I look, against all hope, at my phone many times a day to see if I may have gotten a message from her.  I sometimes look into her bedroom in our home, I guess triggering a memory, as if she may be laying her bed.  I look at the drinks I have in the refrigerator and in the storage area, that area ready for her to drink.

But I am someone, though capable of love, cannot love to the extent that God can.  As one of his attributes, he gave me a capacity to love.  So I can, and do, desire to be with her and to get to know her better, but God created us and completely knows us and desires to be with us now and forever.

I can look to see if she may have pulled up into the drive to surprise me with a visit (which I would love) but God is constantly looking for us.  In the story of the Prodigal Son, we are that Son (or daughter)  See Luke 15:11-32.

When I give my daughter a gift, I give it because of what I know about her.  I can give her a good one when I know what she likes, her personality, and size, etc.  And again, I can give a gift because of another one of his characterizes or attributes.  But every one of his perfect gifts is from above, coming down from the Father (James 1:17).

And as depressing it is to me to look upon my daughters pictures, not knowing when I can exchange the photo for the real thing, we are before him constantly and our images are engraved on his hands (Isaiah 49:16).  And though I can sleep or do something to get my mind off of my daughter, God cannot.   Besides being continually before Him, He doesn’t sleep, He knows everything, and He is everywhere.  So each us is always ON HIS MIND.

These are truths not just for those that are saved or know him; these are truths about God about everybody.

How do I know this?  Follow along.

God made the heaven and the earth, The Sea and all that is in them; (Psalm 146:6).  God made it all (including us) and as such owns it and makes the rules.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together (Colossian 1:17).  He sustains everything (and this is for our benefit),

The Lord does not change (Malachi 3:6).  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  God is consistent.  This constancy isn’t only a trait of God’s but is also an example for us as we shouldn’t exasperate our children (Ephesians 6:4).

God created us in His own image (Genesis 1:27) and He gave us dominion (Genesis 1:26) over essentially everything on, in and over the earth.  He also creates us very carefully and with much individual intention (Psalm 139:13).  We are very much different than all the rest of creation.  Very much different than all of the animals.  Even different than the angels of heaven.

And for each and everyone one of us He knows the thoughts He thinks toward us, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).  I can have dreams for my daughter, but the Lord can provide her a future.

Even though I sired my daughter, and yes I do love her, look what God to get us.  My daughter’s mother and I used a process God put in place to start the gestation (that term doesn’t sound so loving but it is accurate) but God, insured that the all the chemical processes operated as they should, he overlooked them on the way and then watched over her as she exited the womb.  He truly did all the work (my daughter’s mother may say otherwise).

Image how He knows my daughter.  Image how much He loves her.  As much as I love her, it doesn’t hold a candle to how much, and how pure, His love is for her.

Out of love, I have done what I could to help prepare her for life in this world, and what I could to know the Lord.  His love has plans for her that goes way beyond that.   Read on.

Psalm 8:4 asks why God is even mindful us, knowing that we have all these flaws, but He chose to love us first.  1 John 4:19 says that “We love Him because He first loved us”.  And we are reminded that we didn’t choose Him but He choose us (John 15:16).

God considers us the apple of His eye (Zechariah 2:8),   we are precious in His eyes (Isaiah 43:4), and He knows all about us and of our ways (Psalm 139:3), and He considers us a fine pearl (Matthew 13:45-46).  And many more examples can be found about how He sees us before we are even His.

Oh how He loves us.  He compares His love as to betrothed couples or married couples.  He speaks about how He allures us, speaks kindly to us, He looks forward to calling Him ‘my husband’ (Hosea 2:14, 16-20)(This is symbolic of God being the husband and each of us being the bride).  And He says, “As a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so your God will rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5).  And finally He loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

Unfortunately, we go our own way many times.  We don’t have time for Him or maybe flat out reject Him.  John 1:11 says, “He came unto His own and His own didn’t receive home”.  We rebel, or have rebelled against God.  Against our maker.  Against the person THAT LOVES US MOST.

But as the story of the Prodigal Son shows, God is watching and waiting for us to return.  In fact, He’s actively looking for us (we’ll He knows where we are) and trying to coax us back to Him.

Though the story is told from the point of view that the father and son knew each other before the split, the story works similarly for anyone that has not known the Lord.  If you have never known the Lord, or only thought you knew the Lord, He is waiting and watching for you.

