Proverbs Chapter Twelve (Ancient Wisdom for Everyday)

A lot of these can take me by surprise.  In my human arrogance I can tend to just pass over certain lines thinking "well that's obvious" but in speaking to a friend recently I was reminded of an old truth.

We were sitting on Rib mountain together at a rock quarry, looking over the waters wondering what tomorrow might bring.  And we prayed together. I was telling her about the Bible, saying that as a writer the Bible blows my mind. It's incredibly expertly written. Every line in the Bible consists of truth that someone could write a book on. Zeroing in on one single verse and searching through it, you can find so much to live by.  

Today I was thinking, I better live that. So let's take a look at one single chapter of the book of Proverbs, Chapter twelve, and the first seven verses of that chapter. 

12 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
    but whoever hates correction is stupid.

Proverbs is all about wisdom, wise sayings. Do you know anyone who loves being disciplined?  I can't say that I do.  But 12:1 says that if I respond positively to discipline, learn to receive it and learn from it, then at the same time I love knowledge.  Because when God disciplines me, he's making me into a better person.  

² Good people obtain favor from the Lord,
    but he condemns those who devise wicked schemes.

Good people, people who are in Christ, who do good works are favored by God. But doesn't that seem obvious? Yet how often do I devise wicked schemes? If I can just do this, buy this, or get that I'll then have this. Nope, self seeking never helped anyone. Those are schemes. I meet a lot of people like that, saying one thing but having other plans. I've been that person. We're often guilty of that. But, if I seek to do good works in the sight of my heavenly Father, I will have the things I thought I would get by self seeking.

³ No one can be established through wickedness,
    but the righteous cannot be uprooted.

This is amazing truth.  None can be established through wickedness.  This can take us by surprise! While studying online at Liberty University, at times I'm tempted.. maybe I could cheat on this test, just a little.  And it seems so harmless, right? Well, just this once. I know what Proverbs 12:3 says, but this is a unique situation. Is it really so unique?  It's not that the one single act of cheating once will change much of anything. But, it sets a terrible precedent.  It triggers a new line of behavior, and pretty soon I'm taking another test and that urge to cheat is just a bit stronger. It's just a bit harder to resist.  Eventually what God says comes true down the line, maybe I'm caught for cheating later on and I'm expelled from the entire education process.  Just because of one little slip, right? God's word is always true.  Sometimes we just don't factor in the time element.  I tend to think in "now" terms.  But there is always later.

⁴ A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown,
    but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.

I've witnessed this one first hand. To see a man with a godly wife, he is blessed in so many ways. But a man who is married to a deceitful woman, she's like cancer in his very bones, something he can't escape. 

⁵ The plans of the righteous are just,
    but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.

If I'm setting out some plans, a basic framework for my life then it ought to be a plan that is full of justice.  I've gotten some good advice from Christians, some bad advice from Christians, and some really bad advice from non-believing friends.  I have a friend who is a meth addict, and yes, I am still his friend because that's what Christians do, we befriend the lost. But the stuff that comes out of his mouth. It's very hard at times to simply stand the things he says. So negative, so repulsive, such sexual thoughts, and demented philosophies of living. The advice he gives is just plain deceitful.  

Or another man I was working with recently "How many DUIs do you have?"  He replied, "five."  I prompted him, "Do you think, maybe alcohol could be the problem?"  And he replied, "No, I don't have a problem with alcohol." His thinking is too clouded to see the obvious in front of his eyes.  

⁶ The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood,
    but the speech of the upright rescues them.

Verse six here seems like a continuation of verse five.  What's the solution to the problem of the deceitful advice of non-believers?  Well, the speech of the upright rescues them. Point proven, we should not shun non-believers and sinners, we must continuously share the truth with them, because Jesus can rescue them, if they'll turn to Him.

⁷ The wicked are overthrown and are no more,
    but the house of the righteous stands firm.

Again and again I see in our world systems and mega institutions that do harm to the world and to people. They do harm to the natural environment, to infrastructure, to entire economies, and to the people they step on daily for power and profit. But God's word says they will be overthrown and not remembered. The righteous, those in Christ, their house will stand firm.

