The Great Comission to Nations

      Matthew 28:19-20 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
     God has commanded us to preach the Gospel to every creature but He has also told us to disciple nations. There are three things that I would like to point out that we can conclude from the command to teach all nations.
     First, Christianity transcends nations. While countries come and go the church remains. One hymn puts it this way:
                  Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
                  But the Church of Jesus constant will remian,
                  Gates of hell can never 'gainst that Church prevail;
                  We have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail.
      Second, God sees people as being parts nations. Many in the world want to minimize national patriotism and instead replace it with alliegence to the earth. There are also some in the Church who do not want to think much of their national citizenship. While we are subjects of Christ's Kingdom, we still ought to love and be loyal to our own nation just as we should love our earthly family even though we are part of God's family which is far more important. God is the one who established governments and divided mankind into nations at the tower of Babel.
      Third, the preching of the gospel should have an effect on a nation as a whole. All the people in any earthly nation will probably never be saved but the commands of Christ and God's power will affect an entire nation when the great commission is carried out. The Bible will change the culture of any people who are taught it. The government of a nation will also be affected. A nation cannot follow both God's law and Sharia law.
     While nations are to be taught according to the great commission, we who are Christians are the one's who must do the teaching out of obedience to God.
                 
                    

Of Evolutions, Kinds, and Families



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     According to Richard Dawkins, once upon a time aliens visited a planet we call earth and the seed of life and it has since evolved into numerous kinds of plants and animals.  But, we do not believe in evolution, our God is not a little green man!  He is the God of the Bible, who created the earth about six thousand years ago and has told us about it in His Word. 

     Genesis 1 tells us about God making the various kinds of plants and making them to reproduce after their kind.  It further goes on to describe God making all the animals on days 5 and 6 and causing them to reproduce after their kind.  We see this clearly demonstrated in farming.  There are numerous varieties of wheat and corn, yet they never evolve into another kind of plant.  Also, among cows there are many breeds and some look quite different than others; but they are all cows.  

      Intelligent evolutionists make accurate observations of animals varying and illogically conclude that animals can evolve into new kinds of animals though this is never observed.  As Christians, we also can see animals vary but believe that they must reproduce after their kind as God said in Genesis 1. 

     In Leviticus 19 God forbade the children of Israel breeding their cattle with a different kind.  There is specific application here for scientists and those working with plants and animals. There is also a general principle in the Bible that while life can vary a great degree we ought not to change life into something that is completely different from what God created it to be.  Our churches, governments, and families should follow God's original plan for them.

     The world endeavors to reinvent marriage into something completely different than what God created.  There can be great variety in marriages with different personalities, ages, circumstances, and other things yet we cannot define it differently than God does! When Jesus was questioned about divorce He went back to creation indicating that man ought not to change what God has established. When Paul was discussing the roles of men and women in church he went back to creation presupposing and confirming that we should not change the order God set up.

     

Fruitfulness

     The first command in the Bible, in order of importance, is, "Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength."  The first command in the Bible that you will find if you start reading at the beginning is, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth..." Since this is one of the very first things God told man it must be pretty important.

     It is essentially saying, "have children, have children, have children..." However, as I thought about this it occurred to me that being fruitful refers directly to having one's own children, multiplying is what happens when one's children each are fruitful and replenishing the earth is what happens when this happens for generations. God created mankind to have dominion over the earth but obviously Adam could not do this by himself so God gave him a helper and told him to have children.

     This means that couples ought to desire to have children and actively do their duty. When a couple decides to use any form of birth control to prevent or space children, whether they realize it or not, they are deciding to not obey this command, at least for a time. How many children should one have? All the children that God will give by right means! One should not disobey one of God's principles to have children like Abraham did. Some couples will be barren and some may only have one, but if God gives a couple twenty, that would be great!

     One of the implications of this command is that it is normative for people to get married. Furthermore, if God enables one to be prepared and able, it is better to marry young so there can be more years to have children.  Thomas Malthus (one of the bad philosophers from the 1800's) said that famines, disease, and war were good for mankind because they kept our numbers low. He also taught that couples should marry older so they would have less children. In contrast to this, the Bible speaks of the wife of one's youth and Psalm 127 speaks of 'children of the youth.'
    Just as God blessed man telling him to be fruitful God wants all to come to repentance and become sons of God. God told the apostles to preach the gospel to every creature. They could not tell all the world by themselves but as those they taught teach others the Church can multiply also.

P.S. To whom it may concern: while I enjoy blogging and think that it is a good idea, I feel that it takes some time that I could really use in other things while at the same time I do not think that I'm giving this blog enough time to do it well. Therefore I think I shall cease to post for a time. Perhaps I shall resume sometime in the future.

   

Man's Ideas or God's Word?

