God's work in the Human Heart

The look in Churchill's eyes says it all, fear, doom, sheer determination, long suffering, and hope.

God keeps working, day and night.  His plan is just that perfect.  It all comes together.  We humans labor in the darkness day and night as well, and we carry heavy burdens.  Covered in mud and vomit and bile, we wonder at the sky.  We start to lose hope.  But at moments sublime, God cuts a hole in the fabric of reality and shines through, and it so often brings us to tears, and we remember that there is hope and reason and there are greater things ahead than behind.  

It's like Winston Churchill and the island of Great Britain during World War II.  Country by country the evil mighty nation of Germany conquers.  They conquered Austria, then Poland, they swept up into the north.  France held back in fear, amassing defenses along a wall across their eastern border.  Germany invaded from the sea and devestated France forcing their surrender.  The whole of Europe under Nazi control, Great Britain stood alone.  The chancellor was cast out for cowardice by the public, and there was Prime Minister Winston Churchill standing alone.  Imagine how he felt.

Is this the end?  My goodness, they're unstoppable.  The United States would not get involved.  Then began the battle of Britain.  Cities being bombed, British fighters outnumbered 10 to 1.  And you start to concede to the defeat internally.  It's over.  It's never going to be ok again.  So many are dying, across Europe millions are being systematically exterminated.  He must know that if and when the Nazis land on British soil, his people will be fed into those same gas ovens.  He must be thinking, "God has left us behind."  But at the last moment, the United States was attacked and jumped into the war, moving to support her friend England.

And it was Winston Churchill who said, "If you're going through hell, keep going." 

God reveals himself.  But sometimes we feel like he has left us behind.  David wrote in the Psalms, "Lord, why do you hide your face from me?"  

Doesn't it often feel that at the darkest times God has abandoned us?  Why is that so?  

Perhaps he's building our faith.  When we have nothing to lean on, and we feel completely alone there is only one option: Have faith, and trust God.  It's like falling backwards, waiting for invisible hands to catch you.  It's such a challenge.  But then there he is, at the last possible moment. 

He's working on us.  

Back when I was a troubled young man, turning to drugs and drinking to blot out my pain, my mother joined a church called Good News Baptist in Mosinee.  From there she joined a Bible study, and among other things she asked the group to pray for me, her lost son.  

In the past two years since Jesus Christ saved my life, I've moved about among the churches in the area learning as much as I can, just trying to inhale as much truth as possible.  For a time I participated in a young adults group at Highland Church in Wausau.   The young man who runs that group, named Ryan, learned that my mom was Karen.  He came up to me one night and said he had been praying for me 10 years ago.  

Yesterday I was looking for a church in town that held services in the evening, because I often work 2nd shift at the homeless shelter.  Not easy to wake up after a midnight at the shelter.  I found one called Wausau Bible Church and attended their services.  It was good and afterward the lady in front of me introduced herself.  I mentioned my mom Karen, and she said that 10 years ago she had been in a Bible study where they had prayed for me.  And she teared up.

Sometimes on this messed up little planet we start to feel that God is not active.  How can he be when so much evil rocks every moment?  But often a few people with hands folded can change a life.  And God doesn't necessarily leave it there, sometimes he'll send living proof to those ever-watching, for his mysterious presence and interaction in human events.

Often I feel like Winston Churchill on the little island, watching an army of atheist psychopaths conquer and exterminate.  And I'm just terrified.  I'm so very scared.  Everyone's going crazy, nothing is OK, God seems absent.  I just want to call it quits, send Hitler our surrender, it's done.  The battles rage over my skies, the enemy approaches, and I'm hanging on by a thread.  But tomorrow always comes and somehow I survive to fight another day.  Always so alone, and standing alone against a massive wave of instigation and chaos.  Fear creeps in and midnight is a state of mind. But what else can you do?  If you're going through hell, keep going!

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 historical 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 pulls a sword to defend his friend, but ended up hitting a slave in the ear.  You know that sounds like something I would do.  I mean with soldiers, temple police walking up to arrest his BFF, he probably wasn't going for the slave guy's 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 screw up sometimes.  Just way out in left field, loud mouth, emotional, just a mess and-a-half.  I sin, I repent, I sin again, repent, oops, sinned 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.  After Jesus' death on the cross he returned to his boat and gave up; 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 screwed up 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, determined to do better.  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 for a few moments.  Yet we keep trying, and he doesn't give up on us, or abandon us when we make mistakes.  