The Big Bang vs. Six-Day Creation

Einstein visits Hubble to view the evidence himself

Introduction

The Bible begins with the resounding statement, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1 New International Version). Genesis Chapter one walks through each period of creation stating what was done on six days of creation, ending with: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day” (Gen 1:1 New International Version). For the duration of this essay the presuppositions will be that God indeed did create all things, the Bible is the inerrant word of God, and that the Genesis account can be trusted. Yet even after these conclusions are weighed in, still the question must be asked: Did God create the universe in six literal days or was his method of creation the big bang? This question has effectively divided the body of Christ on Earth, with great men and women of faith on both sides of the debate. The two theories have very little in common but the debate is extremely heated, with Christians on both sides, as well as atheists and most in the scientific community blasting both young-earth creationism and old earth intelligent design, insisting on an old earth evolutionary view leaving the question of the first cause effectively blank. There are some similarities, many differences, and both six day creation and the big bang have science to back up their views.

Old-Earth View

The scientific community fought for many years for an eternal universe (thus needing no creator), but eventually in the 1990s the big bang became the accepted model (Craig, 2004). There are not only many brilliant atheistic/agnostic thinkers holding the Old Earth view, but there are also many brilliant Christian thinkers, most notably: William Lane Craig, Francis Collins, Norman Geisler, and Frank Turek. Frank Turek's view on the big bang is summed up in his own words when he said, “Yes I'm a Christian and I believe in the Big Bang. I just know who banged it!” In 1929 Edwin Hubble discovered that galaxies were moving away from each other, and that the universe was expanding (Netting, 2014). It became clear to Hubble that to go back in time the universe must have existed at a single point with infinite mass, before exploding outward (Netting, 2014). According to Nasa's website (2014) this big bang event occurred about 14 billion years ago. Einstein's theory of general relativity greatly added to the big bang model (Netting, 2014). According to Netting (2014) “if we were to look at the Universe one second after the Big Bang, what we would see is a 10-billion degree sea of neutrons, protons, electrons, anti-electrons (positrons), photons, and neutrinos. Then, as time went on, we would see the Universe cool, the neutrons either decaying into protons and electrons or combining with protons to make deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen).“ Coupled with observations on the rate of expansion of the universe, geologists use a variety of methods to date rocks estimating the age of the Earth to be approximately 4.5 billion years old (Lutgens, 2014).

Young-Earth View

There are many great minds on the side of the Old-Earth Big Bang view, but there are also great minds on the side of the Young-Earth six day creation view. Notable young-earth view holders include: Ken Ham, Tom Wagner, Kent Hovind, John Morris, and John MacArthur. In very basic terms the holders of this view look to a literal interpretation of Genesis 1. The Genesis account of creation indicates that God created everything in six days, the Hebrew word “yom” translated into English as “day” (Morris, 1994). The Hebrew word “yom” can mean both a single solar day and can also mean an extended period of time (Ham, 1995). When observing the word “yom” in context in the Genesis account the only conclusion can be that the word is referring to a 24 hour day (Ham, 1995). Six Day creationists point to the flaws in the theory of evolution, such as the absence of transitional forms in the fossil record, the complex design in living things, the fine tuning of the universe to allow for life, and unreliability of radioisotope dating methods (Morris, 1994). Six-Day Creationists also point to the second law of thermodynamics that says systems tend toward disorder, not order (Morris, 1994). Therefore time becomes the enemy of the evolutionary model, not the friend (Morris, 1994). In addition the fossil record tends to point to a creation view because fossils tended to appear in a very small period of time, something referred to as the Cambrian explosion (Morris, 1994). The Six-Day Creation front tends to spend most of it's time attacking the evolutionary model instead of building their own scientifically credible model, which is a problem. Of course confronting evolution is important, and there are many holes in the theory. To quote Charles Darwin: “To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable [matchless] contrivances [plans] 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 possible degree” (Wagner, 1994).

Contrasting the Views

The Big Bang theory and the six day creation model have some similarities but many differences. Both views attempt to explain the origin of the universe and the planet Earth. Both views rely upon science and presupposition to explain their views. Both views are reasonable and coherent worldviews with solid evidence and implication on both sides. A lot of the problem has been the incredible hostility on both sides of the debate. Both sides condemn and minimize the other side, and finding common ground is quite difficult. In the end both views approach the evidence with presuppositions. Clearly six day creationists have an agenda, they believe there is a God, that the Bible is the word of that God, and that truth can be known (Morris, 1994). On the other side you have a majority of scientists extremely hostile toward theism and utterly intent on providing models and systems that exclude any hint of a supernatural first cause. Both sides have been guilty of generating their own propaganda and silencing the competition's view. In the early 1900s the scientific evolutionary view was silenced and condemned by a powerful Christian majority. Now in the early 21^st century the creation view is openly mocked, ridiculed, and ignored by the powerful forces of science and the university (Morris, 1994).

