

They provide a snapshot of sea life at the time, and even include what might have been a family group: two adult whales with a juvenile between them.

“I think they died more or less at the same time,” said Nicholas Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Pyenson and Suarez are jointly leading the research.

How much are they paying you Nicholas to come up with these brilliant observations?

As for why such a great number perished in the same place, Pyenson said: “There are many ways that whales could die, and we’re still testing all those different hypotheses.”

Except the obvious hypothesis where all the evidence points to.

The scientists have yet to publish their findings about the fossil bed and the extensive remains, which began to emerge in June last year during a highway-widening project that is now on hold.

So far, the fossils have been found in a roadside strip the length of two football fields — about 240 meters (260 yards) long and 20 meters (yards) wide.

Pyenson said the spot was once a “lagoon-like environment” and that the whales probably died between 2 million and 7 million years ago.

Yes, no evidence of a global flood but he is absolutely certain that that this piece of desert was once a lagoon. A lagoon with whales just like you find today - not! He even has the technology to date this lagoon to 4.5 million years plus or minus 2.5 million years. Great accuracy there - NOT!

Most of the fossils are baleen whales that measured about 8 meters (25 feet) long, Pyenson said.

The researchers also discovered a sperm whale skeleton and remains of a now-extinct dolphin that had two walrus-like tusks and previously had only turned up in Peru, he said.

“We’re very excited about that,” Pyenson said in a telephone interview. “It is a very bizarre animal.”

Other unusual creatures found elsewhere in the fossil-rich Atacama Desert include an extinct aquatic sloth and a seabird with a 5-meter (17-foot) wingspan, bigger than a condor’s.

Erich Fitzgerald, a vertebrate paleontologist at Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, emailed that the latest find is very significant.

“The fossils are exceptionally well preserved and quite complete — a rare combination in paleontology and one that will likely shed light on many facets of the … ecology and evolution of these extinct species,” Fitzgerald said.

There he goes again imposing his evolutionary presupposition onto the evidence. Great empirical science there Enrich!

He said it’s possible “these fossilized remains may have accumulated over a relatively long period of time.”

Here is that great scientific consensus that shows us how much certainty these scientists have with their theory. One guy says it happened at the same time, the other says it may have happened over a long period of time.

Hans Thewissen, an expert on early whales, agreed. Another scenario, he said, is that the whales might have gathered in a lagoon and then an earthquake or storm could have closed off the outlet to the ocean.

Yes, scientists deal with hard empirical facts, not fanciful theories!

“Subsequently the lagoon dries up and the whales die,” said Thewissen, a professor of anatomy at Northeast Ohio Medical University. He said the accumulation of so many complete skeletons is “a very unusual situation.”

“If this were a lagoon that dried up, you might see signs that ocean water evaporated,” such as crystallized salt and gypsum in the rock, said Thewissen, who is not involved in the research. “On the other hand, if a giant wave or storm flung the whales onto shore, it would also have pushed the ocean floor around, and you would see scour marks in the rocks.”

Dating fossils is complicated, experts said, and it will be very hard to distinguish dates precisely enough to determine whether the whales all died simultaneously.

It is very complicated when they have no idea how to do it.

The researchers have been told to finish their onsite studies so that fossils can be moved out of the path of the widened Pan American Highway, or Route 5, which is Chile’s main north-south road.

Many of the fossils have been transported in plaster coverings to the museum in Caldera. Researchers from Chile’s National Museum of Natural History are also studying the fossils.

Pyenson and his team are working quickly under tents to document the intact skeletons. With funding from the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian team is using sophisticated photography and laser scanners to capture 3D images of the whales that can later be used to make life-sized models of them.

At least they have entire skeletons to base their models on rather than the massive amount of guesswork involved in creating a life sized "Nebraska Man" from a pig tooth.

Suarez, the paleontologist, had long known about the whale bones just north of Caldera – they could be seen jutting out of the sandstone ridge alongside the highway at the spot known as Cerro Ballena, or Whale Hill. When the road work began last year, the construction company asked him to monitor the job to avoid destroying fossils.

