Tag: Creation

Just Two Parents?!

Adam and EveNow, I caution Christians not to jump on the bandwagon whenever a scientist, archeologist, or other scholar says something that confirms a Christian belief, but it was kind of neat to read the title of an article that said, “All humans are descended from just TWO people…” The article said (in part):

Scientists surveyed the genetic ‘bar codes’ of five million animals – including humans – from 100,000 different species and deduced that we sprang from a single pair of adults after a catastrophic event almost wiped out the human race.

Can you guess where we’ve heard that first? 🙂

Sati

Baby feetIn the Beginning

“In the beginning…”

Are there any more famous words than “in the beginning”?

Let’s turn back to “in the beginning” and look God’s handiwork:

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:1-10).

I know that a bit of a long reference…but I wanted to get to the very last word we read…which was?

Good.

“And God saw that it was good.” Continue reading Sati

Returning to the First New Year’s Day

Happy New Year with angel

How Many?

Just curious…how many New Year’s Days do you think there have been?

[Wait for answers.]

Personally, based on the Bible, I think it has been less than ten thousand. I know that seems to contradict the geological record and other scientific evidence of the age of the universe, but science also cannot explain how Jesus Christ was resurrected.

“And if Christ has not been raised, then [my] preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

Christ was raised and your faith is not in vain…so let’s trust Scripture when it comes to the age of the universe, of the earth, of humanity…and it is difficult to believe things have been around for millions or billions of years based on what is written in the 66 books.

However, regardless of how many New Year’s Days there have been, today’s we label as the one for 2017. Mathematically, what is special about that number?

That’s right, it is a prime number!

Of course, that doesn’t mean it is going to be special…but the mathematician in me likes it. 🙂

The First

2017 will likely not be special…no worse than most and no better than most…but there are some truly monumental New Year’s Days. Today we’ll quickly talk about four of them, starting to the one spoken of in Genesis 1:1-5:

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Nothing.

Before God created, there was nothing.

Think about that.

When I was young, I could get a shiver up my back by pondering, “If there is such thing as nothing, why do we exist?”

I suspect I could still create that shiver if I focused on it.

But, before the first New Year’s Day, there was absolutely nothing.

Continue reading Returning to the First New Year’s Day

God is Dead (Again)

A GalaxySpace.com had to know they were going to grab some attention a tile like this for an article:

“The Big Bang Didn’t Need God to Start Universe, Researchers Say”

And the beginning of the piece doesn’t disappoint:

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Our universe could have popped into existence 13.7 billion years ago without any divine help whatsoever, researchers say.

That may run counter to our instincts, which recoil at the thought of something coming from nothing. But we shouldn’t necessarily trust our instincts, for they were honed to help us survive on the African savannah 150,000 years ago, not understand the inner workings of the universe.

Instead, scientists say, we should trust the laws of physics.

“The Big Bang could’ve occurred as a result of just the laws of physics being there,” said astrophysicist Alex Filippenko of the University of California, Berkeley. “With the laws of physics, you can get universes.”

As a result of such confidence, I immediately gathered all my bibles and started a bonfire.

Well, maybe not quite yet. 🙂 Continue reading God is Dead (Again)

3,000 Miles and the Tower of Babel

This past weekend I was able to successfully take my wife's Nissan Cube on a 3,000 mile road trip from New Hampshire to California. Even during the dead of winter, the landscapes visible from a northern route on American interstates was amazing. Perhaps more remarkable, however, was the fact that over 72 hours I was able to drive 1/8th the circumference of the entire earth…and that was even taking time each night to get some sleep.

When I was young, our blue planet seemed so impossibly large…but after traveling across the country last weekend…and around the world other times…no location on our globe seems especially distant. Not necessarily close…but definitely attainable. The boy who so long ago grew up in Canaan, New Hampshire never imagined he'd drive or fly where his older, balder future version has. Continue reading 3,000 Miles and the Tower of Babel

Out of Nothing

A quick aside…

As most everyone sitting here knows, Augie's full name is Augustine—named after Augustine of Hippo, a famous theologian who lived from 354 to 430 A.D. However, some people don't think it should be pronounced uh-gus-ton, but instead aww-gus-steen. At night when I fall alseep…or wake up and need to go back to sleep…I throw on podcasts, and one of the speakers I listen to is Dr. Albert Mohler (http://AlbertMohlher.com), president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. (Some of you might remember me quoting him when we talked about whether we should sign The Manhattan Declaration.)

Either way…I don't remember exactly since I was going in and out of sleep, but when it comes to how to pronounce Augustine Dr. Mohler quoted someone else who said:

"Aww-gus-steen is in Florida. Uh-gus-ton is in Heaven."

☺

Our Augustine is a little heaven on earth for us…

Continue reading Out of Nothing