He has the same love for those that know Him and those that do not.  John 3:16 tells us that.  And John 3:17 tells us that He wants to save to the world.

I know my daughter loves me.  Of course, I am hurting because I think that she should find the time to be with me more than she does, or communicate with me more than she does, if she loved me.

Let’s for the purpose of this story we assumed that my daughter was the Prodigal Son and I was that father.  If I was to use some kind of formula to use for the amount of time she has given me this year, to calculate how much she loves me, it would score low.

Of course I have to wonder how I would score to her.  I know I would fall short compared to God.

Now put God in the father’s position in the story.  How would He rate by the son?  How would you rate Him after you read some of what I posted about how much He loves His son?  How would you rate the sons love for the father?  What if the son just did a token father/son relationship after being accepted back?

My love for my daughter, parents, my brothers, my friend, my next ???, can never compare to how much God loves my daughter, my parents, my brothers, my friends, my nexts…  or me.

But I try to expand my love by learning about Him.  Having a relationship with Him.  Doing what it is that He wants. I don’t get it right always.  Maybe never.

But just like I can’t have a good relationship with my daughter without being with her and communication with her, I can have a good relationship with God if I’m not with Him.   And I would like to suggest to you that you can’t have a good relationship, or build it, or create it or repair it, if you are not with Him.

The Holiday season is coming around.  For many, that means one of the 2 times a year that you go to church to show your love.  I would like to ask what love your showing twice a year?   What love can you show twice a year?

Don’t get me wrong, I doubt twice a year is going to do anything for you, and yes, I’ll likely lose my parking spot and my usual seat, but I want you there that twice year.  Maybe this is the year that you’ll see how much God loves you, what a real love, an agape love, looks like and you’ll want to get that relationship going.

Don’t be the child that doesn’t recognize the pain that you are causing another.  Don’t be the son or daughter of God that causes God so much pain by not being with him.  Don’t be the child that neglects their Father.

As far as the Creation and Evolution debate goes, there is pretty much two primary camps, Evolutionists, which primarily but not exclusively, encompasses atheists, humanists and naturalists to name but a few ‘groups’ and the Creationists, which generally include the Christians. However, Muslims are also ‘creationists’ as are a majority of other mainstream organized religions.

But the waters are muddies in that not all Christians follow the clear teachings of the Bible, which unquestionably states that creation is young, and reinterpret these clear passages to ‘make’ them compatible and palatable with mainstream secular ‘scientific’ beliefs and more palatable to the ‘educated’ masses and new ‘enlightened’ religious leaders and groups.

Though the Bible is not only the revealed inerrant Word of God (2 Tim 3:16-17), a love letter to us, it is also a book of theology, philosophy, history, poetry, archaeology, geology and surprisingly too many, science.

It also contains many lies. Whoa! The Bible lies to us? No, it contains lies. It accurately recounts what people said, though what those people said may not have been true. For example, an Amalekite stated to King David that he killed King Saul (2 Samuel 1:1–10 ) because Saul asked him to (Saul had lost the battle, was mortally wounded and didn’t want the enemy to do bad things to him, so he asked his armor bearer to mercifully kill him). The armor bearer wouldn’t do it so Saul fell onto his own sword and took his own life (1 Samuel 31:1–6). There are a lot of examples like this in the Bible. The Bible is accurate in the retelling of the lie the Amalekite told, as well as the true account of the event. So though the Bible does contain lies, it is inerrant.

My issue and reason for creating the division between the Christians is to differentiate those that follow the clear teachings of the Bible and those that reinterpret the Bible to match the latest theories, or to make it more palatable to the masses, their lack of personal understanding or an intentional agenda to mislead.

Like a lot of things, it is difficult to lump, with complete or large clarity, topics, views, beliefs, etc, into two or three categories. And I have taken several hits for creating divisions among Christians. It is even difficult to properly describe and define a Christian. But I feel it is essential to know where people stand especially in the Christian community.

Why? If people don’t believe, teach and understand the clear teachings of the Bible, how can they be trusted in their interpretations on the not so clear subject material of the Bible? This is why I often point out that someone is either a Young Earth Creationist (YEC) or an Old Earth Creationist; as individuals or the groups that they claim to be part of.

But grouping and categorizing is difficult. Not all YEC believe the exact same things in all areas as other YEC’s. The same is true for the Old Earther’s. Most Old Earther’s believe in a Theistic Evolution.

