Jump to content

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'FAITH'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • Christian Discussions
    • Study Group
    • General Discussion
    • Bible Study
    • Theology
    • Apologetics
    • Prophecy
    • Do you want to just ask a question?
    • Christian Culture
    • Everything Else
  • Videos
    • General
    • News
    • Comedy
    • Biblical Topics
    • Christian Music
  • Current News
    • Most Interesting News Developments
    • Worthy Briefs
    • World News
    • Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
    • U.S. News
    • Christian News
    • Worthy Watch / Worthy Insights
  • Worthy Ministries
    • Worthy Devotions
    • What's the latest with the Worthy Ministries?
  • Who's on the Lord side?'s Topics
  • Cooking club's Smokers & related recipes/techniques
  • Cooking club's What's your favorite recipe?
  • Cooking club's Salads - not just lettuce!
  • Cooking club's Soups and Stews
  • Cooking club's About Multi-cookers - features, tips, recipes
  • Cooking club's Taters!
  • Cooking club's Bread
  • Gardening.'s Gardening Club Forum
  • Photography How To (tips and tricks)'s Photography Club Topics
  • Maker's Club's Club News
  • Maker's Club's So, what do you make, what have you made?
  • Maker's Club's Physical Art, specifically!
  • Maker's Club's Life hacks & tips - useful things you know & have tried!
  • Bible 365's Misc. Things of interest
  • Bible 365's THE DAILY READING (see reading schedule)
  • Bible 365's Todays' Reading
  • Bible 365's Recently added or updated
  • Bible 365's Bible Trivia
  • Bible 365's Table of Contents
  • Bible 365's Tightly Moderated Discussions-Some Controversial
  • Bible 365's Specific Doctrines
  • Bible 365's WorthyChat Bible Studies
  • Bible 365's Bible Topics - Looking at the Bible Topically
  • Reading Club's Topics
  • Bible Trivia's Index to Bible Trivia and Answers
  • Bible Trivia's Bible Trivia Answers
  • Bible Trivia's Bible Trivia Quizzes
  • Bible Trivia's Announcements
  • Puzzle Club's Forums
  • The Prophecy Exchange's Resources
  • The Prophecy Exchange's Forums
  • Songs of Praise Poetry Club's Forums
  • Christ Centered Recovery Group's Lessons
  • Christ Centered Recovery Group's Testimonies
  • Christ Centered Recovery Group's 12 Steps and Biblical Comparison
  • Christ Centered Recovery Group's Forums
  • Diabetes and Low Carb Eating Support Group's Diabetes
  • Diabetes and Low Carb Eating Support Group's Low Carb Eating
  • Triumph Over Cancer's General topics
  • Triumph Over Cancer's Encouragement
  • Triumph Over Cancer's Tips and advice
  • Cat Chat's Information concerning cats and their servants
  • Cat Chat's Misc. unCATegorized cat things
  • Cat Chat's Our Feline Babies!
  • Gardening Club's Topics
  • Baking club's Miscellaneous
  • Baking club's sponge cakes
  • Bible - Daily Reading's Introduction
  • Bible - Daily Reading's 2023 Bible Reading Schedule
  • Deeper Discourse's Forum

Christian Blogs

  • traveller - Standing in the Wind
  • The Treasure In The Field
  • For the Love of God
  • Keys to the Kingdom
  • To Him be the Glory
  • Marathoner's Blog
  • Leonardo’s Blog
  • Word Studies Relating to Destiny
  • Searching the Scriptures.
  • Thought and Reflection
  • WilliamL's Worthy Insights
  • Marilyn's Messages
  • Bible Study Series
  • Albert Finch Ministry
  • Devotions
  • League of Savage Gentlemen.
  • ~~Angels Thoughts~~
  • A Desert Sage ?
  • Omegaman's Thought and Rants
  • Some Thoughts from AyinJade
  • Insights into Worthy Ministries
  • Bible 365's Reading Schedule - Click Read More to see
  • Bible 365's Basic Instructions
  • Bible Trivia's Guidelines
  • Songs of Praise Poetry Club's My Songs to the Lord

Calendars


Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


Website URL


Location


Interests

  1. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1084227099277349 Sorry I'm not sure how to post the video here. But I love this one!
  2. As a follower of Christ, it can be challenging to maintain your faith in a secular world where doubt and skepticism are pervasive. However, with the right tools, mindset, and faith in God, you can uphold your beliefs and strengthen your spiritual fortitude. Here are six practical tips to....continue
  3. Living on this earth is a privilege given to us by the Lord. That's why listening is so important to God's plans for the universe. But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. Matthew 13:16 More and more is just becoming so imperative for the children of faith to learn to use their gifts, especially to prophesy according to our faith to advance God's government. Romans 12:16, Isaiah 9:7.
  4. It's not enough that fear has desecrated the saints, we must first deal with our alcoholic history in the body of Christ, and I'm talking about maddening wine, not Bordeaux. How is it created, and where does it arise from? It's becomes the blood of the saints spiritually we know that for sure! Let's NOT drink it!! You know here in this community we have discussed the holy priesthood, or rather the unblemished fatherhood of the male saints being offered to them by the Father of Lights right now. Undoubtedly this might come about through a movement of fasting and celibacy. Amen.
  5. I guess I was a little too hard on the Beav. But I heard you may have fear of danger that is torturous. I am sorry, me too, I did (do) fear, but it was from my bloodline being tortured by the occult. So you either get fearful out in the world, or lazy socially when you are isolated. Lived on both sides of the coin, am in a more social atmosphere now, but it is cold.."The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Matthew 8:20 And Jesus says to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the heaven have nests, but the Son of Man does not have a place where He may lay His head”.
  6. "If this has happened to you, you will never let this happen to you again." I believe it will for a while (USA be downtrodden, overtaken by troops), then reinstated just like Washington saw in a vision at Valley Forge when he was praying there. It feels like he was close to God in those memoirs that were written at Valley Forge. Here is a snippet from his vision in the Library of Congress: https://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/washington/vision.html Wartime: "And again I heard the mysterious voice saying "Son of the Republic, look and learn." At this the dark, shadowy angel placed a trumpet to his mouth, and blew three distinct blasts; and taking water from the ocean, he sprinkled it upon Europe, Asia and Africa. Then my eyes beheld a fearful scene: From each of these countries arose thick, black clouds that were soon joined into one. Throughout this mass there gleamed a dark red light by which I saw hordes of armed men, who, moving with the cloud, marched by land and sailed by sea to America. Our country was enveloped in this volume of cloud, and I saw these vast armies devastate the whole county and burn the villages, towns and cities that I beheld springing up. As my ears listened to the thundering of the cannon, clashing of sword, and the shouts and cries of millions in mortal combat, I heard again the mysterious voice saying, "Son of the Republic, look and learn" When the voice had ceased, the dark shadowy angel placed his trumpet once more to his mouth, and blew a long and fearful blast. "Instantly a light as of a thousand suns shone down from above me, and pierced and broke into fragments the dark cloud which enveloped America. At the same moment the angel upon whose head still shone the word Union, and who bore our national flag in one hand and a sword in the other, descended from the heavens attended by legions of white spirits. These immediately joined the inhabitants of America, who I perceived were will nigh overcome, but who immediately taking courage again, closed up their broken ranks and renewed the battle. Again, amid the fearful noise of the conflict, I heard the mysterious voice saying, "Son of the Republic, look and learn." As the voice ceased, the shadowy angel for the last time dipped water from the ocean and sprinkled it upon America. Instantly the dark cloud rolled back, together with the armies it had brought, leaving the inhabitants of the land victorious! Rebuilding after the 3rd war: Then once more I beheld the villages, towns and cities springing up where I had seen them before, while the bright angel, planting the azure standard he had brought in the midst of them, cried with a loud voice: "While the stars remain, and the heavens send down dew upon the earth, so long shall the Union last." And taking from his brow the crown on which blazoned the word "Union," he placed it upon the Standard while the people, kneeling down, said, "Amen. Let every child of the Republic learn to live for his God, his land and the Union." With these words the vision vanished, and I started from my seat and felt that I had seen a vision wherein had been shown to me the birth, progress, and destiny of the United States. The Parable of the Shrewd Manager Luke 16 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ 3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “‘Nine hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’ 7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? 13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” 14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight. Additional Teachings 16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. 17 It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. 18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. The Rich Man and Lazarus 19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ 25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ 27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
  7. We almost lost another brother this week after he tried a very small piece off a pill, which he thought could be ecstasy. This shaving from a large white pill immediately made him feel like he couldn't breathe, and took his pulse down to 100 over 30 the paramedic stated. The full dose would have killed 4 people. Turned out to be heroin mixed with fentanyl. He survived it, is back at home today. We appreciate your prayers here in Toledo. I pray God's grace, wisdom and understanding for the readers about this issue. This stuff is a powerful killer, should not be available out here!!
