"IS CREATION CREDIBLE?

       DID GOD REALLY CREATE THE THINGS IN NATURE? NANCY CANWELL'S FRIEND ASKED THIS QUESTION, AND HE FOUND THE ANSWER.
 MANY Thanks to both Nancy and Signs of the times Magazine  pp. 27-31 Feb 2014 issue.


      Chris and Kate were sitting in their college class listening to the professor 's lecture on how the world's oceans were supposed to have been formed, The professor went into great detail describing how billions of year ago, comets carrying large amounts of ice crashed into the earth, melted, and created the vast oceans.
[ (j.b.) did he witness this, or speak to an eyewitness, perhaps? Thus its an human ASSUMPTION]
     Christ leaned over to Kate and whispered, "Or you could say that God spoke, and the oceans were created. That's more believable!"
     Some people find the story of Creation found in Genesis 1 and 2 hard to believe---at least at first glance. These chapters state that God created our universe by speaking it into existence. That would take unimaginable power! When God speaks, things happen. Night and day begun. Dry land appeared, dividing the seas. The sun, moon, and stars gave light. Sea creatures and birds, filled the oceans and the sky. Animals began to walking the earth. Yes, at first glance, all this might seem hard to believe, but it merits a closer look.

                                                    A DAY OF DOUBTS.

     MY friend, Aaron grew up in a strong Christian environment. He'd been educated in Christian schools, and raised by Christian parents, and even attending a Christian college, studying to be a pastor.
    Here's Arron's story, in his own words: "I had just begun a week-long backpacking trip in the mountains There I spent several days just quietly drinking in nature's beauty."
     But then on the fourth day, as I was hiking to a higher alpine lake, a strange thought crossed my mind: Is there really a God? If there is, why hasn't He shown Himself to me personally? Could it be that He really is not there at all? This claim that there is a God either is the most phenomenal truth or is nothing but a ridicules myth.
   "My thinking continued like this: Either the Bible is the true record of origin and destiny--- of the purpose of life-- or it's just a fable. And to make a long story short, after many more doubts flooded my mind, I finally came to the point that I totally cast off by belief in God. In that moment, I became an honest atheist..

                                              FROM FACTS TO FAITH 

Faith will and does encompasses much more than empirical science is able!

     ALTHOUGH  it seemed that Aaron's mind was made up, his story doesn't end here.

       "As I hiked back to camp, I started casually thinking about my body, of how perfectly all its systems were working in careful balance. I idly thought of my digestive system-- how my body somehow transforms granola and fresh apples into energy for climbing mountains. I could feel my heartbeat in my hands, and I thought about how my circulatory system--- how it keeps all my organs and muscles supplied with what they need, [(j.b.) and all they need at very different exertion levels, almost as if there was a automatic sustain governor]. I inhaled deeply, I thought of my respiratory system-- of how it was exchanging carbon dioxide and oxygen as I breathed the fresh,clean mountain air. [Funny but all plants need what we exhale, Carbon Dioxide, and they in turn release oxygen, in a symbiotic  and PLANED system (j.b.)] Then my mind considered my nervous system-- how without it, I would be totally incapable of feeling, tasting, smelling, hearing, or even seeing. I would not be able to function at all.
      "Even more incredible to me was how I had come to exist.---how my parent's reproductive systems somehow matched up all the right genes and chromosomes to make me uniquely who I am. Finally, I thought about my brain--- how it functions, it becomes a mind with which I can analyze, create,choose, and remember. I was in absolute awe of my boy's complex and interdependence systems!
      " Then my thoughts shifted to my surroundings. The trees and grass were give of the oxygen I need in order to live. I had crossed a stream, which reminded me that my body is nearly 75% water. Yet, I am so much more than just water! I looked up at the blue sky and remembered the thousands of stars I'd seen the night before--stars whose movements are so precise that we measure time by them.Then I thought, about our earth, orbiting the sun so faithfully year after year--- of how, if it veered off course just a little, we'd all freeze or fry!
     "Suddenly, I stopped on the trail, awestruck.  There just had to be a Mastermind behind all these systems and the order we can all see. There is no way around it, random chance can not account for all the amazingly complex systems that are us, and surround us all. Suddenly I had serious doubts, about my earlier doubts!  Certainly Someone brilliant and powerful had to be behind this universal order!"
      "That was a pivotal moment in my life. I left the mountains a few days latter inspired by the realization that God, the Creator of the Universe, lives with me. I've never doubted that ,since.
      Aaron's experience was pretty well summed up by the apostle Paul long ago.....
Romans 1:19-20  "Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"

Note {(j.b) added----Romans 1:21-24  "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:"
Note (j.b)  Does the above not fit most of humanity today?

                                 CREATED FOR COMPANIONSHIP. [Love, to be complete must be given and received, is in a circle, and freely given!]