In a later posting, I’ll go into more detail concerning the “breakdowns” and beliefs of the different sects of Creationists as well as Evolutionists. But for now, I am explaining my position and reason for my continued ‘division’ of Creationists, or as some have stated, Christians.

First and foremost is that not believing in a Young Earth or literal Genesis account of creation completely undermines “ man created in God’s image (Gen 1:27)”, original sin (Rom 5:12) and the need for a savior (Eph 2:5). If these are not true, then there is no need for the rest of the Bible. In fact, if they are not true, there is no need for the Bible at all. Secondly, to not believe in a Young Earth calls God a liar, which goes against one of God’s attributes (He is unable to lie, Heb 6:18). And finally, there is no way to reconcile the clear teachings of the Bible and an old age for the earth (and universe) to pacify the masses and evolutionists.

Paul warns against the teaching of any Gospel other than what the Apostles’ taught (Gal 1:8-9, 2 Cor 11:4). The Apostles’, taught directly under Christ, whom Himself believed in a Young Creation (in fact, He created Creation) believed in a Young Creation (Matt 19:4). Who are we, the modern enlightened Christians, to think that we know better than the Apostles’, let alone Christ, the true age of the earth?

This doesn’t mean that persons that aren’t Young Earth Creationists don’t have some insight and usable data, theories, knowledge that is usable to the Creationist in the Creation and Evolution debate. Secularists and Atheists also have usable information to the Creationists in the debate. However, it’s one thing to use someone’s data and opinions and entirely another to trust their theology on the difficult things when they have the simple things so wrong.

Christ tells us to let the children come to Him (Matt 19:14). Here is an instance of a multiple meaning in the Bible. He also says that it would be better to throw yourself into the sea with a milestone around your neck than to mislead even one as these (Luke 17:2). Yes, let he Children come, there’s no separation due to age, but in a similar vein, ‘Children’ in this instance also refers to the immature Christian or unbeliever.

Preaching against the clear teachings of the Bible IS misleading the Children. It is hereticy. It is false teaching.

Does this mean that Old Earther’s aren’t really Christians? Are they going to heaven? I can’t and won’t judge (OK, I have or I wouldn’t be making such a strong statement on the subject ; I’m working on this as well as other shortcomings I have). Follow my logic if you will.

A person hears the Gospel and accepts Christ. That person is a ‘new creation’ in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), and is as Paul stated, drinking milk, as they are not yet ready for meat (1 Cor 3:2). This person hasn’t studied the Bible, been taught and had time to get that relationship with God. I don’t want to say that it doesn’t matter what they believe or how they interpret the Bible it does, but they are young and an immature Christian.

They may not understand the necessity to forgive their neighbor (Mark 11:25, Col 3:13), the idea of No God before Jehovah (Deut 5:7), faith and works (James 2:26). They may not understand that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, the attributes of God, the Trinity (Matt 28:19, 2 Cor 13:14) (and who truly does understand this?), etc. That’s normal. That’s expected. Anyone who says that they do understand all this from the get go is mistaken, if not outright lying.

But as the person matures in their Christianity, and they are expected to (Heb 6:1), that person should at the very least accept the very clear teachings of the Bible and practice them. They should forgive their neighbor and trust fully the Bible as God’s Word, etc.

And the Trinity? Well, OK, you got me on this one. I don’t fully understand it but I accept it. No one, not even the most knowledgeable and revered preacher, is going to know everything about the Bible (this doesn’t make the Bible untrue though; more on this in another post to come).

An elder asked me the other day if I had considered starting my own church; I didn’t have the all the answers then that I would have liked to had given him, but I wish one reason I wouldn’t consider it is that what is not needed is another church (division of the Church) but a reconciliation of congregations to become the Church that Christ intended. Congregations not splintered but congregations working together to accomplish the will of God and the mandate set forth to Christ followers (1 Cor 1:10).

The New Testament doesn’t specifically state a church is to function or to what their by-laws are to be. A lot of latitude is given to the ‘Church’ so that it can work the way it is needed to impact its community. Although sparse I direct concise communication, as to how the Church should be, we can take the examples from the New Testament writers in their (Christs) praise and condemnations as to how the Church/congregations should function. Do some reading in the first portions of Revelations for more one this.