  8. I am sure we have all walked through the valleys on our journey. The valley sounds as if it would be a place of rich nature, babbling brooks, peace ect........... However in our spiritual life, I have found the valley a place of great learning. Where your life is ripped opened, is raw & exposed ! A place where there is NO where to run nor hide except under the shadow of his wing. Torments, troubles, the trials we face, all help us become strong enough to climb to the tops of the mountains & feast @ God's table. A few scriptures then I'd like to share..... ISAIAH CHAPTER 43 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. 2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. 3 For I am the LORD thy God, Psalm 23 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. Λ
  9. This doctrine has made it into the vine to corrupt and control the family, kept it from forming. "A life of pleasure will achieve this result, death and famine and more death, sadly " Many accepted Christ"s martyr ship by running away from the spouse that was selected for them from heaven. Because it was attached to a daughter of Zion, a calling for Christ's government. 1 Timothy 4:3, NIV: They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.
  10. Discussing the literal meaning of Revelation 13:10 gives us a clear perspective of the end times. If you kill by the sword, you must be killed by the sword. If you commit atrocities inside the womb for decades (slaying very innocent blood), a sword will come to your land. "This is the faith and the patience of the saints". This is not grace, it is death. It's not grace for death, it's death for the slain of this land, death by the sword is coming. Or this scripture was written in vein. We also know not to add to or take away from these messages in the Revelation of John. Or He will add the plagues in this book to us. He will take away the tree of liberty from us in the holy city if we discuss them wrong. Revelation 13:10 If anyone is to be taken captive, captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. Revelation 22:18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.
  11. Witchcraft is gained through disobedience. It is unattainable without breaking God's laws. 1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king. I was told about witchcraft by a few Christians for years before I knew it was a weapon formed against God's house. Like any adversary, Satan uses any person in our families who is in sin to attack and control us. Witchcraft is control. I have been shown that I will be headed to Africa soon where it is fallen in the occult. So I am very fortunate to have learned, battled and defeated Satan's plans for me by my faith and promises in Christ, daily. People using the occult, those whose bodies have become the occult, do not stop if they are asked politely to quit attacking you. This has been my account. Jesus Christ during His time here would use His authority in these situations. He has shown that royal people must first be tested. We are also humbled by the fact that we can help and advise each other, which makes life significantly easier. I have not actually looked up black magic, but it has probably been used against us repeatedly in the church on an everyday basis. I know necromancy is used often by divining the dead, which makes you think they are still alive talking to you. Often during the attacks it was incomprehensible to my brain that it was even happening. But we can be shown things by our Savoir in life, and warned for a time that we may be undergoing some much needed heart surgery to become more like Him.
  12. Hello Worthy people and God bless your souls with the rich Kingship of Yeshua! This has been a huge issue Christians I know and myself have had to encounter recently. At times it has felt like Jesus Himself was the stronghold trying to move against me, then I realized Jesus is in the savage people trying to heal, and claiming a quite acceptable position for Himself with every tribe and tongue. Hello new wine skins!! During the conversion process (for them and myself) I am serving beyond the boundaries of human culture I am used to, and acceptable behavior. Jesus has said, "DO NOT LAY YOUR HANDS VIOLENTLY ON A MAN IF YOU'RE FACING THREATS, BUT REBUKE THEM WITH MY AUTHORITY." He who lives by the sword dies by the sword, this is the faith and patience of the saints. Have courage, believe me this is needed for the church now. IF WE DON'T SURRENDER AND FACE THREATS THAT HE SAYS WE NEED TO FACE, THEN OUR SECURITY AND LOVE FOR THE WORLD WILL NEVER FADE. AMEN.
  13. God let me kindly do this for myself as a homeless student as He was ushering things in for me this whole time. For this I am thankful. Thankful for this harsh, abrupt, rebranding of my soul. Had too. The weak, frail, masked things of this world I accepted could have got me killed. Would have There was no protection in them. I accepted His leadership in the wilderness, not my own. This in turn has lead to a dramatic increase of love & acceptance. And for that I am thankful 🌹♥️🔥✨😭!
  14. In this powerful video, Sophia Lorena prays and helps you to end your day with gratitude for God's Blessings by remembering to thank Him and allowing God to shine through your life. Receive the Prayer in Faith and type "AMEN" in the comments to agree to the prayer and allow the Word of God to begin to work in your life! Save the link and Try to Say the Prayer Daily either in the morning or at night and get ready to see breakthrough in your life. •If you want Sophia Lorena to pray for you and to be updated of more powerful prayers that will be uploaded, subscribe and share via comments. If this Video Blesses You, please like, subscribe, comment and hit the bell. Edited by Omegaman 3.0 Video deleted. Videos are only allowed in the video section of the forums.