     Today we have an increasing number of satellites and people going to space. I assume we have more money being spent than ever and more men working astronomy related jobs. When modern astronomers make calculations they sometimes use a geocentric model and other times a heliocentric one, out of convenience.  From what I can tell, most PhD. astronomers and astrophysicists believe in some relativistic model of the universe.  Though there are some, even that work for NASA, who believe in a geocentric universe.  The general populace though, is taught of a heliocentric solar system.  In spite of this fact, polls show that about 1 out of 5 people in America and Britain believe that the earth does not move.
     We are often given the idea that the battle between belief in a geocentric or heliocentric universe, was fought and settled four centuries ago.  As I've studied though, I have found that even though the general attitude switched from a geocentric to a heliocentric model of the universe after Copernicus and Galileo, ever since the topic has still been debated, and for a couple millenia before that as well. 
     Introductory materials on this topic often contrast Kepler's Renaissance model with the Greek philosopher Ptolemy's geocentric model.  This is somewhat erroneous, because some of the best astronomers at the time of Copernicus were developing current geocentric models and and when Aristotle and Ptolemy were refining geocentrism another Greek astronomer, Aristarchus, developed the first recorded heliocentric model.  Yet, Jason Lisle says Ptolmey's model can predict planetary motion as well as Kepler's. I do not want to bore you with long tales about cosmology through the ages, I do not think it necessary to examine to many details since what people believed does not change reality and also since many of these astronomers were pagan Greeks, Babylonians, Indians, and Muslims.
     Before any of these models of the universe came out, people must have either believed that the earth was stationary while the sun moved or that the earth had motion which caused the sun to appear to rise instead.  I suppose it's possible that they just didn't think anything about it, but I think most of them just assumed that the sun was moving while the earth was still, because unless you are taught otherwise, that is the way things seem to be. 
     When we consider the heavens, we should think, "What is man?"  People form great models and philosophical systems, and then pass away as the grass.  All the while the earth remaineth and the sun and moon continue.  Man thinks he is smart, and studies things out (which he should do), yet we are minuscule beings compared to the universe.  On the other hand, the universe cannot contain God.  Godknows all and God was before there were any heavens or earth, and He only had to speak to create them. 
     As we look at scientific theories throughout history, they are constantly being modified and changed.  The only reason the science of our day appears absolute, is that we may not live long enough to see it change!  The Bible on the other hand, does not change, for God has preserved it and will do so forever.  If we really want to know for certain if the universe is geocentric, heliocentric, or accentric, we need to find what the Bible teaches, if it teaches something on this issue. 
     I've looked at Genesis 1 and I believe it tells of a geocentric universe.  But what does the rest of Scripture say?  Ecclesiastes 1:5 says, "The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose."  If God wanted to tell us that the sun moves around earth, would this not be plain enough?  Did God speak this way because of the people's beliefs while the Bible also tells of so many scientific truths that the people of the time were ignorant of?   If one looks at the verses before and after this verse they are speaking very literally, so what gives us the right to say that this one is not? 
     Psalm 19 says that the sun "is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race."  Is this a good description of a stationary object that you are moving around?  Any races I have seen, the ones racing are the ones moving, while the observers are sitting still.  II Peter 3:5 refers to the earth as standing like as Joshua says the sun stood when it stopped.  The end of Psalm 93:1 says, "The world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved." 
     If you do a simple search in your concordance you can find numerous mentions of the suns motion, while you will find none indicating that earth turns on an axis or moves around the sun. You will also find a few verses which indicate that earth is not moving.  Is it sound hermeneutics to not allow these verses to indicate anything cosmological?
     The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. -Psalm 19:7-9
  
   

'Owr' and 'Maowr'

   After having a conversation yesterday at church about the previous post I thought that I should note a few things.  Before I do though, I'll  admit that I have a very limited understanding of science and even though the scriptures are plain enough for a child to understand they also contain depths which we will never fathom in our lives.
   In our language we use one word 'light' to refer to both the light waves (or particles) and also the point from whence the waves come. Ex. when he turned on the light there was light. This is no problem for we can normally understand the meaning from the context, but in the Hebrew there is two words for light. 'Owr' refers to light waves and 'maowr' refers to the light source.
   The light which God created on day one was 'owr'.  There was light but the source of it 'maowr' was not yet created until day four. All the light we see today has a definite source but obviously God could have used physics we do not know of yet. He could also have worked outside the laws of science which he made.
    God created this light and divided it so that it was light on one side of the earth and dark on the other and thus there could be evening and morning. God could have just caused the light to be divided like that without any point from whence it was coming. Or, He could have had or been a point from whence the light was coming.
    If God was a point from whence this created light was coming, as I postulated in the previous post, He was not shining forth in all His glory in our physical universe or all would have been consumed! God would rather have been sending forth light, without the sun, as He sent forth light with the pillar of fire or the light which caused Moses' countenance to glow on Mt. Sinai.
    Whatever the details are, I don't know enough (perhaps the passage doesn't say enough) to be dogmatic about what I have postulated. I do firmly believe that God created the earth stationary as a center around which the rest of the universe was created. I also believe that the sun is moving and the light did move around earth on a daily basis. The reason for this is that it fits all the scriptures perfectly and is a model which one could derive solely by studying the scriptures while the currently popular heliocentric or acentric models one would never find in the Bible unless he had first found it from some other source. When people decide to operate on human reason over what they think the Bible indicates in any area of life it can lead to serious problems especially over generations.