The Twelve Steps and Christianity

Today is an anniversary, I've been clean and sober 20 months.  That's a wonderful gift from the Lord Jesus Christ.  I don't claim to be a member of any fellowship, but I will say that I love the twelve steps.  They are very powerful.  And they're very important to me.  The steps are an incredibly powerful process of transformation.

The steps originated in the Bible.  How do I know that?  The process originated with something called the Oxford Groups.  These were Christians trying to return to the roots of Christianity because they felt Christianity was getting off track.  Eventually a man named Bill Wilson, a hopeless alcoholic was attending these Oxford groups to try to stay sober, and from there Mr. Wilson wrote the 12 steps.  In the 1940s the steps were adapted for people with Gambling problems.  In the 1950s the steps were adapted for people with Narcotics problems, and then Over eaters, Cocaine, Nicotine, Meth, Depression, and Codependency.  

The steps are entirely founded in Biblical principles, providing a Christian with a great road map for the "how to" of living the daily Christian life.  Allow me to illustrate just briefly, and I'm just scratching the surface here.

The first step is really about surrender.  I admit I'm not God.  And without a higher power I can't seem to live a decent life.  I'm out of control, things are unmanageable and I can't get it right on my own.  Surrender ought to be a daily practice of the Christian.  How can I submit myself to God?  I know of myself I make bad decisions much of the time, admitting that is key.

The second step is about coming to believe that God exists and he can help.  That can take a moment or a century.  It's all up to me, and how much effort I want to place on the process of coming to believe.  There are a billion books, scientific evidence, history, audio books, Bibles on every corner, and YouTube for thousands of hours of lectures and talks by great minds.  Am I seeking honestly?  Am I looking for what I want to find?  The second part is.. assuming God exists, then I must also believe that he can indeed help me.  He has direct upon, he can fundamentally change me.

Step three, I turn my life over to God.  I try to do it God's way.  I ask for his guidance every morning and thank him for it at night.  I Give my life to Jesus Christ the savior.

Step four, I make an inventory of my decisions and actions.  I clear out the garbage within the soul.  

Step five means I tell the inventory to someone, I speak it out, and let it out, the full truth.  And by doing that, my soul is cleared of so much garbage and suddenly, I start to sense the presence of God.  It's not that he wasn't there, it's that I was so backed up I couldn't sense him.

Step six and seven means looking at the defects of character that showed up in step 4, and I face them.  I acknowledge them.  Then I ask God for the willingness to have them removed, one by one over time.

Step eight and nine is all about getting right with the people around me.  Have I hurt family or friends?  We all have.  We go to those people, apologize, and ask how we can make amends.  We get right with people.

Step ten, eleven, twelve are the progression of the journey.  Step 10 says I continue to work 4 through 9 on a daily basis.  I keep up with the process, I make it a lifestyle.  It becomes my design for living.  Step 11 means I seek after God.  I work on improving my contact with him.  I sense him more and more.  I pray to him, and I meditate on his word, which means just read the Bible, and think about what it says.  And of course step 12, is that I share the message, evangelism, I take the message to others about the good news of Jesus Christ!

Not so complicated is it? 

These are the steps as written, the 1st step and 12th step may change slightly depending on if a person is dealing with stress, drugs, sexual addiction, or spiritual emptiness.  But all in all it looks like this:

1. We admitted we were powerless over our existence —that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

If you would like to try working through the steps read through this piece that goes through the process: Practical Process for Inner Transformation 

And I'd also strongly recommend purchasing a book on the topic of the twelve steps.  There are many, many books that apply the 12 steps to all manner of problems.  The 12 steps have really revolutionized treatment of so many problems by applying a simple spiritual solution.  Go on Amazon or something and just search for "the 12 steps" or something of that nature.  I don't know what your concern is, anything from drugs, alcohol, or depression to simply wanting to live a richer Christian life.  

Good luck on your quest ;)