God is in Control Today and Always

God is in Control Today and Always

One of the great messages of the Old Testament is that God is in control, and He wants us to trust in Him. Control is an illusion that we tell ourselves that we have. Truthfully, I am in control of only one thing, myself. Even that is limited. Much of my body runs autonomically. I cannot turn off physical pain. My emotions are very hard to control. We are limited in the amount of control we have. Moreover, we often make the wrong decisions regarding the things that we can control, which results in less control. How much better is it to trust God! Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean to your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”God is in control

Trusting God with control of my life removes anxiety, and I can be at peace trusting that God will do what is right. Philippians 4:6-7 says, “In nothing be anxious; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” This verse is about understanding that God is in control. We pray to God because He will actively respond to our requests in the absolute best way. When we trust Him, we will have no worries. This brings great peace, and allows me to understand my identity in Christ Jesus. When I am at peace, and know who I am, my heart and thoughts are perfectly guarded in Christ Jesus. This keeps me in a state of salvation so that I will be ready for Christ’s return.

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Billy and Evolutionary Hoaxes

Billy and Evolutionary Hoaxes

Little Billy cannot remember sitting through his cradle roll class—but make no mistake, he was there. In fact, Billy has been in Bible class every Sunday morning and Wednesday night since before he could even walk.

He can recite many of the accounts in the Bible—especially his two favorites: Noah and the ark, and Daniel in the lion’s den. Having grown up in the church, Billy obeyed the Gospel and was baptized when he was twelve. Even now, at age fourteen he never misses a worship service.Faith, Billy, and Doubt

But Billy is having some nagging feelings about his faith.

It’s not that he doesn’t believe in God, because he does. The problem is that he has never seen God—or Jesus for that matter. And to compound problems, he’s taking physical science this year at school. His science teacher spent an entire month on the topic of evolution, and showed the students pictures of how scientists allegedly know evolution is true.

In fact, Billy’s science textbook contains many pictures that certainly look like they prove evolution. Billy desperately wants to have a faith as strong as his parents’, but those pictures are making it harder and harder to believe that this world was created as it is described in Genesis chapter 1.

Billy could show the pictures to his parents, but he’s not sure how they would react. Would they get mad at his lack of faith? Would they simply dismiss the images? Would he cause them to lose some of their own faith? For several weeks, Billy struggles internally as he “goes through the motions” at his local church. After giving it a great deal of thought, he just decides to do nothing.

To me, the scenario above is one of the scariest for parents. A child is struggling with questions pertaining to his or her faith, and instead of seeking answers from parents, the child simply remains silent—and all the while, his or her faith slowly begins to crumble.

Those pictures with which Billy is struggling are real. The bookshelves in my office are full of biology textbooks that contain many such pictures. The problem is that many of those pictures are dishonest. In some cases, they are of outright frauds. Without an honest explanation, young people are tricked into thinking that the case for evolution is much stronger than it really is.

Let me encourage parents to be proactive.

Talk to your children. Show them the evolutionary icons that we know are false. It is my hope that a proactive approach to some of these hoaxes will prevent your children’s faith from crumbling years from now.

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Whose Reality Will We Accept?

Whose Reality Will We Accept?

Humans have a way of trying to impose their own beliefs on the world and seeking to change it to their own desires. Much of these efforts are denials of what is really real. It is a sure path for failure. What is really real? Ultimately, God is what is real, and when we fight reality, we are fighting Him. Reality isn’t what we want it to be. It is what God wants it to be. Disappointment happens when our expectations don’t match reality. We become disillusioned and may even fall into despair. Some just decide it isn’t worth it to stick around anymore. There is a better way.

Instead of seeking to change the world to match our desires, we should change ourselves to match God’s world. This is God’s message to us in the Bible. Sin is not just “moral” failure; it is a failure of perspective on our place in God’s creation. That’s what Paul is seeking to get across in Romans 1:21: “because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

What happens when the heart is darkened? We try to change reality to conform to our desires instead of conforming our desires to reality. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). When we transform ourselves to God’s will, we prove God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will. That is, we show it, in our lives, to be true. It’s not that God’s will is false if we don’t do this, rather, our own lives are.

