Atheism’s Blind Faith

Atheism’s blind faith

Dear friend, I hope this letter finds you well and I hope you are enjoying the signs and sights of spring all around you. As the trees and grass “wakes up” I hope you will pause and truly consider what has to happen for trees and plants to go dormant and then reawaken each year at the proper time. Think about what they have to do in order not to freeze and the built in timing mechanism they possess. Did these complex processes happen by mere chance?

blind faith atheism

Do you have a blind faith or is it built upon evidence?

You mentioned that you consider religion and faith just a crutch for the weak-minded. You argued that intelligent people believe in naturalism and evolution—which you said could be proven. Let’s consider your argument for just a moment. I will grant you that some people find solace, peace, and comfort in their belief in God. Life can be tough sometimes, and a strong faith helps a person navigate safely though pain and suffering. (Crutches can be good for those who are healing an injury.)

However, your point was meant to be more derogatory, so let’s address that. While the mainstream media rarely reports it, there are literally thousands of men and women with advanced degrees who believe in God and the creation account. (see https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Lists_of_creationist_ scientists or http://www.ideacenter.org/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/1207 or https://answersingenesis.org/bios/). In fact, most of the fields of science you now embrace were actually founded by men who held a firm belief in God and the Bible. An honest person could hardly call Isaac Newton a pseudo-scientist—and yet, he wrote strong papers refuting atheism and defending creation and the Bible. Newton once said, “I find more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible than in any profane history whatsoever.” (See Wilmington’s Guide to the Bible, 1981, P. 797).

But let’s consider faith for just a moment. You try and assume an intellectual high-ground because you say my beliefs are built on faith. Yet, you fail to recognize you entire worldview hinges on a massive amount of faith. Consider these truths:

1. No one witnessed (or can recreate in a laboratory) the Big Bang, so it must be taken on faith.

2. No one has witnessed living material evolving from non-living material (or can recreate it in a laboratory), so it must also be taken on faith.

3. No one can explain where the original matter for the universe arose from (or can create matter from nothing or anti-matter), so this too must be taken on faith.

4. No one can adequately explain the origination of males and females through the process of evolution, so this must be accepted as blind faith.

5. No one can explain the design witnessed in the Universe and human body while at the same time denying a designer.

All of these facts require faith on your part. Faith that the Big Bang is real and happened. Faith that living material can arise from non-living material. You rely on the scientific method that says that something must be observable, measurable, and repeatable. Newsflash: The Big Bang is not observable, measurable, or repeatable. Most textbooks promote this idea, saying that if we cannot measure something using the scientific method (using your five senses) then it is an illusion. Where does that leave God—Whom the Bible describes as a spirit (John 4:24)?

Anyone who has spent any time at all studying philosophy or logic can understand that while a Supreme Being may not be proven in a laboratory using the scientific method, the laboratory’s very existence is proof for His existence. Consider this simple logic: It is a self-evident truth that something cannot come from nothing. Since something now exists, this indicates that something has existed forever. That means something is eternal— meaning it has always been here. This is simple logic—something exists today, thus something has always existed.

The question is, what has eternal properties? Evolutionists would have students believe that the Universe is eternal, however you probably already know that does not fit the scientific data. We know today that the Universe is expanding, which is a clear indication it had a beginning. The only logical conclusion is that God is eternal and He was responsible for the creation of the Universe.

So, back to your argument: You laugh saying my worldview requires faith, and yet your worldview requires faith to believe in a Big Bang. You also must have faith to believe in life from non-living inorganic matter. So really, which theory requires more faith? Brad Stine once mused: “Who is more irrational? A man who believes in a God he doesn’t see, or a man who’s offended by a God he doesn’t believe in?”

I hope you will think on these things. Until next time, I continue to pray for you.

– Brad

Posted in Brad Harrub | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Atheism’s Blind Faith

Even on a Desert Island the Truth is Simple

Even on a Desert Island the Truth is Simple

Sometimes great truths can be taught by using the most simple thoughts. This is why both Old Testament prophets and even Jesus employed objects and stories to illustrate great truths. The following story is far from being equal with those, but perhaps it will help us understand the truth about the church Jesus built and the religious division in our world.

simple truth

Knowing God and His salvation is simple.