  15. On the significance of the age of the Earth Omegaman Republished from an earlier post on Feb 28, 2009 Is the Earth Old or Young ? No answers here, but some things to think about. I hear this question frequently, but I always wonder what is in the mind of the person asking the question. Is the answer to this question important, and if so, why and in what ways? An unbeliever might like to pit the conclusions of modern scientists, who almost universally hold to the idea that the Earth is very old against the apparent assertions of the Bible that the Earth is relatively young. In other words, if the Bible says the Earth is young, and scientists say the Earth is ancient, then clearly the Bible is wrong and not to be believed. A believer, on the other hand, might look at this problem and conclude, that the unbeliever has a point. Out of concern for the skepticism of the unbeliever, the believer might want to make it easier for the unbeliever to accept the Bible. Similarly, the believer may have his/her own doubts about this and so adopt the position that the correct interpretation of the scriptures is that the Earth is old and in harmony with the consensus of scientists. Personally, I believe the age of the Earth as it relates to an unbeliever is of little significance, and is usually either an excuse not to believe, or is a way of avoiding the important topic of the unbelievers salvation, or moral failures and their implications etc. As a believer addressing this issue with an unbeliever, I will point out that there are believers that hold both positions and that the real topic of concern is whether Jesus came to Earth, died for our sins, and was resurrected on the third day. That is the belief upon which our salvation rests, and any other topic pales in importance. Therefore, I shall be addressing this topic from the stand point of the believer – what it means to us. Is it important what we believe? What should we believe? What concerns me the most, is not what we believe in regards to this question so much as why we believe what we believe. A standard rule of biblical interpretation, is that we interpret the Bible literally, unless we are compelled to do otherwise. Some might make the case that the science is so compelling, that we have to interpret Genesis in some figurative way. I have to ask, what is it, that makes the science so compelling? I am a scientifically minded person, I run much of my daily life depending on ideas which science has observed and proven. Obviously, science has proven to be a powerful and useful tool. However, I think that the most trustworthy part of science, is the part where we can observe current phenomena, develop theories about the phenomena, and test those theories. When we begin to attempt to apply science to metaphysics – the spiritual part of our universe, science has left it’s realm of expertise. When examining topics of an historical nature – the issues of the formation of the universe, the development of life etc, science has also strayed from it’s expertise because it is attempting to guess what has happened in the past, from clues in the present. Most of the time, this will be of questionable reliability, since there is no way to repeat history in a test tube. It is gone, and not subject to examination. For me, what it comes down to then is this: “Which do you trust more, the pronouncements of a demonstrably infallible God, or the pronouncements of demonstrably fallible men?” Now, to be certain, we can make mistakes in our interpretation of the Bible, so both methods have a risk of error. Never-the-less, I believe that the Christian who maintains that the Bible teaches or allows for and ancient earth, is knowingly electing to disbelieve the most natural literal interpretation of the Bible, in favor of the theories of men, derived from the natural sciences. Personally, if I am wrong in my assessment that the Earth might be quite young, I would rather have the clear conscience of taking God at His word and be in error than choosing to trust the dictates of men that God pronounces to be fools for their unbelief of Him. It is true that there are reputable scientists who believe in an old Earth and who profess to be Christians. I do not doubt that most of these men and women are saved, trusting Jesus for their salvation. I do find it very odd, however, that they are willing to trust God about the scientifically unlikely event of the His resurrection, upon which their salvation rests, but cannot find it within themselves, to take Him at His word with regards to issues of origins. In fact, I find it saddening. As you have probably concluded, I am of a younger Earth persuasion. This is not to say that I believe that the Earth was created in 4004 B.C. as some assert. I note that the Bible never makes such a claim, and that this number is merely the result of calculations of a man who added up life spans and genealogies in the Bible. I have never checked his math, but in as much as the Jews were known to practice genealogies with gaps in them, recording more notable ancestors, it seems to me that there is some room for some extra time. In my estimation, all you can prove from the Bible about when the Earth was created, is that Adam, the first man, was created in 4004 B.C. or earlier. How much earlier, I have no idea. In other words, I do not believe the Bible makes any definitive statement on how old the Earth is. Having said that, can I prove there are gaps. Yes and no. The Bible as we know it, notes them itself, by comparing genealogies in some books versus others. In other words, different book describe ancestral lines with differing numbers of people in them. Therefore, some of these have to be incomplete, or else other have extra generations. If there are extras, then those passages are either untrue, or they are some sort of allegory. The do not appear to be allegory, so the most logical choice is that the others are not complete. If they are not complete, then we know that gaps were an allowable custom. Knowing that gaps are allowable, we can assume that all of the genealogies could contain gaps. Now, a little known and underdiscussed fact is, that the Hebrew text from which the 4004 B.C. creation date comes, is the Masoretic text, the major text underlying the translations of many modern Old Testaments. However, copies of the manuscripts of the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew, written some 300 years B.C. with extant copies going back to 400 A.D.) predates the Masoretic text by at least 350 years (the the oldest extant copy of the Masoretic text is Masoretic text dating to the 9th and 10th centuries A.D.) . Jesus and the apostles frequently quoted the Septuagint (or the authors of the gospels quoted the Septuagint when reporting what Jesus said) , so it is safe to assume it was thought reliable as the word of God. The genealogies of the Septuagint, if totaled in the same way that the 4004 B.C. Creation date was arrived at, push the creation date back to 5315 B.C. See how muddy and impossible it is to determine the date from the scripture? To me then, the Bible allows for an undetermined age of the Earth, and mankind is at least 6000 years old (7300 if going by the Septuagint). Which brings us to the length of creation time passed before God created mankind. The Old Earth Theorists, will have to hold to the idea that the 5 days prior to the creation of man, are not 5 literal days, but days which are of undetermined lengths of time, even millions of years each. This is done to force the scriptures to harmonize with scientific conclusions. That people may choose to interpret the Bible according to the dictates of predominantly atheistic scientists, is their own business. I think that it sets a very dangerous precedent, which allows for changing the meaning of the word of God, to suit whatever belief is in fashion. This is already being done in other portions of scripture. For example, science is looking to find a genetic causation for the behavior of homosexuality. If a link can be found to exist between heredity and sexual orientation, then what will follow is a discounting of the biblical notion that the practice homosexuality is a sin. Now, that leap will not be a logical one, but the leap will be made, never-the-less. I could cite other examples, but this one will serve to illustrate the point. However, even if it can be proven that homosexuality is genetically caused, it still does not alter the fact that God calls it a sin to practice, just as He calls it a sin for heterosexuals to act out their carnal desires outside of the man/woman marriage that He ordained. For myself, I shall not ever use the temporary and ever-changing opinions of science (or political correctness) to interpret the God inspired scriptures which never need adjustment, but that is just me. Many Old Earth Creationists are aware of the supremacy of God’s word, but just do not have enough faith in the most natural interpretation of scripture to overcome their faith in modern science. In such cases, I can understand that, but I wish more of them were honest about that fact that that is what the problem is. Sadly, too many choose instead, to find that the traditional beliefs of Christianity are suspect and inferior. It should not take any effort on my part, to convince anyone that the most natural interpretation of the creation days of Genesis, is that they are 6 literal days. Nothing in the text suggests otherwise. Old earth creationists will sometimes go to great lengths to point out that the Hebrew word for day, does not always mean a literal, twenty-four hour day. They are absolutely correct on that point. This Hebrew word is “Yom”. Gen 1:4-5 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day. (NIV) The first thing to notice about the word “day” as used in the creation account, is that it comes to us pre-defined. The light God called day. We do the same thing to this day. Also, one light and dark cycle, is also called a day. Just like we do. The implications of this one verse are a monumental obstacle, to anyone who wishes to maintain the notion that a day in Genesis, represents a length of time of thousands or millions of years. For one thing, we see here that in context, the word day is used identically as it is normally used in modern English. The internal, literary evidence therefore points to the conclusion that God intended