Cosmology in Genesis

    As we look into the first book of the Bible at the very beginning we read of God creating the heaven and the earth. I was recently reading a booklet by a good man who (I was surprised to find) believes in the gap theory. Part of his argument was that the first two verses cannot be a summery of the creation week but that they fall before the rest of the creation chronologically. I have never seen a gap in these first verses and there is not one there. But, I do agree that this describes God creating the heaven and earth and then the chapter goes on to describe what God did in the rest of that first week.
    At this point in the creation the earth is the central object in the heaven for we read of no other object. The Spirit of God is there though, and He is moving on the face of the dark, unformed, and void earth. God said, "let there be light." and there was light. I think that the source of this light is God Himself for several reasons. First, God divided the light from the darkness just as later the sun divided the light from the darkness. Second, God will be the source of light in the new Jerusalem when they no longer need the sun. Third, the sun is a type of Christ in passages like Malachi 4. Forth, this source of light was all the earth's light throughout all the creation until just before things were created that could see, when it was replaced with the sun. John says, "No man hath seen God at any time." I think God replaced Himself with the sun right then so as not to be seen by any creature on earth. Also, fitting with this, something must have been moving for the morning and evening and God was moving so as He divided the light from the darkness there would be morning and evening. In accordance with this, the Bible speaks of the sun (our current light) rising, going down, and running a circuit.
    On day two we read of God creating the firmament to divide the waters from the waters. Anyone I've talked to just assumes that the earth is near the center of this firmament. I think that one should show that it is otherwise if he is to make a good case against this assumption. But, what's the point if the firmament is our atmosphere? The next place we read of the firmament is on day four when God made the sun, moon, and stars and put them in firmament! If the firmament is where the stars are, then the birds are still inside the firmament just as it says on day five. Am I saying that there is water outside outer space and earth is at the center? Yes! If this is true, then the universe is finite rather than infinite as some have suggested; and there is a center, it is not acentric as many now postulate.

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     At this point we shall move over day three since it seems insignificant to the topic of cosmology. On day four God made the sun, moon, and stars around the earth which already existed. It does not tell us they were even around earth in the center; nor does it tell us otherwise. It would appear (if we knew nothing of cosmology and had just started looking for it in the Bible) that the earth was in the center of the universe and the lights were created for earth and moved around it. I'd like to look at some other topics in Genesis 1, but for now, I'll conclude these thoughts. 

      Genesis starts off telling us of the creation of the universe and it would seem the earth was stable in the center. The rest of scripture fits with this perfectly and reinforces it. I could take time and make history and science fit with this too but is the Bible really that clear? You could certainly take the current teachings about the universe and find the Bible to fit with them too, so can you make a solid case from scripture? Everyone must start somewhere and I'd contend that the Bible should be our starting point on all matters. So often we conform to just what our culture is saying about science, the family, the government, and so much else and then we read the Bible without taking thought that our minds need to be renewed.

Be Ye Transformed

     When David decided to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, he first used an oxcart; similar to what the Philistines had done.  David probably was not intentionally trying to be like the heathen, but simply moved the cart that way because it had been returned to Israel in a cart.  Still, they suffered terrible consequences by moving the Ark that way.  Then David realized how God wanted the Ark to be moved;  and when he did it God's way he had God's blessing. 

     Often, as Christians, we do the same thing in many areas.  We tend to copy the world around us in our music, clothing, finances, view of the family, understanding of the state, and numerous other things. Therefore, God tells us "...be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..."  We should actively be searching the scriptures so we may do all things to the glory of God. 

     One way we do this, is by searching to see what Scripture says about a certain thing.  The Bereans did this when they checked out the teachings of Paul with the Bible.  When we hear the teachings of some man or when we are thinking about some issue, we should think, "What does the Bible say about this?"  And then search and see.  The primary way we study the Bible though, is to simply read the Scriptures, memorize portions, and copy it down.  As we put the Bible in our minds and think about it, the Holy Spirit will teach us things that we should be doing to be conformed to the image of Christ. 

     When one opens the Bible and begins to read, he will first find that, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."  Nevertheless, numerous great Christians of the past and present have unwittingly accepted the world's theories about the age and origins of the earth.  Being conformed to the world in this area has led to terrible consequences.  There were other compromises, though, that led to the acceptance, by Christians, of an old earth.  

     Francis Bacon, who is often credited with formulating the scientific method, believed that one could understand the world, without the Bible.  Galileo Galilei claimed that one can use science to interpret the Bible.  Galileo said the Bible tells us how to go to heaven, but not how the heavens go.  Johannes Kepler said, science is "thinking God's thoughts after Him."  This sounds great, but, it places science as a standard alongside the Bible.  When one has two standards, he must sort out their reconciliation if they appear to disagree.  And thus, his mind is ultimately the standard.  When people accepted the teachings of Copernicus, even though they believed the Bible taught of a geocentric universe, they were then ready to accept science when it supposedly taught that the earth was very old. 

     If we want to not be conformed to this world, but rather be transformed by the renewing of our mind, we aught to hold the Bible as our ultimate authority in every area of life, from science, to various issues of our culture.