“In the first week, about six or seven whales appeared,” Suarez said. “We realized that it was a truly extraordinary site.”

The Chilean government has declared the site a protected zone, and Pyenson said he hopes a museum will be built to showcase the intact skeletons where they lie, in the same way fossils are displayed at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and Colorado.

Suarez thinks there are probably fossils of hundreds of whales waiting to be uncovered – enough to keep him working at this one spot for the rest of his life.

“We have a unique opportunity to develop a great scientific project and make a great contribution to science,” he said.

Great contribution to science fiction more like it!

Ok Kristoffer, you can now write in and have a cry about how dumb and unscientific I am.

Go On To Part 11
Go Back To Part 9
Go Back To Part 1

The Joy Of The Redeemed And The Redeemer

My good friend Arnold Barba just wrote this and I like it so much I am posting it on my blog today. A fusion between good poetry and good theology - a rare combination these days!

The Joy Of The Redeemed And The Redeemer

Maybe there is a wonder for man to see that cannot be seen by the angels of God. 
Maybe there is a wonder for man to see that cannot be seen even by the holy angels from on high. 
Maybe there is a wonder for man to see that one cannot see but for an act of God. 
Maybe there is a wonder for man to see, but which only can be seen if the eye of man is enabled to see,

or better said, the heart of man is enabled to believe. 

And maybe this wonder is not a wonder of the earth, nor a wonder of man. 
And maybe this wonder is not a wonder of the flesh, nor of the will of man—

but of God.

And maybe this wonder is not a work of the one that is to behold it, but a work of God—

alone.

Well, this is so.  I know it to be so. 

For I have seen this wonder that is not a wonder of the flesh, nor of the will of man. 
I have encountered this wonder that is not of the works of man, but of the work of God, alone.

And “This is the work of God, [that makes this wonder known],
that you believe in Him whom He sent.” 

John 6:29 (NKJV)

And because of this work of God alone, I see this wonder that man and world and angel cannot see, but only one whose eyes are opened, and whose heart is reborn, can see.

And this is the wonder that I see:

God gave wretched man,
who was once dead and enslaved to sin,
the right to be called his son, and son of God is now he,
if he believes in Him whom Father sent,
a belief enabled him by
the work and power of God Himself.

But this son is not begotten by God.  For only one was begotten by Him.  But adopted by God is he.

And by this adoption, man is made a son, not just for this life.  Rather, redeemed man is adopted in this life for this life and for all eternity.

But what can be seen in this adoption that neither flesh, nor world, nor fallen angel, nor even holy angel can see?

The wonder that can be seen is this:

a redeemed heart made anew,
made to shine the glory of His light and don the righteousness of Christ,
having been translated from darkness and death, unto eternal life.

The flesh shall never know this, for this is not a work of the flesh, nor an encounter of the flesh.

The world shall never know this, for this is not a work of the world, nor an encounter of this world.

No fallen angel can see this, for no fallen angel can be redeemed, for the work of light is not known by the darkness, for darkness cannot comprehend it. 

But this is also true, you see. 

The holy angels from on high do not know and cannot know and will never know the work of God in the redemption of the heart of man in Christ.  For no holy angel knows sin, and thus no holy angel requires redemption from sin and from its wages of death. 

And so no holy angel knows what it is to be enslaved to sin and bound to death one day, and become redeemed, and be set free and saved from death another day—oh on that great, happy day!

This is a wonder that only redeemed man can see, and only redeemed man encounters, and only redeemed man inextricably knows in his inner soul. 

Oh what joy there is in being redeemed!

And though neither the flesh, nor the world, nor power nor principality can know the wonder of redemption, nor the joy of the redeemed . . .

there is ONE other that can see and does know the joy of redemption.

But this ONE does not see or know such joy of a sinful man that knows this joy from his redeemed stance.

This ONE is no other than redeemed man’s REDEEMER that knows the fullness of joy that is known in redemption. 