      Aaron told me that up there on the trail, he sensed that God had some overriding purpose in creating our world. And he was right. The Bible's creation story reveals that.
     God, could have stopped the creation process after the fifth Day and peacefully enjoy all that new beauty by Himself. BUT, on the sixth day, He created something even more extraordinary: human beings. Whereas God simply spoke everything else into existence, He however got very intimately involved......
Genesis 2:7  "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
    What's more, He not only Personally formed us but also created us in His own image.......
Genesis 1:26-27  "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
      And still God wasn't finished. As His final act of Creation, He added a Seventh day to Creation week....
Genesis 2:1-3  "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."
    In  doing this, He set apart the Seventh day, for a Holy purpose, which is the meaning of sanctification, thus God gave us the Sabbath day--- a day we too, can rest form our labors, and be free to focus on our relationship with Him. By His creating this unique day, {from Friday's sunset to Saturday's sunset] , God showed us why He created us: so that we could have the time to enjoy companionship with Him. [Plus it's a memorial day celebrating His Creative Powers]
   Unfortunately, the face to face companionship that God had planned to enjoy with us, was lost after sin entered. God's creation was no longer perfect. What He had spoken into existence, and what He had formed with His own hands began to decay. But the Creator didn't turn His back on His creations, and leave us to our own destruction. The Creator became our Savior! He left heaven to be born of woman, thus blending the human with the Divine, living a perfect life, yet more tempted than we, He willingly gave His life, to pay our sin debts. [So that ONE DAY, HE could again have the original and by then 'never ending' companionship with Him, with all who so choose to be with Him! (j.b.)]
    The story of Creation gives us our identity, and meaning to our lives. As God created each one of us, we each have a great value. [Not only to self but to God , or else why die for us?]    Aaron found this to be true. Plus I think that's the why we feel a vacancy when we don't have God in our lives.
    Recently, a friend of mine said it well: "We were made for fellowship with God, and only in that fellowship can we find our real and full significance in life. We are restless until we rest in Him"
* Scriptures used are from the King James Version"
Again my Thanks to both the author Nancy Canwell and Signs of the Times magazine.

                            A SIDE BAR...."BIBLE DISCOVERY"  Errol Webster. S.of the Times Fen '14

EVOLUTION OR CREATION:     
[(j.b.) this question will not be resolved until the expected soon return of of Jesus Christ, as this questions something that BOTH SIDES view as their RELIGION! His return and the Biblical events that shall occur just prior to that Resurrection morning!]

In an essay on human evolution that I turned in for a biology calls, the lecturer wrote "LIES" under most of the quotations I'd cited, and then he added, "I am disappointed. You have accepted and regurgitated material that is illogical and/or lies and/or a misunderstanding and/or a misrepresentation of evolution."  I said to him. "You used quite strong language against authors I quoted in my paper. I took pains to cite only writers who were evolutionists." He replied, "They couldn't have been, because they wrote against evolution."  Such is the entrenched view about evolution on the part of some. When other evolutionists are honest about problems with this theory, they're assumed to be lying.

1. How does the Bible say God created?
      Psalms 33:6  "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth."
[(j.b.) as only the eyes in Heaven were eyewitnesses, anything and everything else is nothing more than a hum,an assumption, as no science nor scientist (s) can show empirical proof to the contrary!

2. Why did God create this world?
     Isaiah 45:18 " For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else."

3 What does David say about how God made him?
       Psalms 139:13-14  "For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."

     George Johnson, in a Wall Street Journal article, said, "Human DNA contains more organized information [(jb.) please note the word Organized] that the Encyclopedia Britannica. If the full text of the encyclopedia were to arrive in computer code from outer space, most people would regard the as proof of existence intelligence." Yet evolutionists say that all happened by chance

4. In what way are humans different from the rest of creations?
      Genesis 1:27  "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
    This is why we are spiritual, personal beings with the ability to think and reason, as well as to choose. Darwinist philosopher Micheal Ruse, is baffled by this fact. He says, "Why should a bunch of atoms have thinking ability?Why should I, even as I write now, be able to reflect on what I am doing? No one, certainly not Darwinian's, seems to have any answers to this. The point is that there is no scientific answer." He's right! Without God or the belief in Him, there is no answer!

5. What important human relationship was instituted by God? 
     Genesis 2:24  "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."
{(j.b.) in a word Marriage, and between a man and a woman]  Remember God celebrated the first marriage, bu His instruction to them" to be fruitful.", increase in number" and "fill the earth." Genesis 1:28.

6. What moral choice shows that our first parent were  given the freedom to be moral beings?
     Genesis 2:16-17  "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
{(j.B.) sadly they chose to rebel, and listen to Satan rather than God, just as most still do today, right? Also remember Gen 3:4 the first recorded Bible's lie, you shall surely NOT die, and this became the root for "Die & go right to heaven, " traditions of men. Thus lies are compounded, right?

6. What does the fourth commandment say to remember in Exodus 20:8-11?
     Exodus 20:8-11  "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."
[(j.b.) There are those who have removed the 2nd commandment entirely, and as all know there's 10, they split 10 into two parts, so I ask who do they think they are fooling? Look else where in this blog for the answer as to who led this charge and read Daniel 7:25 and 2 Thessalonians for the who }
The Sabbath is a God given Memorial of Creation, and a weekly reminder that we are created to worship God.....
Revelation 14:7 " Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."

8. What choice gives us hope?
     John 5:24  "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
   All the Darwin evolutionists, say that life has no purpose, beyond self. Yet human beings instinctively seek purpose and meaning in life. This as many have found, can only be found in a relationship with the Creator God, who made us all.
Thanks to Errol Webster and Sings of the Times magazine Feb 2014.

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