It is OK to have different congregations within a community. Individual congregations can fill different niches more effectually and efficiently than one over all behemoth congregation that would likely get bogged down in bureaucracy and politics. However, the ability to fill different niches isn’t a license to reinterpret and justify the Bible to fit today's enlightened people.

The New Testament does, however, give clear and concise descriptions of the qualifications of those that are to oversee the Church. It describes the roles of Elders and what their qualifications are (Titus 1:5-9, 1 Timothy 3:1-7); the same with Deacons (1 Timothy 3:8–13) and other leaders within the Church. Where does the preacher/ministers/pasture fit in? That’s another post forthcoming.

It’s not a subtle difference. The Church can adapt to fulfill its mission (of course the Church should still do what is praised for in the Bible and avoid what is not condoned). The Elders, Deacons and leaders cannot. The Word, God’s Word, has to remain pure and the Gospel cannot be watered down.

OK, wrapping this up. As it stands, despite the constructive criticism, I am not going to change my stance on differentiating or dividing the YEC and OLD Creationists as well as those that follow the clear teaching of the Bible and those that want to rewrite the Bible with man’s opinion being the main content of the Bible and God's Word being His opinionated footnotes to our knowledge and wisdom.

** I’m still open to creative criticism on the subject though. I never want to be as bold and arrogant as to think that I have the definitive last words on any given subject, especially on matters concerning God.

Posted on May 14, 2020

Many know my stance on “evolution”.  I don’t believe in many of the forms of evolution; Nothing to Everything (the Big Bang), Cosmology (the Beginning of the Universe), Life (Non-Organic to Organic or First Life), Biology (Molecules to Man), Shared Ancestry (Man from Ape), and New Kinds (a Species developing in/into a new Kind).  But there are some ‘evolution’ that does occur.

Science evolves.  Theories change as new information and data is analyzed and tested.  Some prospective theories are tossed aside as they are not scientifically viable, new theories enter the fray.  Language evolves.  As words become common in a culture, they are often added to the dictionary (though I think there should be at least as many of not more removed as one is added; we have too many words).  Also, with the advent of the internet, testing and messaging, a whole new form of communication has become somewhat common place; emoji’s and the like (or maybe this is resurrecting hieroglyphics).  Cars incorporate new technology and become safer.

These are good things.  And these among others can all be considered evolving.  Constant evaluation and adjustment of what we see, understand and use in our everyday lives is natural and can be considered evolving.

From an evolution and creation standpoint, most people think ‘evolution’ belongs in the arena of science.  Looking at it from where did everything come from perspective, that would pretty much be correct.  And as I mentioned above, science itself evolves its theories and opponents of standard evolution do so as well.

Creationists, have a responsibility to counter secular theories with viable theories of their own.  The old adage of God did it isn’t always acceptable nor beneficial.  This attitude can be seen with much of the destruction of the church, particularly to the youth, when applied to Noah’s Flood.  Often a teacher, not knowing the material, will just say, “God created everything in 6 days about 6, 000 years ago and God told Noah to build an ark, God made it rain for 40 days and everything died”.  When students start asking answers, they are often given an empty answer of, “Well, He just did so believe it”. It is especially hollow when there is credible evidence to the contrary.  Sure, this is true, it is a valid answer, it’s kinda like a white lie though; withholding information.

And unfortunately, Christians aren’t always on the same page.  That can be seen with the many denominations and other divisions.  From a Creation apologetics standpoint, there are several Christian groups.  Old Earther’s, Young Earter’s (the correct group), Theistic Evolutionists and more.  And even within these camps, there are sub divisions often.

One such Major group of Creation apologetics is the Intelligent Design group.  A high level description of the mantra of this group is that “Life is too complex to have come about randomly” so some kind of intelligence had to create it.  Pretty much most of the Creationists groups would agree with this statement and would continue to advocate for a god to have created everything (Christian Creationists know this god as the God of the Bible).

But Intelligent Design’s methodology of apologetics is to show through math (generally probability and statics) and science that evolution just can’t happen.  And keep happening.  And happen some more.  However, where Intelligent Design falls short of true apologetics is that it doesn’t go on to declare what that intelligence is.  Irreducible Complexity is another area where Intelligent Design shines; this is where a system containing many parts cannot function without one of those parts.  Intelligent Design shows overwhelmingly that random evolution can’t consistently work and use those ‘facts’ to convince you not to believe in evolution.  Then leave you to your devices to figure out who or what the intelligent designer(s) is(are).  Aliens?  Some god?  The God of the Bible?  Something else?