Not because he was, or is, or ever will be, redeemed.  But rather because . . .

He redeemed!

And knowing this wonder as the Redeemer, rather than the redeemed, is no small thing. 

For while men of every tribe and every nation as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore will know the joy of being redeemed, there will be only ONE in all eternity that will know this wonder as the ONE Who redeemed.

This ONE, unique sent ONE, is none other than His Excellency, the Lord of lords and King of kings, the ONE named . . .

Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the redeemed.

And the joy of the redeemed, when united with the joy of the Redeemer, is the very joy of His Kingdom come for you and me! 

But when shall this be? 

When man, redeemed, lives in the joy of his redemption, so that the joy of His redeemer can come forth unto him from within!

This is your call and your inheritance, you redeemed:  to enjoy and delight in your redemption, for it gives joy and delight to our Redeemer, in Whose joy and delight we can know His great love toward you and me, the redeemed!

Yes and amen!

Washington DC - Petitions Delivered To Pakistani Embassy

A team from The Voice of the Martyrs traveled to Washington, D.C., in November to make the first delivery of Call For Mercy petitions to the Pakistani Embassy. The team received a courteous response from Pakistani Embassy personnel, who accepted the more than 400,000 signatures that had been collected at that time, including the initial 150,000 from Christians inside Pakistan.

“It’s hard to know what to expect when you call an embassy and tell them you have petitions like that to deliver,” said Todd Nettleton, VOM’s Director of Media Development and a part of the delivery team. “I wasn’t sure if we’d end up with a warm welcome or a message not to come. Thankfully, the Lord blessed us with favor and they welcomed us.”

Helping out in VOM’s delivery efforts were the winners of VOM’s first-ever film contest, David and Christina, who are brother and sister and are also both students at Asbury University. Their winning contest entry was a 97-second call to action that has now encouraged more than 30,000 YouTube viewers to sign the Call For Mercy petition.

The Pakistani Embassy representative who deals with human rights issues met with us and thanked the VOM team for interest in Asia’s case. She reminded the team that the legal process in Asia’s case is still going forward. The appeal of her death sentence is currently before the High Court, and if it fails there, it could be appealed further to the Supreme Court, the final judicial authority in Pakistan. Even if it fails there, a presidential pardon is possible, the embassy representative said.

“The Embassy and the Pakistani government want us to be patient, to let their legal system do its job,” said Nettleton. “But while we are waiting, Asia Bibi is sitting in a jail cell, separated from her husband and her daughters. We are calling for mercy on this family now. Asia and her family shouldn’t have to wait any longer.”

The Voice of the Martyrs is committed to continuing the Call For Mercy campaign, in cooperation with Pakistani Christians who began the campaign, until Asia Bibi is released from prison. You can still sign the petition at www.CallForMercy.com. Please encourage your Christian friends to add their voices to this important effort.
Posted: November 17, 2011

Exposing And Expelling Heretics (Part 16)

Today we pick up from where we left off last week on our expository journey through the Epistle of Jude. Verse 8 of Jude's Epistle gives four characteristics of apostates that infiltrate the church. Last week we looked at the second of these, which is that they "defile the flesh", they are lovers of worldly pleasure whether that may be money, power, sexual immorality, or a combination of all three. Today we will look at the third characteristic in verse 8 which is that these false teachers "reject authority". This is a part of my verse by verse exposition through the Epistle of Jude for our church plant in Denmark - Kristuskirken.

1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. 8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. (Jude 1-8)

Apostates reject authority, particularly biblical authority, but also the counsel of those who labor in the Word. A prominent theme, and form of self-defense, among false teachers is their command "thou shalt not criticize", or as I call it, the eleventh commandment. Many bad teachers survive solely on the basis of this mantra. It is commonplace among the Word Faith and prosperity crowds.