this portion of scripture to be understood as literal, that a day is simply one cycle of light, most likely, near 24 hours long. To assume that something else is intended, is a gross violation of long established rules of interpretation, not only of the Bible, but for any document. Let’s suspend those rules momentarily, and allow for the idea that this day is, for example, not 24 hours, but one million years. Does this help Genesis square with modern scientific opinion? An interesting thing to note in the Genesis account, is that during this first day, the Sun has not yet been caused to shine upon the earth. The lightness and darkness that is cycling, is not sunlight. This gives some wiggle room because this light and dark, may not be dependent upon the rotation of the earth. We could say perhaps, that days were longer at that time. It get’s more difficult to maintain this notion though at creation day 4: Gen 1:16-19 16 God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning — the fourth day. (NIV) If these days are not 24 hours long, and we go back to the idea that a day is one million years long, might it be that the light was on for 500,000 years during a light/dark cycle. Since the old Earth theory is done to accommodate scientific opinion, then we should be consistent and assess the implication of 500,000 years of light. Is this light of similar intensity to what we experience from the Sun? If so, what would the surface temperature of the Earth rise to? Would the plants (created on the third day) survive the temperatures? Could they survive 500,000 years of darkness and no photosynthesis? I think interpreting the scriptures to accommodate scientific consensus, causes more problems that it solves. I think we have seen that interpreting Genesis passage literally, makes the most sense from a literary perspective. We have seen that interpreting it in the light of science, makes the text into nonsense. What about this word "yom" we touched on briefly, is there a reason to expect that it might mean other than 24 hours in the original Hebrew? My Bible software reports that this word "yom" occurs 2304 times in the Old Testament. That should be plenty of data to work with, to discover the likelihood that yom should be understood as some sort of age. How many times is yom not 24 hours in the Bible? Here are examples of how it is used otherwise: (1)The span of human life. – Gen 5:4: “And the days of Adam …. were eight hundred years.” “And if thou wilt walk …. then I will lengthen thy days” (1 Kings 3:14; compare Ps 90:12; Isa 38:5). (2) An indefinite time. – Existence in general: Gen 3:14: “All the days of thy life” (compare Gen 21:34; Num 9:19; Josh 22:3; Luke 1:24; Acts 21:10). (3) A set time. – Gen 25:24: “And when her days …. were fulfilled”; Dan 12:13: “Thou shalt stand in thy lot, at the end of the days” (compare Lev 12:6; Dan 2:44). (4) A historic period. – Gen 6:4: “The Nephilim were in the earth in those days”; Judg 17:6: “In those days there was no king in Israel” (compare 1 Sam 3:1; 1 Chron 5:17; Hos 2:13). (5) Past time. – Ps 18:18: “the day of my calamity”; Ps 77:5: “I have considered the days of old” (of Mic 7:20; Mal 3:7; Matt 23:30). (6) Future time. – Deut 31:14: “Thy days approach that thou must die”; Ps 72:7: “In his days shall ….” (compare Ezek 22:14; Joel 2:29; Matt 24:19; 2 Peter 3:3; Rev 9:6). (7) The eternal. – In Dan 7:9,13, where God is called “the ancient of days.” (8) A season of opportunity. – John 9:4: “We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work” (compare Rom 13:12-13; 1 Thess 5:5-8). See DAY (4), above. That was from the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, Copyright ©1996 Did you see anything there that seemed to suggest eons of time? Most of those uses are less that a human lifespan. Some, are references to historical periods – in other words AFTER the creation of man. The one possible exception, is number 7 above, but it is a reference to God Himself, not his creation. In short, to say that the word Yom contains the potential to represent millions of years, is forcing a definition or use of it, that is so extreme compared to actual uses of the word, that it can be considered as nothing other than a desperate grasping at straws by those that lack the faith to take God at His word. If any choose to believe the unstable opinions of the sciences over the revelation of God’s word, I am okay with that, I really am. I just wish they would have the honesty to state that they feel the need to abuse the science of hermeneutics to satisfy their own uneasiness about God’s word, instead of trying to convince others that it is somehow justified or legitimate to force personal beliefs upon the interpretation of scripture. To quote Prof. James Barr from the EXPOSITOR’S BIBLE: “If the word ‘day’ in this chapter does not mean the period of 24 hours, the interpretation of Scripture is hopeless.”. Is the evidence too strong against the bible, or at least of a literal interpretation of it? Certainly if scientific consensus is going to be the determining factor concerning out faith and theology, we have to ask the question: What about the resurrection? Scientific consensus would be that a man who dies, and remains dead for three days, stays dead. If God cannot defy the opinions of scientists, then no miracles happen, not now, not ever, and the resurrection never took place. If that is true, then Christianity is little more than a collection of interesting tales, sort of like Aesop's Fables. If God is going to be limited to our understanding of the laws of nature, then why would we be wondering about the length of the creation period. A God without the power to do the miraculous, could not bring the creation into existence in the first place. If that creation did not happen, then why would we suspect that creation has an author at all, and without such and author, does sin really exist? Who gets to define what is sin and what is not, who decides how salvation is accomplished or if it is even necessary. Is there really even an afterlife? Apart from a revelation from a supernatural God, these things are all unknowable, and Christianity has no real value. It may not be critically important, how long creation took, but knowing that it took place, believing God by faith that it did, is important, and I have to wonder how much we really believe God, if we cannot trust Him to accurately describe and make plain, the details of His own creation. Consider some of the implications of a lengthy creation. How does it affect other beliefs or statements from the Bible? Do other passages make reference to the creation events – do we call them into question? Did Jesus or the apostles mention anything about the creation account that would leave you to believe that they took it literally – if so, how does that affect their credibility? If we can choose to ignore a literal interpretation in Genesis – do we then grant ourselves the same license in other parts of the Bible – if so, how will you know where and when? These are questions each person must address and consider. While science has century by century, worked to discover how the universe works, each generation of scientists has seen major scientific opinions come and go. Each generation of scientists indeed, has at it’s disposal, new knowledge and new tools to investigate the natural world. Each generation has advanced the collective knowledge of mankind, and each has refuted theories held dearly by colleagues of previous generations, and yet, after thousands of years, is still seeking answers to fundamental questions, answers that are elusive. Meanwhile, the Christian is able to hold the same views as Jesus and the apostles expressed 2000 years ago, with no need to apologize for any of them. The 20th Century saw the sciences advance at a tremendous rate, but as theories about origins and cosmology became more refined and old ones discarded as obsolete, we found that the theories of prevailing science, are looking more like the bible all the time. Of course, science cannot truly address origins and cosmology ultimately, because those things are outside of it’s scope of examination. Science works in the present, it examines present clues about past events. The past is not like electricity or chemistry, it cannot be replicated or examined directly. Modern science is even more at a disadvantage, to look into matters of a spiritual nature. Science examines natural phenomena, the supernatural is outside it’s purview. Still, it is interesting to observe that scientists seem to be edging their way toward beliefs that the bible expressed all along. Considering that the bible is not intended to be a science text book, it is remarkable how many scientific facts it got right before scientists would discover them. Addendum, added on 11/14/2014 Some years ago I developed a calculator which computes theoretical future population numbers from assumed starting calculation numbers and factors like length of generations, birth rates etc. It cannot adequately factor in unknown and unpredictable events like plagues, wars, etc. due to complexity and my own ignorance on those subjects. I also know that there is some error in the math, that skews the results by a generation or two, and I have not been able to figure out where the error lies, and have given up trying, I have more important things to do. However, if you would like to speculate and experiment with the calculator, using your own chosen assumptions, I have decided to publish the calculator as it is. While it is imperfect, I beleive it does demonstrate that the young earth model is more feasible that the ancient earth model, based on math and what we know about population growth and statistics, if the interests you at all, have fun by: clicking here. (http://omegazine.com/population/populationpredictions/populationpredictions.htm) Edit: As I write this on July 5th, 2021, the above link is not functional, but there is an archive of that page at: http://web.archive.org/web/20150227203333/http://omegazine.com/population/populationpredictions/populationpredictions.htm Below were 10 Responses to the original posting of “On the significance of the age of the Earth”: shawn Says: March 9th, 2009 at 11:16 am This is such an unfortunate topic for Christians. I am a believer in Yeshua. I also believe that Rome High jacked Christianity and changed it into what ever they