Nobody owns the Intelligent Deign theory and as such, there is not a 100% definitive definition of it. It appears that it may have evolved over time and allowed some leeway in its original premise of refuting a purely natural creation though it doesn’t go much further than that.  In a sense, it has evolved.

Although nearly all older publications that I have read, deny that Intelligent Design is religious.  Also, Intelligent Design does not necessarily dismiss evolution or old earth and generally uses biology, and it’s Complexity, as its ‘proof’.

This doesn’t mean that Christians or Creationists cannot use information from the Intelligent Design movement in their arguments.  Just as they use secular data and information to justify their stance, Intelligent Design offers many useful illustrations, strategies, data, topics and resources to build our case.

One of Intelligent Designs biggest promoters is Dr. Stephen Meyers (there are many others but like Darwin for evolution, Dr. Stephen Hawkins for Astrophysics, Dr. Meyers is usually the person we think of when Intelligent Design is mentioned).  While I have always liked his apologetics style and the ability to dumb down to my level, I have always been stand offish as to give him the credit that others gave him.  Basically, this is because firstly, I took the opinions of others before truly looking into the man myself, and second, because I couldn’t easily find the remaining answer(s) I was looking for concerning him.

In the first case, people told me of the Intelligent Design movement and how we should avoid it, and thus its supporters because they never state, or avoid doing so, who they think the Intelligent Designer is or if they know who it is; essentially proclaiming themselves selves to be agnostic(s) at best.  Earlier in this post, I presented my concern with that.

The second reservation I had with Dr. Stephen Meyer is that I couldn’t find ‘his’ stance on creation and religious views.  I started by looking for the easy answer.  Maybe there was an easy internet search that would tell me.  Wikipedia, Google nor his bio on the Discovery Institute web site said.  I haven’t and didn’t want really want to read any of his books (not anything against reading a book from Dr. Meyers, but my apprehension to reading when there could be a movie in the future).  That left potentially many interviews and videos to sift through; fortunately, this is more up my ally and readily available on the internet.

I have watched/listened to several of his interviews/productions before but couldn’t remember him stating his stance one way or another off of the top of my head.  So I had to watch/listen to coupe before I finally came across the answers I was looking for.

In a YouTube video titled “Eric Metaxas Interviews Stephen Meyer on Science and Faith“ at about the 41 minute mark, Dr Meyers states that (paraphrased) his goal is to show that that science points to a designer but not to specify that designer.  That disappointed me as it signaled that he wants to show that mainstream science and evolution isn’t correct and that he is going to leave it up to the individual he just convinced to figure out what the Intelligence behind everything is.  That is the disappointing part of Intelligent Designs strategy; don’t get bogged down in a theology discussion as it’s the individuals responsibility to figure it out the rest of the way.

I continued working on this post and leaving the video running.  And I got the answer to one of my second questions. Dr Meyers did get around to (paraphrasing) that he now eventually  get around to pointing out that the best fit for  the Intelligent Designer is the Jewish/Christian God of the Bible.  Not that anyone should be using my scoring of a person, but Dr Meyers went up in standings.  However, he does still seem to be an Old Earther believing in theistic evolution, but I didn’t get that directly from him but more from the inferences of the videos I watched/listened to.

I’ll continue to look into whether he is Old or Young Earther and report on it at a later date.  In my opinion, as I see Dr Meyers, his scientific data seems accurate and unbiased and the statistics, math and reasoning seems sound; supporting the truth that God did in fact create everything.

The Covid-19 situation is giving you and your family a great opportunity to sit and watch a very informative movie concerning Creation and Evolution. It’s less in your face than the “Genesis Paradise Lost” movie I reviewed a few weeks back and should be able to help drive communications and questions between Believers (creationists) and non-believers (evolutionists).

The additional resources, though I have just started going through it, has more high level things as well as some really deep topics. Here’s the great part, they have reduced the price of the additional material to $0.99. For this price, buy it now even if you don’t intend to or believe that you will get around to watching the documentary until later.

Churches, buy several copies of the additional resources to add to your church library or to use for classes once things get back to the new normal.

https://isgenesishistory.com/product/igh-conference-videos/