Without a doubt we should be careful about our motivation and attitude when asking critical questions. But Scripture actually mandates the testing of all teaching commanding us to test all teaching (I John 4:1), expose the works of darkness (Ephesians 5:11), mark false teachers (Romans 16:17), and condemn any other gospel than the one found in Scripture (Galatians 1:8-9). John Macarthur had this to say about teaching that opposes any critique:

In a time like this of tolerance, listen, false teaching will always cry intolerance. It will always say you are being divisive, you are being unloving, you are being ungracious, because it can only survive when it doesn't get scrutinized. So it cries against any intolerance. It cries against any examination, any scrutiny—just let's embrace each other; let's love each other; let's put all that behind us. False doctrine cries the loudest about unity. Listen carefully when you hear the cry for unity, because it may be the cover of false doctrine encroaching. If ever we should follow 1 Thessalonians 5, and examine everything carefully, it's when somebody is crying unity, love, and acceptance (online source).

One of the real problems with trying to have productive discussion with people immersed in this kind of "theology" is that they mask their unrepentance in a four fold strategy - change the subject, ignore it, deny it, or question the motivation behind a question. But even if I am the biggest jerk in the world when I critique (and I am sure there are times when my attitude is not right), the question still remains as to whether my critique is true or not. Or, more importantly, whether my critique aligns with Scripture.

One of the main reasons apostates reject authority is because they love their own authority.

I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. (3 John 9-10)

John Macarthur elaborates further on this rejection of authority:

Obviously if you're going to live an immoral life and love your lust and love your sin, you're going to have to reject authority, that is divine authority. This is very interesting. They reject authority, verse 8, reject is atheteo, to do away with something that is established, that is to say they reject the established authority. The word authority, this is very interesting, kurioteta, in the Greek, related to the word kurios . . . they reject lordship. They reject lordship. They reject any rule over them. It is even a word used of angels in Ephesians 1:21 and Colossians 1:16, angels are called authorities, rulers. But this isn't about angels. They reject singular authority. They reject lordship. And we know exactly what lordship they're talking about because we went back to verse 4, right? "They deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ." They will not come under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are their own self-styled authorities. This is arrogance, this is arrogant reaction to God's rule and authority and the lordship of Christ over His church.

Instead of rejecting authority and lording it over others, leaders in the body of Christ (all Christians in fact) are called to:

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:3-8)

Go On To Part 17
Go Back To Part 15
Go Back To Part 1

Objection 3 - Evolution Debate (Part 9)

As we progress through my major three objections against modern evolutionary theory I know that I camped on Objection 2 (no transitional forms and an abundance of fakes) for quite a while. I did this for two main reasons. Firstly, the history of fossil evidence, lack of transitional forms, the endless procession of fakes and frauds, and the bizarre "scientific speculations" on the future, is so ridiculous and runs so deep. Secondly, because of the constant crying of Kristoffer Haldrup who carries the double burden of having a brain the size of a planet and being a bishop in his evolutionary religion. The mountain heap of mock-worthy evidence is so huge that I could continue ad infinitum but let's move on to objection 3 today. As we go through the issue of dating rocks don't worry if some of the technical terms go over your head. Bear with me because I think the big picture in this is simple to grasp. I must thank the dedicated scientists at Answers In Genesis for much of the following material.

Objection 3: Scientists don't really know how old things are!

Geologists can’t use just any old rock for dating. They must find rocks that have the following parent radioisotopes to date rocks: uranium-238, uranium-235, potassium-40, rubidium-87, and samarium-147. These parent radioisotopes change into the corresponding daughter isotopes lead-206, lead-207, argon-40, strontium-87, and neodymium-143 isotopes, respectively. Thus geologists refer to uranium-lead (two versions), potassium-argon, rubidium-strontium, or samarium-neodymium dates for rocks. Note that the carbon-14 (or radiocarbon) method is not used to date rocks because most rocks do not contain carbon (more about that later).


Assumption 1: Conditions at Time Zero
No geologists were present when most rocks formed, so they cannot test whether the original rocks already contained daughter isotopes alongside their parent radioisotopes. For example, with regard to the volcanic lavas that erupted, flowed, and cooled to form rocks in the unobserved past, evolutionary geologists simply assume that none of the daughter argon-40 atoms was in the lava rocks.