God bless you, and I love you.

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A String on Your Finger

A String on Your Finger

I am not sure where the idea originated, but it has been around for decades. If there was something really important you needed to remember, you were told to put a string (or ribbon) on your finger to remind you. I am sure other cultures may have similar figures of speech and times have changed in our world. More recently we talk about putting it on our calendar or putting a reminder on our cell phone.

It is remarkable that the Jews evidently did something very much like this. When Moses gave the law, he told the Jews to do two things to keep God’s word before them. They were to write them on the gates and doors of their houses or to write God’s words and put them in containers and wear these containers on their hands or around their heads, just above their eyes.

Moses said, “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your doors” (Deut. 6:8-9—in the New Testament these containers or frontlets are called phylacteries—Matt. 23:5). They did not put strings on their fingers, they wore them before their eyes.

Evidently, they also wrote words on their hands. Have you not at some time or another used a pen to write important numbers or details on your hand when you could not find paper you might use? Isaiah indicates the Jews did this when he described how and where God wrote His message.

What was that message that was so important that He wrote it down on His hand? It was written in that part of Isaiah where he told the Jews that they were headed for captivity, and he then began to give a detailed description of the coming of the Messiah. When they were in captivity, they might have felt that God had forgotten them. Such was not the case for after the captivity of the Messiah, the suffering Servant would come.

What was that message God wrote? Perhaps if we knew what He wrote it might help us know and understand our God even better. What was that message? Read these words slowly and carefully. “Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands” (Isa. 49:16). God had written the name of His people on the palms of His hand!

God had not forgotten Israel, and He has not forgotten us! It was not a string on a finger—it was your name written on the palm of His hand. As I thought about all of this, I could not help but remember the words of Thomas about not believing in Jesus unless he saw the nail prints in His hand. As you think about the fact that God remembers us, look at the hands of Jesus. Figuratively, your name is beside those wounds in His hands!

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ABEJAS (UNA DULCE DANZA) 

ABEJAS (UNA DULCE DANZA) 

No recuerdo con exactitud cuántos piquetes tenía, pero cuando aún era niño, un grupo de abejas decidió arremeterla contra mí por solamente porque tomé su colmena como tiro al blanco  con un mango (fruta) para saber de qué color eran las abejas. Desde entonces nuestra relación no ha sido buena. En la danza de las abejas el objetivo es comunicar dos cosas: 1) la dirección y 2) la distancia. Cuando existe alimento relativamente cerca, las obreras danzan en forma circular. Existe otra danza que lo que comunica es la distancia como también la dirección. El etólogo Karl Von Frisch es sin lugar a dudas un pionero en estas investigaciones. Este sistema de comunicación, supervivencia y diseño es uno maravilloso uno más de los más asombrosos que existen en el reino animal.

Hay muchas cosas pero considero que lo más sorprendente de la danza es que les dice a las otras abejas exactamente dónde está la comida. La abeja utiliza el sol como punto de referencia. Si la abeja baila en línea recta hacia la derecha, entonces la comida está directamente a la derecha del sol. Si la abeja baila hacia arriba, entonces la comida se encuentra directamente hacia el sol. Si la abeja baila hacia abajo por el panal, entonces el alimento está en línea directa pero lejos del sol. Además, los sonidos que hace la abeja mientras “mueve” su cuerpo de un lado a otro ayudan a las otras abejas a saber a qué distancia está la comida y exactamente dónde encontrarla.