wanted. Not only did they change the Shabbat to the day they worshiped the sun, as well as a great many other holy days, but they also changed the relationship between the Torah and science. In Judaism the Torah and modern science go hand in hand. Many of the great Jewish sages hundreds of years ago calculated the age of the universe to be 13 billion years old and they did this using the same bible that christians use to say the earth is only 6000 years old. Because Rome high jacked christianity and changed a great many of things we have not only lost great spiritual gifts but we have also lost a most basic understanding of our natural universe that the rabbi’s have until this very day. If you want to rectify the bible and science you dont need to try and debunk science, science is from Hashem. Science is good, it is our roman inheritance of the hatred of science that is bad. Rome hated science because they hated any opposition to their views on how to interepret the bible. But if we take back what rome stole from us, our Israelite heratige as christians, then we will finally be able to rectify not only science but also a great many spiritual gifts and understandings that were stolen from us. Blessing to you and your community in the name of Yeshua HaMashiach our Rabbi. josiah Says: April 6th, 2009 at 7:35 am hi..My name is Jos , from new zealand and im 38 years of age, currently studying at otago unversity in new zealand. I disagree with some of your statements, and would like to offer a rebuttal.I dont think this is a unfortunate topic, nor do i agree with your quote that it is irrelevant..I quote from your text “Personally, I believe the age of the Earth as it relates to an unbeliever is of little significance, and is usually either an excuse not to believe, or is a way of avoiding the important topic of the unbelievers salvation. As a believer addressing this issue with an unbeliever, I will point out that there are believers that hold both positions and that the real topic of concern is whether Jesus came to Earth, died for our sins, and was resurrected on the third day. That is the belief upon which our salvation rests, and any other topic pales in importance” If you look into the historical context, to the unbeliver, the church has always suppresed the formation of scientific ideas formed from observation and interpretation of the results.This is why we had “dark ages” and why they are called “dark ages”. Christians are all too happy to accept the material benifits of technological and scientific endevour, such as internet, computers, carpets and the lightbulb but when it comes to facing up to the questions asked by the scientific community, most immediatly go into ostritch mode and pretend they dont exist until the thing goes away. but the thing doesnt go away, and now all the things that havent gone away are taught as scientific fact to your children.I dont have any children, so that why i say your children. I am a christian – that is i belive and try to adhere to the teachings of Jesus of nazereth and his disiples.I belive Jesus of nazereth is the son of God. I belive he died on our behalf for my sins and wrongdoings against God, and by accepting his sacrifice on my behalf i will have eternal life with him in The presence of God the Father and The holy spirit and all the Angels and others who have believed as i do. I also belive that the law and the prophets, the old testament was inspired by God and in some books directly transmitted by God Orally to Moses, such as the book of Genesis. I belive that the interpretation of the words of Genesis is literal, that is creation took 6 literal 24 hour periods.I am also a scientist. I am currently returned to university to undertake a B.A. in Lingustics, with a minor in Geology. I like volcanoes. i know that the current interpretation of the Geological record is in error. The majority of the Geologic community dissagree with me. some might even go so far as to say that i am misguided, or quite simply a religous nutter.you can imagine that someone with views like mine goes down in academic circles like a lead balloon at a party.lol. But there are flaws in the theory of geologic time, that can be found. The truth points to itself. Its time for us to admit we don’t know all the answers, nor should we pretend too.This is the crux of what scientific method or reasoning is about -to quote websters dictionary… “principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses..” but i do belive we should tackle these problems with Faith in the Lord Jesus christ as our guide, pray for guidance, and look for credible scientific evidence to support the creation story and present this to everyone freely for discussion and debate because surely as eggs are eggs if we dont try to answer the hard questions, and tackle the problems presented by the current view of the community at large for a old earth and no God, why should people resonably listen to us when we try to share our beliefs? And as you can see currently in the textbooks of any mainstream high school, the Devil is not lax. What makes us different from the ten-thousand other wacko’s with thier own take on The metaphysical universe? I personally dont belive, although i may be wrong, that Paul the apostle, who was a learned man would agree with your arguement, but putting it in context, he said” i count it all as loss for the gospel,” yet he reasoned with men, trying to win them over to the gospel by showing them thier errors in logical thinking as well as christian works of good deeds, and living at peace with all men as far as possible. I hope you take my argument to heart and consider it. afterwards, you may still belive that i am wrong.I would like to hear your thoughts. jos..11.35, 6th april 2009. Omegaman 2.0 Responds: April 10th, 2009 at 12:31 am Hi Jos, I don’t think I have anything to disagree with there, and yet my mind has not changed. How is this possible? I am an apologist, I believe in being ready always to give and answer for the hope that I have. Does my hope lie in the age of the earth, or in questions like “how could all the animals fit on the ark”? My hope lies in a risen savior. That is what I am supposed to defend. I am a young earther personally, but I find that giving answers to defend that view to be a poor investment in time. I have those answers, and answers for the animals on the ark etc. How about the existence of God? Yes, I can defend those too. I have spent hours at a time doing so many times, and in my experience, all I end up doing is convincing people that I am more knowledgeable than they first believed, and that I actually have some good points. Good for my ego, but not worthwhile. That is all well and good, if my task is to win debates, but I think it more important, to win souls. So, I may have not been clear on my comments, by not being thorough enough in my explanation. My point is, that Christians can go round and round debating the age of the earth themselves, the topic is not relevant to unbelievers from our point of view if it does not move them closer to a decision. I think that these kind of doubts, shared by believers and unbelievers alike, distract us from the real issues. If a person is curious about how I can hold a young earth view, I will make my response in as brief and yet convincing way that I can, but I am going to change the topic to the gospel as quickly as I can – the heart of what I am called to defend. What I find is, that as soon as I defend the early age of the earth, the subject will then go: “what about the animals”, I answer and the subject then goes “what about all the contradictions in the Bible”, and so on and so on and so on. Games of "what about" and "what if", are the ploys of one who seeks to win a debate, not one who wants to ponder the issues. Paul described a type of person that would exist in the last days: ” They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. – 2 Tim 3:6-7 NIV I do not want to enable anyone to remain in that category – merely always learning. I want to attempt to get them to acknowledge the truth. In as much as Jesus instructed the disciples: “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town.” - Matt 10:14 I take it He meant that we need to be wise, not wasting time casting our pearls before swine, but instead, moving on to greener pastures, where the sheep know they need a shepherd. Lest you still miss my point, I was not trying to say that the age of the earth is of no relevance, and certainly your point about Christians needing to have credibility is a valid one. However, most of the people that the normal Christian encounters, are not scientists, are not familiar with the research nor the scientific method. For the average Christian to try to convince the average unbeliever on the topics in early Genesis, is very difficult. After all, if that person is swayed by science, he will most likely automatically ignore the opinion of a Christian, who is not a scientist normally, and favor the opinion of an actual expert. If he is not swayed by science, then you are wasting your time anyway, as he will not listen to either one of you. Remember, even Christians disagree on the topic, so, I would rather move on to the topic all Christians agree on, the person of Jesus Christ, the center of our faith and hope. To quote you: “I like volcanoes. i know that the current interpretation of the Geological record is in error. The majority of the Geologic community disagree with me. some might even go so far as to say that i am misguided, or quite simply a religious nutter.you can imagine that someone with views like mine goes down in academic circles like a lead balloon at a party.” I believe you, and I believe the the unbelieving world get that. If you cannot convince your colleagues, I am not sure how successful you will be with those who are more willing to believe them that you. Now in the context of academic circles, I believe these topics are critically important. I am just referring to the day to day encounters of believers, who spend time in debates that cannot be won, because in those debates, it is not the truth that matters to some, the only thing that matters to them is to win, or, in some cases to not lose, and therefore remain comfortable in their unbelief. In as much as there are Christians who believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, who came and died