For example, when a sample of the lava in the Mt. St. Helens crater (that had been observed to form and cool in 1986) was analyzed in 1996, it contained so much argon-40 that it had a calculated “age” of 350,000 years (S. A. Austin, “Excess Argon within Mineral Concentrates from the New Dacite Lava Dome at Mount St. Helens Volcano,” Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal 10.3 (1996): 335–343).

Basalt rocks from the Grand Canyon were tested and aged at about 1 million years based on the amounts of potassium and argon isotopes in the rocks. But when we date the rocks using the rubidium and strontium isotopes, we get an age of 1.143 billion years (A. A. Snelling, “Isochron Discordances and the Role of Inheritance and Mixing of Radioisotopes in the Mantle and Crust,” in Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth: Results of a Young-Earth Creationist Research Initiative, eds. L. Vardiman, A. A. Snelling, and E. F. Chaffin (El Cajon, California: Institute for Creation Research; Chino Valley, Arizona: Creation Research Society, 2005), pp. 393–524; D. B. DeYoung, “Radioisotope Dating Case Studies” in Thousands . . . Not Billions (Green Forest, Arkansas: Master Books, 2005), pp. 123–139).

Assumption 2: No Contamination
The problems with contamination, as with inheritance, are already well-documented in the textbooks on radioactive dating of rocks. Unlike the hourglass, where its two bowls are sealed, the radioactive “clock” in rocks is open to contamination by gain or loss of parent or daughter isotopes because of waters flowing in the ground from rainfall and from the molten rocks beneath volcanoes. Similarly, as molten lava rises through a conduit from deep inside the earth to be erupted through a volcano, pieces of the conduit wallrocks and their isotopes can mix into the lava and contaminate it.

Because of such contamination, the less than 50-year-old lava flows at Mt. Ngauruhoe, New Zealand, yield a rubidium-strontium “age” of 133 million years, a samarium-neodymium “age” of 197 million years, and a uranium-lead “age” of 3.908 billion years! (A. A. Snelling, “The Relevance of Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd and Pb-Pb Isotope Systematics to Elucidation of the Genesis and History of Recent Andesite Flows at Mt. Ngauruhoe, New Zealand, and the Implications for Radioisotopic Dating,” in Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Creationism, ed. R. L. Ivey, Jr. (Pittsburgh: Creation Science Fellowship, 2003), pp. 285–303; Ref. 4, 2005).

It is also interesting to note that large traces of Carbon 14 are found in diamonds that are "billions of years old". The reason they don't use carbon dating on rocks is because carbon decays so quickly compared to uranium half life. So there should be no Carbon 14 atoms in diamonds . . . unless they are only thousands of years old.

Assumption 3: Constant Decay Rate
Geologists have assumed that these radioactive decay rates have been constant for billions of years based on their stability over the 100 years that they have observed it. This uniformity is unproven, speculative, and in stark contrast to catastrophic global flood we see in the biblical account. It is also in conflict with other parts of evolutionary theory such as the "Big Bang" theory and the "cambrian explosion".

Evolution is Speculation and guess work! It is built upon naturalism which requires observation but cannot observe the big bang, the start of life, or the mutations it needs to be true. It assumes uniformity but has no explanation for it. It has no explanation for morality. It has no explanation for how a bang can happen without something to go bang!

Science cannot prove it's own assumptions:

1. The universe is real and nature is knowable.
2. All nature is subject to the same laws and therefore we can predict its behavior.
3. Measurable causes underlie all observable effects. (no explanation for first cause)
4. The simplest explanation is the accepted one.

The fact is that Theology is also based upon presuppositions and therefore there is a faith basis for both theology and science.

Christians have the foundation for science because it is only the Bible that affirms the presuppositions of science to be true. Hence, the scientific method was actually an historical outgrowth of the biblical worldview.

Go On To Part 10
Go Back To Part 8
Go Back To Part 1