Conclusion

In conclusion, I'm in full agreement with Dr. Francis Collins when he said, “I believe God did intend, in giving us intelligence, to give us the opportunity to investigate and appreciate the wonders of His creation. He is not threatened by our scientific adventures” (Collins, 2009).

Both the Six Day Creation view and the Big Bang view show compelling proofs regarding the origins of the universe. Six-day creation holds closely to a literal reading of the word of God and also show clear failings in the evolutionary model (Ham, 1995). The Big bang theory looks more to science to prove it's origins, but many good Christians hold to the view of an old earth resulting from a big bang event (Craig, 2004). Both sides of the debate have merits, and though there are some similarities there are major differences between the two worldviews. Science and Religion may never be resolved in a coherent manner, but in the end, if God does exist then he is everything, and if he does not exist then it doesn't matter anyway.

References

Collins, F. (2009, February 5). The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence of Belief. TheVeritas Forum. Lecture conducted from Caltech, Pasadena, California. 

 

Craig, D. W. (2004, March 18). Beyond the Big Bang: The Ultimate Question of Origins. TempletonLecture. Lecture conducted from University of Colorado, Boulder. 

Ham, K. (1995, December 1). The Necessity for Believing in Six Literal Days. Answers in Genesis. Retrieved July 1, 2014, from https://answersingenesis.org/why-does-creation-matter/the-necessity-for-believing-in-six-literal-days/

Lutgens, F. K., & Tarbuck, E. J. (2014). Foundations of earth science (Seventh ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Morris, J. D. (1994). The Young Earth. Colorado Springs, CO: Master Books.

NIV Bible (Popular ed.). (1997). London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Netting, R. (2014, May 13). The Big Bang. NASAScience. Retrieved June 29, 2014, from http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-powered-the-big-bang/

Wagner, T. (1994, September 1). Darwin vs. the Eye. Answers in Genesis. Retrieved July 2, 2014, from https://answersingenesis.org/charles-darwin/darwin-vs-the-eye/ 

Related Posts:
Old Earth Evolution vs. Young Earth Creation
No Evidence for God?
Os Guinness and Frank Turek
 Is All truth Relative?
Reasonable Evidence for Christianity & Intelligent Design Videos

Peter, a man of Contradictions

Jesus called the Apostle Peter his rock.  Peter contributed several books of writing to the New Testament canon. He preached powerful sermons, documented in the book of Acts.  But was Peter a rock?  

Do you recall the late night, that very dark night when Jesus told his twelve disciples that he would be betrayed and killed by a close friend?  And indeed it quickly happened.  Police showed up and arrested Jesus, Judas the friend of Jesus helped the police find him.  Peter pulled a sword to defend his friend, but ended up hitting a slave in the ear.

I often end a day in the Christian life very worried. Thinking... I mean I know I'm saved thanks to Jesus Christ. It's about what he did on the cross!  But man, I'm such an incredible sinner sometimes.  Just way out in left field, loud mouth, emotional, just a mess and-a-half. I sin, I repent, I sin again, repent, sin again, and on and on. And I get worried. Because the scriptures, especially the words of Jesus in the Bible are stern.

John 3:3 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again."

Mark 10:25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Matthew 10:21-22 ²¹ “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. ²² You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved."

See what I mean? I think man, I'm nobody. I'm so depressed and emotional all the time. I hurt inside! I can barely stand up straight I'm so tired sometimes. How can I do this? I've got so many issues, so many problems.  

But I'm reminded of Peter and who he was: A man that was headed in the wrong direction, and then he encountered a new friend. Then a man headed in two directions, way to the left, then way to the right, always falling off the road and missing the mark.  

I listened to a talk by A.W. Tozer on 1 Peter and he told it well, how Peter was so often double minded, a great apostle one moment, another moment rebuking his own Lord, pulling a sword defiantly at one moment, denying he even knew Jesus to several different people out of fear the next. After Jesus' death on the cross he returned to his boat and started fishing again. Jesus Christ came to him there as well. 