for our sins, that we might be forgiven and have eternal life, who also believe that the Bible is the inerrant and inspired word of God and who also believe in an ancient earth and a lengthy creation process, I have little desire, nor do I see much benefit, to devoting too much time to topics that do little to advance the case of Christ. The topic is not related to salvation, and that is why I give it little significance. That is all I meant by that paragraph that you so eloquently and respectfully rebutted. Thank you for taking the time to read my ‘article’ and investing the time to correct me. Omegaman Omegaman 2.0 Responds: April 11th, 2009 at 3:12 am Quoteing Shawn: “In Judaism the Torah and modern science go hand in hand. Many of the great Jewish sages hundreds of years ago calculated the age of the universe to be 13 billion years old and they did this using the same bible that christians use to say the earth is only 6000 years old. ” Do you have any sources for this Shawn, that would be interesting to see. I also cannot fathom that anyone could “calculate” 13 billion years using anything in the Bible. If it was Rome that hijaaked the faith and came up with the 6000 year old calculation, why does the Jewish calendar indicate that it as been 5769 years since the creation? FresnoJoe Says: May 31st, 2009 at 4:05 am The Reason I Must Discount The Speculations Of Various White Coats And Such Is The Record Of Book Of Beginnings And All The References (OT/NT) To My LORD’s Part As Creator And The Accounting Of The Short Lineage Of The Brothers/Sisters From Jesus All The Way Back To The Sixth Day Of Creation “And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,” “Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph,” “Which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esli, which was the son of Nagge,” “Which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Semei, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Juda,” “Which was the son of Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which was the son of Zorobabel, which was the son of Salathiel, which was the son of Neri,” “Which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Addi, which was the son of Cosam, which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Er,” “Which was the son of Jose, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the son of Jorim, which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi,” “Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim,” “Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David,” “Which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Booz, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson,” “Which was th”e son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda,” “Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor,” “Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala,” “Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech,” “Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan,” “Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.” Luke 3:23-38 If One Believes In The Resurrection (After Three Days!) Of The Uncorrupted Physical Body Of Our LORD And Our Savior And The Redemption Of Vile Hateful Sinner Man By The Holy And Pure Blood Of The Lamb Of God Then The Creation Of Life, The Universe And Everything Is Just The Finger Play Of God And Will Be Nothing Compared To The Knowledge Of The Heights Of The Love And The Amazing Grace God Offers To The Sons Of Adam To Folks Such As You And I Love, Joe andrew o'shea Says June 19th, 2009 at 7:04 am: oh the mysteries of God. all will be revealed at the gathering of the saints, children of God who believe in the Son Jesus Christ, Yeshua. people by nature like to argue, that has always been man’s problem and why we have to have wars. It is by faith we believe God, a gift He gave us. I had my experience and have never looked back, i believe God. The only thing that matters to me is that i can relate to people the love God has for them that may recieve remission of sins and eternal life, John 14 v 26 the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and bring to our rememberance all the things we have been taught.’ it really doesn’t matter to me how old the earth is rather how much time is left. a great deception of the enemy is to get us to focus on things any thing that distracts from the salvation message, eternal life. we can ask and be told how old the earth is,i did, God bless you all on your journeys, no i wont ‘measure the earth’ i wouldn’t know where to begin. searching scripture i came to approx. 6000 years, think about God’s time line, 7 is a sabbath,mmmm getting close to Jesus return. come Lord come hallelujah, repent and be save God loves us amen Linda Says July 3rd, 2009 at 10:40 pm: Here’s a way to think about the “How old is the earth” question. When God created Adam he created a man. Not baby. Not a child. Simply put…. who is to say that God did not create the earth as an “adult earth”. Why do we think it had to be created in an infant stage? Lean not to our own understanding. Omegaman 2.0 Responds: July 15th, 2009 at 11:16 pm Hi Linda. I believe you are relating an argument often put forth by those who hold to an old earth theory, in answer to those who hold to the idea of an more recent creation on the basis that the universe and the earth appears old, much older than 6000 ears. The young earthers sometimes respond to the that the earth has an appearance of age, because God created it that way, mature as you put it. There answer to that would be that the earth does not just appear mature, it appears worn out. By analogy with adam, it would be like God created Adam with teeth that were worn down, were stained yellow, had cavities and perhaps few missing as well. By this analogy, Eve would be looking in the mirror at her gray hair and wrinkles on her first day, if she had been created with the appearance of age, instead of mere maturity. Many scientists and those who follow their lead, believe the earth worn, not merely mature. While my point was that the whole issue should not given more importance than it merits. That being said, I will give the response that the Old Earthers would give. They would also point out, that if God created the world to look that old, when it was in fact only a few thousand years old, then that would make God a deceiver, as though He was trying to fool people into believing the young earth was ancient, when that is not the case. Personally, I find that to be one of the most powerful arguments from the Old Earth camp. Of course, like most things there are difficulties. While an old earther can state that creating an earth to look old, makes God a deceiver if it is in fact young, does not the old earther have the same dilemma, if the earth is actually old, yet God chose to say it is young in His word? I prefer to accept that the earth is young, doing my best to understand scripture, and maintain that God is not a deceiver, but that some scientists are in error in how they interpret data, and in some cases, maybe they are the deceivers. I could go into details of what I think might be solutions to why the young earth appears old, but that is not the purpose of the post. I am not putting forth an apologetic for a young earth, I am making the point that faith in what God has said, trumps evidence from modern science for believers who think like I do. Sohei Says: August 21st, 2009 at 3:48 am Wasn’t Jesus a Jewish rabbi? Then he was taught same as others, which he didn’t dispute. They say Earth is 5769 years old. I would guess you would have to argue with what Jesus was taught. Sohei, do you have any source material demonstrating that the belief among Jewish rabbis 2000 years ago, was in a young earth of the age you suggest? I don't think Jesus was a rabbi in the way we usually think of the term, I certainly don't see in scripture any indication of formal teaching, but I do suspect, that He would have understood from the scripture, that the earth was fairly recent, and of course being the Creator, He actually knew for certain at some level. winsomebulldog Says March 26th, 2010 at 9:53 am: I’m not positive about how old this post is, but I just wanted to leave a quick comment none-the-less. I have read through several of your posts and find it comforting to encounter another “scientifically minded” Christian. Sometimes, those two things instigate internal battles, and some might even argue that the very notion is an oxymoron. My husband and I cannot, however, change who and what we are. We are intelligent people who respect and appreciate the sciences. We are also Christians. Our faith does, and in truth must, outweigh our intelligence. Our God gave us both the ability to learn and a hunger for learning. Hubby is an engineer and at one time was in the aeronautical engineering program at Perdu University with an eye toward NASA. He has a grasp of physics and math that I cannot even fathom at times. But even he knows that science is nothing more than an effort by finite, fallible humans to define and quantify the unfathomable. Personally, I am willing to admit that there have been times in my life that I found myself struggling to reconcile what my mind wanted to believe and what my faith demanded that I accept. It is very easy, I think, for a scientifically minded Christian to be seduced by all the scientific “evidence.” It can sound so convincing. And Lord knows that scientists these days are very fond of spouting off their theories as if they are in fact scientific laws. (One look at the pervasive THEORY of evolution is evidence of that.) Hubby and I are fond of scientific programming on television and have watched more than a few that dealt with everything from dinosaurs to the big bang theory. How anyone with a critical mind could not see the evidence of the countless suppositions that are made here is beyond us both. We have both concluded that it would be vastly easier to be Christians without a bent toward scientific, critical thinking. But God did not create us that way and so we must both strive to never let our brains override our faith. I have rambled on far longer than I intended. But I really wanted to let you know how much I have appreciated your posts. Thank you for speaking your mind without fear. And thank God for forums like this that allow Christians everywhere to connect and share. God Bless You.
