I Recently Heard A Very Strange Argument Against The Power of God…

I know a person who often speaks up in a study class I’m in; this person is considerably older than I am, and wiser; but the things they say make even the study teacher roll their eyes. There is no doubt this person is a Christian, but their idea of how God is and what He can do is severely warped.

As our little  study group was discussing the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, proving scientifically that evolution is false, the person stood up and began to speak out in agreement that everything is wearing down and not “evolving” to a better level of existence- “Just look at all the humans dying earlier, culture getting secularized, economy losing momentum, plants not growing as well, food making us fatter, the sun burning out,  and even God’s power.”

Say whaaaa?

While I can’t agree with the logic of some of those points, and a few are matter of opinion, the final example made me turn and look at the speaker with an eyebrow raised.

This person went on to explain that they remember street preachers saving entire neighborhoods and going to the Billy Graham crusade and seeing thousands of conversions. “You just don’t see that anymore… God’s hand is leaving His people.”

While I’m not speculating if God’s hand is, indeed, “leaving His people”, I do find it odd and wrong to measure God with physical laws.

What are your thoughts on God’s power? Has it changed? Is His power diminishing? In what way? How would you explain the decline of “conversions”?

Surprises in Sunday School

This past Sunday, I was a sub for the 8-11 year old Sunday School class. Disappointed with some of the curriculum’s “storybook” ish  way of telling historical Bible accounts; I reached for my own children’s world atlas and decided to point out modern day Middle Eastern countries on a map and “connect the dots” with history and present. The maps provided with the curriculum were cartoon, uber-colorful, and had the stereotypical Bible-looking people on them. I wanted to remind the kids of where the Bible took place, and how those places look today.

As I finished the lesson and took out my atlas, I began to talk of how the places in the Bible were REAL- we often forget where events took place.

I pointed out London, Washington DC, and then Jerusalem, making a connection that Jerusalem still exists today along with all the “modern” cities. One girl shouted out, “It’s an actual city?” when she saw it on the map.

I showed them Damascus, and the area Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar’s palace might have been located. We must’ve been distracted for seven or eight minutes, as they asked questions about places, where rivers were, if such and such a place was still around, surprised to see the Galilee and Red Seas were a “real” place.

As I showed the kids fairly recent pictures of people picking fruit from olive trees, Bedouins with camels, people in oases, and caravans in deserts; one girl said “They look like real people. Are these fake?” Wow.  It seemed it had never occurred to them that the Bible was a real, live, history book full of things that really happened. The little girl disbelieved at first because she was used to seeing a felt Jesus up on the flannelgraph or cartoon Paul in a turban printed on a poster, not Bedouins in Bible-like robes riding camels across the Saudi Arabian Desert!

No wonder kids are Already Gone.

More to come.

10 Things You Shouldn’t Say to an Atheist (Part 2)

A continuation of the last post~

5. “Why don’t you come to church with me and hear for yourself?” Church is part of the joke of religion in the eyes of an atheist. Hearing the gospel from you or a pastor, it still sounds like a rash, blind faith in some non-existent old man in the sky.

6. “What do you have to lose by believing in Jesus/God?” – The atheist’s answer? Their entire belief system. Values and facts firmly separated, with facts representing real, common, public, objective truth, and values in the subjective realm, their values are relative- and “religion” is relative. “That’s just your set of values…” From a comment on the metanarratives post in October – (http://echoesinthewind.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/double-standard-facts-and-values-feel-free-to-add/ ) An atheist made this idea clear:

I tend to separate the physical world and the social world. I am a naturalist when it comes to the physical world, including biology and the science of evolution, but I am a postmodernist when it comes to the social world. And these two worlds have different currencies for truth. The currency in the physical world is evidence, whereas the currency in the social world is subjective experience… ….So from a constructivist perspective, I have no doubt that God is real for the people who believe in him. If I have a client who claims that God is a reality to her, than I accept that, and I believe that God exists for her. But from an empirical perspective, I have no reason to believe that there is such a physical, real entity as a god, so I find no reason to believe in one.

And where is this divide? I asked, and he replied in the next comment:

The divide is a fuzzy one, Lauralea, and like most dichotomies, it is good to beware of the distinction I am making between the physical world and the social world. They obviously overlap. Beliefs, ideas, thoughts, and feelings are, after all, products of complex chemical and biological processes that are physical rather than metaphysical, natural rather than supernatural.

You ask, if people can believe what they want, who is right? There obviously isn’t a correct belief when it comes to personal tastes in fashion, food, music, and so on. If you recognize God as being the socially constructed concept that he is, then no one is right or wrong about his nature. A person can’t be wrong about her own fantasies.