A rock? Peter was all over the place, emotional, confusing, riddled with contradiction.  Just like me.  And just like you.  

When Peter made a serious mistake once, did Jesus tell him to get lost?  No he didn't. How about when Peter denied him three times? Nope. He still came to him again. How about when Peter rebuked his own master, or when Peter abandoned the ministry, or when Peter failed to walk upon the water?  

Jesus Christ never gave up on him. And Peter kept returning to his mission, he made so many mistakes yet he always came back renewed in the truth. And the Lord was always there to welcome him into his arms, to guide him once again, to send him into ministry and to the nations.

Peter is me, and Peter is you. We're flawed people, flawed Christians seeking a God we can hardly obey consistently at times. Yet we keep trying, and he doesn't give up on us, or abandon us when we make a mistake.

And the truth is, Peter finally came to a moment, when he saw the risen Jesus at the edge of the sea, where he finally began to get it. And then, the day of Pentecost came, Peter was baptized in the Holy Spirit, and suddenly, a thoroughly inconsistent Peter became something very different, a consistent, mature, on fire proclaimer of the Risen Jesus. This gives me great hope, and I hope it gives you great hope too! 

Hope for the Hopeless

 
Always doing what feels good has never resulted in happiness. In fact pain seems necessary in life to the point that we can't imagine good without bad, light without dark. But there is love that requires no hate, I believe, and even if it can't be imagined here, it can be experienced.  

Hope is like an arrow that strikes through the darkest depth of night.  It lights fires with no kindling, and it flows like honey from the heart of God.  

If what feels immediately good doesn't lead to happiness, then I must have some misconceptions in my head about how life ought to be lived.  

But why is it so hard to do the right thing?  Why does the right thing feel so yucky?  It seems a thankless task.

Some come back singed by their own choices, the whirlwind of this world, others come back burned, and some like myself come back brutally burned and devastated beyond recognition.  And coming out of that, trudging step after trudging step is a long, arduous journey.  

But some never come out at all.  Which is a puzzling question indeed!  

Romans 9:21 (NIV) says "²¹ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?"

I've meditated on that verse in some length, in Romans chapter 9 Paul is writing about the goodness of God, the sovereignty of God over what he creates.  

And what about John 15:22?  "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin." These are the words of Jesus.  It raises an interesting question: So if someone doesn't hear the gospel, they are not guilty of sin?  Then again we know from other passages in Romans that we each have a conscience that tells us to some extent, when we're sinning. So either way we must be accountable...

Anyway. 

I think tonight must be an anniversary of sorts.  You ever have that feeling, like the cold sensation on a given day is a reminder of some anniversary of some terrible event that can't even be recalled consciously?  

I used to wonder at predestination, before I knew a thing about Calvinism. I figured I was predestined before the foundations of the world to die and join club 27 with all the great artists I so enjoyed.

In fact it lined up in an interesting way.  I had been hoping that the world would end in December 2012, you know the thing with the Mayan calendar.  Of course the world didn't end. But December 2012 was when I was born again into the family of Jesus Christ.  

You wonder at the memories, and how to catalog the data, and what position to take on the things that happened.  It was good, it was bad, could it have been avoided, was it necessary at the divorce of my family.  What caused it, could it have ended sooner?  The only thing for certain is, at the beginning, God was there, all throughout he was also there, and at the end he was also there.  And he knew the entire time, from the first moment of the march downward, that I would one day call upon the name of Jesus Christ and be reborn as a result.  

I'm looking forward to praying tonight.  Have you ever felt the presence of God?  Throughout your day acknowledge his presence, in the car, at work, at home, wherever you happen to be.. I'll whisper, Jesus Christ is here.  God is here.  And I can feel it a bit more, and a bit more, sometimes less, sometimes more.  The presence of God floods into the room when I say a few simple words addressed to the throne of God: "Dear and loving heavenly Father, please hear my prayer." 

It's just that simple.  Sometimes we can't feel it though, we can't sense God because we're so backed up with self pity, depression, remorse, resentments, and self hatred... and those things have to be dealt with.  I've found the 12 steps used by many recovery groups to be absolutely invaluable in the process of coming to the conscious present recognition of the always present God of the Bible.