Imagine a man, isolated on a deserted island, who finds a Bible which has washed ashore. He begins reading it and is so fascinated. There is much he struggles to comprehend, but he learns what this book taught about the origin of man and the earth. He learns about a holy God who expects His creation to obey Him, punishes those who turn away and rewards those who obey Him. He learns of God making a great nation of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and sending prophets to tell that nation that someday a great One would come to deal with all of man’s sinful disobedience.

An amazing thing happens. These words are powerful, and he begins to believe these truths. He has a simple faith which comes from hearing the simple truth. As he reads more, he finds that the great One came—His name was Jesus. He died. He was raised. He ascended back to heaven and left men on the earth to show a new way and established the church.

The man’s faith grows. He changes his life, and he is immersed so that God will wash away all his sins. He worships like those apostles taught men to worship. He lives by the moral precepts they taught. Because he did what those twelve men taught others to do to become members of the church, he does what they did, and God adds him to that church.

This story is not an actual event, but if the Bible is from God and is written in such a way that a common man can understand it, it could happen. That Bible this man found was from God, and God fulfilled the promises He made to those who would seek to find Him, hungering and thirsting after righteousness.

Now imagine that man being rescued and coming into our world. He would learn of churches begun by the Pope, Luther, Wesley, Calvin, Smith, Russell, and other churches based on ecclesiastical hierarchy. He would readily see how different they were from the simple church Jesus started. He would struggle to see the many “faiths” on which these churches were built, but he knew where his faith came from. He had the same faith as those taught by the apostles, and he was so glad the circumstances in his life had taught him the simple truth.

Does this story interest you? Would you like to know more? Let’s talk. We are like that man who seeks to build our simple faith on the One who came years ago.

Posted in Dan Jenkins | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Even on a Desert Island the Truth is Simple

The Cycle of Vengeance and Mercy

The Cycle of Vengeance and Mercy

There is an unfortunate cycle to vengeance. One man hurts another, so the second retaliates to hurt the first. The newly injured party, rather than feeling that all things are even, likewise strikes back. And so it frequently goes, back and forth, with neither the better for the injuries.

Vengeance cycle

Who benefits from the vengeance of man?

Jeremy Taylor once observed of revenge that it was “like a rolling stone, which, when a man hath forced up a hill, will return upon him with a greater violence, and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion.”

Biblically, believers are enjoined to forgo vengeance and revenge, remembering always that the Lord says, “vengeance is mine, I will repay (Deuteronomy 32:35; cf. Romans 12:19).” Learning to leave such matters in God’s hands frees us from this cycle and likewise reminds us that God will bring all matters into judgment, rendering to each man according to their deeds (cf. Ecclesiastes 12:14; Romans 2:6).

More than just letting things slide, however, God actually calls us to go one step further. Some might be content to merely hold a grudge for years without retaliation, and others might think that a mere lack of action shows a certain amount of piety, but the true man of God seeks to actively show mercy.

In the beatitudes, Jesus calls His disciples to consider the importance of mercy in His Kingdom and in His followers, teaching, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy (Matthew 5:7).”

The beatitudes are a description of the qualities necessary to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven, a verbal picture of what it means to be a Christian, and a short list of some of the qualities necessary to find salvation through Christ. Mercy is certainly one of those necessary qualities, and without mercy, the Scriptures make it clear that men will not find salvation. The words of Christ also serve to remind us that just as vengeance can be cyclical, so too is there a cycle to mercy.

When we think of mercy, the first and most obvious application of mercy is that of forgiveness. Just as Jesus prayed on the cross, concerning His persecutors, “Father forgive them (Luke 23:34),” so too did He teach His followers to forgive all who trespassed against them.

When we pray, Jesus taught us to pray, “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors (Matthew 6:12; ESV),” and further taught in that connection, “if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matthew 6:14-15; ESV).” Jesus additionally taught that a lack of forgiveness would itself bring judgment upon us (cf. Matthew 18:35).

If we wish for God to forgive us, we cannot afford the luxury of grudges or the temporary satisfaction of vengeance but must instead learn how to forgive others.

Yet mercy is more than just the act of forgiving others. The mercy God teaches goes further, showing compassion, empathy and kindness to others. When the Pharisees failed to show these qualities in their interactions with others, Jesus reminded them of the passage which taught, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13, 12:7; cf. Hosea 6:6).”