I realize many people may not think exactly the way ‘atheistdad’ does, but it’s interesting to see his split-thinking (of sorts) was known to him, yet he didn’t see how it was split. The logic is clear, and the ideologies by which he operates are obvious.

They know there is a split in logic, a defiance of reason, and they are fine with it. They refuse to blend the two realms (science and social) and define various parts of their lives with different worldviews. We must make postmodern thinkers realize their “no absolute” idea is, indeed, an absolute rule, an absolute way of life; even if their absolute pattern to living is defined by “no metanarration”.

The whole idea of reaching the atheist- and many are into postmodern thinking- is making them see that there is absolute truth before giving them an absolute truth Giver.

More to come.

10 Things You Shouldn’t Say to an Atheist

1. “It says in the Bible…” Don’t start out conversations with this. Why imply he should believe a book written by someone who, in his terms, doesn’t exist?

2. “Science (or evidence) says…” Science can’t speak (neither can evolution, come to think of it); this is the fallacious mistake of reification, or, turning some abstract concept into something that is physical or alive. If you need help understanding this fallacy, read the Wikipedia article here.

3. “If you don’t believe in Jesus Christ (or God) you will go to hell.” While this is true, jumping right to the point without making him see his need will only create tension. Same as with #1, you can’t start right out with the Bible because he has rejected it.

4. “Where do you get your values?” (or) “How do you know right and wrong?” While it seems logical for us, the Christian, to believe right and wrong have to come from some set Person or Thing, the accepted belief is that right and wrong are cultural, social, or relative norms. Most people lean towards the postmodern belief that everyone makes up their own right and wrong.

If you mean this question as an argument to eventually lead back to a “divine foot in the door,” you might find yourself in a new maze of postmodern or relativist arguments (such as “Everyone lives in their own separate reality” or “That’s just your truth…”).

More to come.

John 15 and “Abiding”

For a long time, I’ve read John 15 once or twice a week, focusing especially verse four: Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

Abiding: to wait, to endure without yielding, to bear patiently, to accept without objection; also, to conform to, to stay with, not leave.

We are to follow Christ without turning back, to patiently wait on Him and His timing, and to accept what he brings into our lives without complaining or bitterness. That much is plain to see.

But, do we realize that Christ also abides in us? He is the source of all our works, he is the source we get strength from for spiritual activities. We get so caught up in the idea of “abiding in Him” we forget that “He” abides in us.  Don’t lose sight of the fact you have a powerful Spirit in you; willing and ready to work, never leaving, enduring inside of you. Don’t ignore it!

 

a link worth reading

As you can imagine, I’m on an apologetics “high” right now, since I was recently at an AiG conference. I read the following article the other day:

http://www.evanwiggs.com/articles/reasons.html

It’s long, but does an excellent job of scientifically proving evolution to be false.

AiG Conference Notes

Last Sunday, my family and I had the privilege of attending an AiG conference at a local church. Mike Riddle was the speaker, touching on several topics including: theistic evolution, abortion, and age of the earth.

Some thoughts:

-Theistic evolution is impossible. To accept A and not-A is to be illiogical. God cannot design by chance, nor can evolution, (a process that involves death and destruction) occur before “God saw everything that he made… it was good.” The fall came later.

-From “The Edge of Infinity” by Paul Davies~

The Big Bang represents the instantaneous suspension of physical laws, the sudden abrupt flash of lawlessness that allowed something to come out of nothing... it represents a true miracle.

-From “Guth’s Grand Guess”

The universe burst into something from absolutely nothing- zero, nada. And as it got bigger, it became filled with even more stuff that came from absolutely nowhere.

Sounds scientific to me? Nope.

To say the stuff came from nothing is to say something had the power to act before it existed. And since the building blocks for life are still “just so”- why isn’t soup continuing to explode? And why aren’t things still evolving? Why don’t we have animal combinations (such as a polarbear-bunny)? Everything is in perfect order, made after their own kind. The entire world is made up of matter and mass, and the matter and mass all came from something else.

Have you ever considered the fact that evolutionists have no set term or idea for evolution and its processes? Ask ten evolutionists what they believe evolution to be, and you may get 5 or 6 different ideas.

–

While at the conference, I bought several books. One set in particular I highly encourage reading. It’s called the “New Answer Book” set. I’m only a little way into the first one (of three) but I’m learning a lot and enjoying the mental and spiritual stimulation.

Genuine Leaders?

The more I talk to my fellow collegemates, I find a general sense of restlessness with church leadership, state leadership, and leadership in general.

“They aren’t deep enough.”

“They are hypocrites.”

“They have no idea what I’m really facing.”

“They have kids worse off than I am. I am not that bad.”