  16. Shabbat shalom, brothers and sisters. This may come as a shock to some, but it really shouldn't take anyone by surprise or cause any consternation. The power doesn't exist in our faith! The power is in the One in Whom we PLACE our faith! That's a VERY important distinction! Faith is often misunderstood because of the difference between how the Greek text used the word "pistis" and how we use the words "faith" and "belief" in English today. There's a notable difference, but the bottom line is that the power of our faith is GOD'S power. It's to be found in the God of the Bible, YHWH, in Whom we place our faith and in Whom we trust! ALL wothwhile and lasting power is to be found in Him, and we do NOT exercise that power at all when we SAY we "exercise faith!" Our God is an AWESOME GOD! Just look at all the things He has made from the tiniest neutrino, quark, or "string" to the vastness of space with the myriads of galaxies, quasars, and nebulae, not to mention the HUGE volumes of empty space! In between these extremes, we see the vast complexity of what we can know as living things, from the tiniest viruses, to the huge whales, from the smallest plankton to the huge redwoods of the forest! When one studies biology and biochemistry and organic chemistry, one will come away with a DEEP appreciation for the intricate ways that ALL of God's creations work together flawlessly to form this vast biosphere in which we live. The fascinating way that the information that describes each species in stored in the DeoxyriboNucleic Acid (DNA) of that species, and how the body of that creature uses this coded information to develop organs, tissues, and fluids is truly amazing! The sheer complexity of any one species and then to compound that with the symbiosis of other life forms is just BEYOND normal comprehension! BRAG ON HIM! (That's what "praise" is.) Make Him STAND OUT from anyone or anything else! (That's what "glorify" is.) BOW THE KNEE before Him! (That's what "worship" is.) And, after all you've done to make Him as AWESOME as you can (and STILL He's greater), both in your eyes and the eyes of anyone to whom you're talking, then realize that you can come to Him and call Him "Daddy!" (That's what "Abba" means.) If that doesn't make your head swim, then you didn't do it right! Try again! Let's say you ask Him for something - anything. Do you really doubt that He could do it for you or give it to you, if He wanted to? The MAKER OF THE UNIVERSE couldn't do your silly little request? Nope. THAT'S not it. What you REALLY doubt is whether such an AWESOME AND RIGHTEOUS God would do it for the likes of YOU! And, you'd be RIGHT to doubt, IF ... YHWH was an exacting God. Psalm 130:3-6 (KJV) 3 If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning. David said and Paul quoted, Romans 4:1-25 (KJV) 1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? 2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. (Psalm 32:1) 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. (Psalm 32:2) 9 Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: 12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. 13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: 15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, 17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. 19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. And, Yeshua` (Jesus) said, Matthew 7:7-11 (KJV) 7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? And, Luke 12:22-32 (KJV) 22 And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23 The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. 24 Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? 25 And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? 26 If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? 27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. 31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. 32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
  17. Thoughts I am hoping that I can give you, some insight into my thought process. I am also hoping to tie together this part of my blog, although I might add to it later. I am going to throw out some ideas here. I am a deep thinker. So before I finally get to the Word studies I want to do, I need to give you an idea of how I think. It us quite a lot today. But that can't be helped at this point. I believe that a person's worldview is strongly dependant on a mixture of background, education and personality. I also think that a lot depends on how you build trust. One is especially inclined to trust your own eyes. And many people, quite correctly I think, initially trust their parents (unless your parents were abusive or absent). It is something I don't think we can prevent. We are so vulnerable that we can't ever entirely depend on ourselves, so we are forced to look for outside help in order to survive. And we are forced to belong to something or Somone or we will be alone. I have gone deep into existialist thinking, pondering why life is what it is. And whether what we see is really real. I did this all on my own. No one told me to ask these questions. They just came up as a result of my natural curiosity. I find that there is a lot of competing ideas in the world. Many with more merit than what we might want to admit. And it doesn't usually take us long, when growing up, to realise that there are choices to make. And the question I have often come to ask myself is: on what basis do I trust what I trust? I know the Holy Spirit leads us to truth. But at the time it happened I could not have known that it was the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, we are far too easy to fool. Our knowledge is always limited, even when we do actually have a little knowledge. We walk around with biases which are based on experience and impressions. And both can mislead us. So can feelings. So can intelligence. I often find I need to try to take myself outside my biases and try to consider reality objectively. I don't often succeed . I have rarely been able to shake the feeling that my faith in God has a lot to do with the fact that it is the culture I grew up in. So I've always felt the need to be able to verify what I believe with what I see around me. I guess that's what Romans 1 is talking about. Therefore I have, in the past, done my best to check my assumptions. Down to the most basic assumptions. Even asking myself if there is truth. And the interesting thing is that once I was done with the process of examining my assumptions, I realised that I found the Christian faith the most consistent with the reality as I am able to see it. To me, this was an important breakthrough. So then I realised the Bible must be true. I suppose that was also the Holy Spirit guiding me in the right direction. So then I made the decision that I would make Scripture the basis for what I understand to be true. I would only believe something is true if it didn't clash with Scripture in any way. It would act like a filter for what I could accept. But there is a basic problem with this. The Bible requires interpretation. But I'm long jumping the gun. Before this realisation, after my initial childhood experience with children's Bibles, I started reading the Bible in my early teens. And at first I had very little input to tell me how to read it. So I generally accepted it as literal because I had no reason to see it otherwise. But as I grew older, got saved and started following the Holy Spirit's guidance, I came to realise that it isn't always that simple. There are some things that need further reading, there are translation issues, there are things that need to be inferred and also there are things that are true that aren't necessarily said in Scripture. I'll be quite honest that much of what I learned early on was a mix of considering my dad's position on things (he can be very persuasive, being a rhetorician) . Other influences on me are classical writtings, my grandmother, authors like C.s Lewis and G.k Chesterton, and the Charismatic church movement that I was part of. Also, of course, the friend who led me to the Lord and acted as my source of information for quite some time. More recently I find I like Tim Kelly, and Tim Mackie from the Bibleproject. On Facebook I know a guy called Objective Believe and he impresses me with his clever reasoning, although I am also convinced that one can make good arguments for things that are actually false (another result of experiences I've had) . On the one hand I find I am open to hearing from a wide variety of people because I'm going to filter what they say anyway. I often talk to God about what I hear long afterwards, in order to help understand things better. It helps if I can see that the person cares. It's easier to trust someone who shows true compassion and gentleness. On the other hand, I just don't do blind faith.. I don't put limits on where truth will come from, but I do still use my best understanding of the Scriptures to filter what I hear. At this stage, I am again in the process, of rethinking who and what I should believe. Not around the basics. More around hearing God, hearing the Holy Spirit, what choices to make and where to stand on important issues. I have some frustrations in my church due to these questions I have. They are not helping me at the moment. I am thinking about what my next moves should be, given my circumstances. And I want my decisions to be based on faith rightly applied. I feel that so much of what I have been taught could be wrong and it scares me. I try to push that away. Ignore my misgivings. But I can't anymore. When I get scared I withdraw. I'm especially weary of manipulation. If I'm going to believe, what someone claims is biblical, it should be able to stand on it's own. My way of reading and studying Scripture is pretty simple. I mean, unless something is obviously meant not to be literal, I accept the most obvious meaning of the text. Given what I've said here I have a few great needs at the moment. I have great need for healthy fellowship. I often feel alone. My friends are mostly living elsewhere, my church is filled with a lot of people I struggle to relate to (and I really have tried to relate to them) and my current occupation means I spend most of my time at home. My second need is to have some sort of direction for my life and for breakthroughs in terms of my career and financial position. A serious prayer need. But probably my biggest need is the need to seek God's overall direction for my life. And especially for how I use my time, since I have so much of it. I need to be dure I am the best I can be for Him. And that is why I've also had to rethink how to pproach my online presence. This includes how I spend time on Worthy and this then led me to the need to do this Bible study. Also I will be trying my best to broaden my involvement in more threads (but I can't promise anything yet) and to make the most of the fellowship side. I have some plans. They will soon be revealed. Comments and questions are welcome.