As opposed to seeking vengeance, God teaches us, “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for so you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22; ESV; cf. Romans 12:19-20)” By doing so, we will “overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).” This active kindness is the true sign of mercy: treating others well regardless of what they may or may not deserve.

There is no better way to break a cycle of animosity and vengeance than through the proactive application of love and kindness. Moreover, not only will doing this please God, but it has the added bonus of potentially starting a different cycle: one of love and kindness. Imagine how much more pleasant life would be if more people were trying to pay back the kindness of others by themselves being kind. Such a life would truly be blessed.

 

Posted in Jonathan McAnulty | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The Cycle of Vengeance and Mercy

Coronavirus Prayer

Coronavirus Prayer

We all know that “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (Jms. 5:16). We know that God hears and answers the prayers of His children (Matt. 7:7-11). Even when they are so weak, weary, and without hope that they no longer know how or what to pray for, God still: hears them, helps them, and gives them the strength to bear up and come bursting through their worst of conflicts as more than conquerors in Christ (Rom. 8:24-39).

prayer corona

His purpose is not yet fulfilled.

It obviously goes without saying that many of us are praying daily for a very swift and sudden end to this Coronavirus chaos so that we can get back to life as “usual.” But because we have yet to see many real and positive results from those prayers, we may be tempted to think that God is either not listening like He said He would, or that our prayers as His blood-bought children are not reaching Him for some reason. If you are living in accordance with His word as much as you possibly can and know how, but have grown a bit weary and/or ready to give up praying because of a lack of seeing any real, positive, tangible results over this (or anything else for that matter), then understand this: Whenever you are seeing no positive results in response to your prayers, it does not mean that God is not listening; it simply means that God’s purposes have not yet been accomplished.

Do you remember the souls of the saints, slain for their faithfulness, who cried out from under the altar, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth” in Revelation 6:9-10? God’s answer?It was going to be “a little while longer,” because all He wanted was not yet “completed” (vs. 11). What about the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10? He repeatedly prayed that his “thorn in the flesh” would be removed. God apparently heard His prayer because He responded to it. But He did not remove Paul’s thorn because He had something far better in mind for him at the time.

Finally, there is Jesus – the perfect, sinless, flawless Son of the living God. He also prayed fervently and repeatedly that God might find another way for Him other than the cross (Matt. 26:36-44). We know without a doubt that God heard His prayers -according to Scripture (Heb. 5:7-8). But we also know that no matter how difficult the ordeal He would have to endure (Heb. 12:1-3), that God had millions of reasons why He simply could not answer His only begotten Son’s heartfelt prayers “yes” at the time… and you were one of them (Rom. 5:6-11; Gal. 3:26-27).

Aren’t you grateful that our Father in heaven is wise enough, and loving enough, to know when to say ‘No,’ or, ‘You must wait just a little while longer,’ in order to accomplish His purposes, whatever they may be? Then pray on without ceasing brethren – and just trust Him like Jesus did! Do yourself a huge favor: Take a moment right now to read Isaiah 40:26-31 and see just how true these things are! God bless!

 

Posted in Doug Dingley | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Coronavirus Prayer

Honor Your Mother

Honor Your Mother

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth” (Ephesians 6:1-3). The command “honor your father and mother” was one of the Ten Commandments given by God (Exodus 20:12). It includes both the concepts of obedience of children and caring for wizened parents. Jesus made this latter point in Mark 7:9-13. The Pharisees thought that by giving their money to the temple, they would be excused from taking care of their parents. They were wrong. Jesus taught that the commandment applied just as much to our elderly parents.

Honor to those it is due, is not something for only one phase of life.

On mothers’ day, we show respect for our mothers by praising their role as child bearers. For those who have reared children, we acknowledge their dedication and sacrifices, but mothers are not perfect, even the most saintly sins. The first mother brought sin into the world, yet she was honored with the title: the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20). Jesus died for his own mother’s sins, but He honored her by appointing the apostle John as her guardian (John 19:26-27). We should honor our mothers despite their faults; Jesus certainly did.

Some are fortunate to have their mothers nearby where they are available to have an everyday relationship. Other mothers are not so near and are celebrated when opportunity arises. Yet other mothers have passed on and are no longer with us, but their life and memories may yet be honored. God’s command to honor our father and mother, however, isn’t about superficialities, but a manner of living that extends to every day of the week. May God bless our mothers, and may our mothers be godly.

 

Posted in Kevin Cauley | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Honor Your Mother