Today’s youth leaders make a huge deal out of “teens involved.” This term applies to the high schoolers who are technically doing great things- on a relatively deep level. When stacked up against the rest of the group; they seem to be above average, mature, or intelligent. Some of these people are!
From what I’ve observed around me, a majority of these young people don’t give a hoot as to what’s going on in the world or their peers’ lives. The genuine spirit of leadership only lies in a few.

We tend to look for certain qualities when looking for the leader. Popularity, looks, level of sociality, aptitude, and a sense of humor are all the “hot” traits to have.

Suddenly, these average high school Joes find themselves in big positions of leadership in college. All they know is that their personality and looks got themselves there. So they play it up.

And now we have funny, hip youth leaders that haven’t a clue how to lead a group…but know a lot about relating to teens: be funny, act cool, look cool, flirt, take life as it comes, and keep up with trends in culture. Whoever says the funniest things and wears the coolest clothes, wins.
But is that really leadership?
It’s pride.
There is nothing wrong with having good looks, or being socially sharp, or being funny; but abusing these traits to get attention, or knowing your leaders are scouting out such people and acting accordingly is pride on all counts.

What is a true leader?

An accountable servant with a humble heart and honest reputation.

–

So, what makes a leader “genuine”? A heart for others. A passion to see the world around them redeemed. A willingness to go from top dog to last in line. An attitude that is alright with not getting honored for achievements. We don’t see that in our youth groups today. They aren’t in youth groups. They are already out in the world: serving, doing, going, and praying for the Kingdom.

Leaders don’t sit in a class and talk about being leaders or discuss issues. They are out solving problems and doing- not hearing. Young leaders are already at work in the world.

The youth group should exist to build up more leaders, not so much to make kids feel good about themselves or to build popularity. It’s to make a good example of the believers and to help reach out to lost peers. That only comes about by true discipleship: an interest- genuine interest- in the lives of teens and not the furthering of personal status.

–

Next up, a post on some notes from an AiG conference I attended.

Lapses

Over the past few months, I’ve drifted around from ministry to ministry, person to person, book to book. I can fully relate to the fast journey from living to getting caught up in living. Sometimes it seems life loses it’s mystery, God loses His wonder, and people lose their significance. I’m in a cycle of study, study, study, and it can get so routine I don’t even think anymore. Autopilot can be one of life’s biggest problems. These autopilot moments lead to lapses in my walk with God, and from there, relationship with everybody. Spiritual lapses are the worst thing in the world, in my opinion.

We claim we don’t know what happened, or how things went the way they did, but deep down, we can seem to recall a certain moment or time in the past that we went wrong.
It starts with compromise. We think to ourselves “This time, it won’t hurt, and I’ll never do it again, and nobody will ever know.” Being a rebel once makes you feel deliciously “free”. It could be a thought that becomes a consuming passion, a song that becomes a creed or a quote to live by, a word that isn’t “technically” a swear word that also invites its cousins into play on your tongue. it can be one book that leads to a series. One friend that you want to hurt with smarting remarks that leads to a line of hurt relationships wrecked by pride. One movie that leads to an obsession, one bite of unnecessary food that leads to another bite, one CHOICE that leads to a CONSEQUENCE; one CONSEQUENCE that leads to a LIFESTYLE. Sadly, in blindness of our ventures in justifying our actions, we see little or none of the consequence.
It seems so subtle, so very subtle. Things go on as usual, you smile to yourself about your little secret nobody else knows about. You play games with yourself “So-so and Them-them do this kind of thing.” “It isn’t a real sin to do this.” “I know my mom wouldn’t apporve of it, but hey, I’m 22, right?”
Choices that require long internal “back-and-forths” for justification don’t make for appropriate living.
Well, now that you’ve gotten yourself in, how do you get yourself back out?
Sometimes we decide to get out of our mess by ‘doing good’, reading the right things, or eliminating the problem. These are all good things, but not the solution.
When I am spiritually dry, in my mind, I often tell myself: “I’m going to read a Ludy book.” Ludy books, written by the passionate Eric or compelling Leslie, have this scriptural element to them that makes one want to get right with the Lord.
Then I realize, “The Ludys can encourage, uplift, and speak to my situation… but GOD can speak to my heart.” So, I saturate my mind with scripture. I read,I make it a point to pray, no matter how hard it is, or how badly I’d rather be studying for a CLEP.
In the end, I’m so happy I did turn to Christ first. The next step is making sure you don’t fall back into that trap by compromising again. Keep at it. God will show you that next step if you seek it diligently.

Apologies and AiG

1. Sorry I’ve not posted in 11 days. And I realize I’ve not posted quality articles for several weeks now. Holidays happen, college consumes, people distract me, reunions occur, and books need reading. (Check that reunion out here).

2. If you live in the greater Detroit area, you might find it interesting that AiG has a conference this weekend in Milan. Should you want to attend, you may find that info here: http://www.answersingenesis.org/outreach/event/7122/