  18. This blog is intended to lead to a kind of Bible study and an expression of my thoughts. Therefore I think it necessary to explain something of how I got where I am today. There are certain realities that are a result of the country, town and culture I live in and I will explain that at a later stage. Yesterday I mentioned that my father is a theologian. He is also been a minister in the church for many years. My whole family was in the Dutch Reformed Church, one way or another. South Africa has always been very religious and the government of the time were strongly tied to this church and so many people from my culture grew up in it. To understand more about it I suggest you read this article: Now you might note from this that the DRC was split into groups. Unfortunately, this also included racial segregation. At first I used to go to Sunday school. And now and then I would go to these massive towering churches (many are hundreds of years old). At times i found this rather impressive. But mostly to be honest, I found myself being bored. I didn't understand most of what we were taught. And I didn't feel ready to ask. My father's approach to teaching me and my brother about God was to let us find out for ourselves. This is mostly a good thing, but the down side of this is that I felt I could not really approach him. He always seemed busy. My dad has never been that comfortable around young children. He is rather reserved and tends to be busy with academic pursuits all the time. He is rather a laid back person, but he loves philosophising and reading and therefore can sometimes be caught up in his own mind. Even today this is true. Furthermore, I found that the other kids in Sunday school had very little interest in what was being taught and weren't living it out. In fact, it seemed to me that going to church was just one more even in everyone's week. Most people were not actively involved in the church, and many didn't seem to believe what was being said. It felt stiff and cold. As a result (and due to other factors I will talk about later) by the time I was 12, I decided I wasn't going to go to church except on special occasions. I did sometimes visit my grandparents (also a story for another day) and when I was with them I would always go to church. The next year, my mother decided to address the situation. This is quite ironic because my mother doesn't go to church at all. I think she felt I needed the socialisation. She is very open minded and tends to be less strict about beliefs (most people here would describe my parents as liberal, btw) Now, her brother (my uncle) was, at that stage, in a charismatic church called Vinyard Christian Fellowship. My mother took me to this church hoping my uncle's presense would help me commit to it. I immediately noticed how diferent it was. I guess I was also a bit older and able to understand better. But the people were friendly, less stiff and more open than any church I had been to at that point. I just felt a lot more welcome. So I stayed. At this point, remember, I hadn't become a Christian yet. I believed in God but I didn't really know him. I finally got saved on 7 October 2000 while I was still in this church. I was led to the Lord by a friend in school. He reached out to me and started answering my many questions. He was in another church and at that point I was so used to the charismatic church. And in 2002, I felt led to join the church my friend was in. My current church, Shofar Christian Church. Now, except for a year between 2015 and 2016, I have been a full-time member of the church since then. It fitted me like a glove. And suddenly i had a spiritual home. The big difference to me, is that I felt like people really did their best to live out what they believed. It wasn't just something they did on Sunday. They see themselves as the church and so everyone gets actively involved. Now, my parents being, in one sense, very liberal, don't believe most of the Bible is literally true. On the other hand, they have not always approved of my church membership and it was especially tough when I got baptised, since that means I renounced the sprinkling I received when I was a baby. There's a lot more to this story. But I think this covers the gist of it. This, I hope, will really help you to see where I'm coming from. But I think I also need to explain something of my cultural context. South Africa has a very particular dynamic and in also, I had a very particular upbringing. I hinted at this here but will expand on it more in further entries.
  19. I was hit by the deterioration of a terrible bone disease that was made worse by ingesting certain foods and medication. This happened after I'd already gone through many terrible trials in my life. I had turned toward studying Christianity and thought that maybe there was some guidance from a certain place. And then my health situation both mentally and physically collapsed so brutally. This time it felt like it shattered my trust in a God. Because it felt so arbitrary and cold and mechanical. I had just turned toward Christianity when this happened. I also cried and shouted that Jesus may help me but I felt no response. How do you maintain your trust given these seemingly horrible arbitrary sequences of events happen to some of us? It just seemed to me that a loving God would have helped me up and guided me in that situation but instead there was just blind cold forces of physics. How could I regain some trust and faith ; how do you succeed at that?
  20. How do we have hope in heaven as believers in the world that we live in?
  21. Here is just a question along with my thoughts, that I would love to get answers to! I know that a lot of places in the Bible say do not put the Lord your God to the test. However I found a verse Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there maybe food in my house, and try me now in this,"says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. Now I realized that this is a different kind of testing. We see here that God is asking us to test him. I also realized it was talk about offerings. Now I kind of question is this kind of testing by faith that makes it different from the other type of testing? There are two stories I would like to contrast First one When Jesus was tempted by Satan, Satan told him if he was the son of God to turn the stone into bread. But Jesus replied to Satan you shall not put the Lord to the test( I am not quoting the same exact thing, just keeping it general). Now in this story we know that it's kind of absurd to ask God to turn stone into bread ( not saying that that can't happen). Obviously God was there with a purpose and Satan was to deter him. So in this case it would be like when Satan again tested him by telling him to throw himself and that God will send his angels to save him! The way I understood this kind of testing is putting yourself in a situation on purpose to ask God to get you out would be testing God! which is wrong! Now the second story We read about this man named Gideon. An Angel approched him telling him he will save isreal at of the hands of the midianites. Now keep in mind that a lot of the times it says the Lord spoke to Gideon...so Gideon decided to put the Lord to the test three times. First one was when the Lord set fire Gideon's offerings. The second time was when the Lord made a dew on the fleece and not seen on the ground. The third one was vice versa. So my thinking here is Gideon asked him or tested him so that he could have faith in him and be encouraged. However, if we were to test God the way Gideon did in which kind of situations are we allowed? What are your thoughts on the difference between these two? If possible use examples? Thank you and God bless! Your brother in Christ Keny
  22. Greetings, I've always had a question about the word 'faith'. What does it mean to have faith in someone. Is it just having faith that they were real? Is it that you have faith in what they did, so you do it also? Can somebody help me understand this word... faith? Thanks in advance.
  23. I am new but I need to find someone to talk to. I hope I don't overshare. My son and his girlfriend live with me. They have a child together, my granddaughter. They have lived with me for about 10 months. Before that they were homeless, living out of my son's truck. I don't agree with his decisions, but with her being pregnant and they were not in safe circumstances, I decided to ask them to live with me. It has been very rocky at times both between me and them and them between each other. I have had to talk her off of the precipice of self-harm several times. There have been some minor instances of physical "interaction" between them as well. All this to say I am looking for advice, admonishment, encouragement, Etc. My siblings and parents are very supportive but I feel like I need some third party perspective sometimes.
  24. Is "Son of God" a really best Christian Movie of 2018? that describes the life of Jesus Christ according to The Bible and the principles of Christianity.
×
×
  • Create New...