El Creador y Su Palabra

Nunca podré volver a leer  de la misma forma el Salmo 119:103 que compara la dulzura de la palabra de Dios al espíritu del hombre con la dulzura de la miel de las abejas al paladar. El beneplácito que la miel provee al hombre debería de ser suficiente al intentar comprender la razón por la que el creador decide incorporar a estos insectos a nuestro globo terráqueo. Todo lo que es obra de sus manos comparte el mismo elemento de complejidad irreducible, desde la muy diminuta abeja con ojos tan complejos que aún los científicos no cuentan con todos los detalles al respecto, hasta la complejidad del ser humano (la creación más compleja y perfecta de Dios). El creador de las abejas es un ser extremadamente gentil (pues las abejas realizan este baile para avisar a las demás) pero también un ser profundamente humilde que le place ver a otros trabajar en equipo (la colmena funciona como uno solo). De estos rasgos que se encuentran muy bien marcados en el carácter de Dios, de ellos goza la palabra de Dios cuando nos exhorta a trabajar como uno (1Co.1:10-12) pero también a ser bondadosos y gentiles (1Co.13:1-8). La creación se parece a su creador.

Lo que el Diseño en las Abejas Significa

En lógica, en relación a los métodos de deducción, una disyuntiva podría poner punto final a la discusión ya que la misma tiene por regla que si uno es falso la otra es verdadera automáticamente y viceversa. Aplicado a la cuestión de la existencia de Dios, lo único que se necesita es probar que una implicación es falsa, pues si la implicación es falsa también el antecedente lo es. Por ejemplo, entre creación vs evolución (disyuntiva), demostrar que una implicación de la evolución es falsa provocaría dos cosas: 1) Que una de las disyuntivas es falsa y 2) Que la otra automáticamente es verdadera. Sugiero que hagamos el ejercicio.

EVOLUCIÓN

  1. Adaptación de las especies. Las abejas fueron forzadas a evolucionar con la danza y todo lo que observó al profesor Karl incluido su magnífico y complejo ojo.
  2. Implicación. Tuvieron que 1) haber aprendido esa conducta con diseño, 2) haberlo diseñado ellas mismas o 3) salieron así de la nada por la naturaleza.

Por favor, note con atención el panorama que tenemos frente a nosotros. Ahora lo único que tengo que hacer es probar que hay un razonamiento erróneo en la implicación y a través de lo que la lógica le llama Modus Tolles, todo lo demás se viene al suelo… Creo que si usted jugó con trocitos de madera para construir una torre mientras la persona le va quitando un trozo a la vez, siendo la meta no permitir que la torre se caiga, aquí sucede igual. Quitaremos un trocito de esa torre y veremos cómo la evolución se derrumba.

  1. Implicación. Si las abejas, 1) aprendieron esa conducta, ¿Quién le enseñó de ellas aprendieron? Y ahí es donde te damos la bienvenida al razonamiento circular infinito, que no resuelve nada y además no dice nada… 2) si lo diseñaron ellas mismas misma pregunta que la anterior, pero, además admitir que lo diseñaron ellas mismas es admitir un diseño, si se admite un diseño…se admite un diseñador.  Y 3) la naturaleza funciona con diseño. Nuevamente caemos en la corriente del razonamiento circular.
  2. Además, Además de haber respondido a lo que planteaba el enunciado como tal, podría añadir el hecho de que sería imposible la subsistencia de las abejas mismas, pues entre millones de años propuestos por la evolución como una varita mágica que soluciona todo, la especie hubiese desaparecido, de no contar con esta maravillosa habilidad de diseño con la que cuentan.

La implicación ha quedado demostrada como falsa, y por lo tanto, el antecedente (la teoría de la evolución) también lo es. Por la disyuntiva existente, automáticamente el creacionismo queda establecido como verdadero.

—¿Usted cree en Dios? En muchas ocasiones me han preguntado tanto a mí como a usted seguramente. Creer en la existencia de Dios no es un asunto de preferencia, religión, formación en el hogar ni siquiera es una cuestión utópica. Creer en la existencia del Dios de la Biblia, Un creador con poder ilimitado, superior a todo y todos los seres que coexistimos, es la cosa más lógica, brillante y consecuente con la evidencia, que uno pueda creer. Cree en Dios porque la evidencia lo demuestra, pero la razón lo demanda con denuedo.

Conclusión

Las palabras de Kyle Butt de la prensa apologética son precisas al llegar a nuestra conclusión. Este grandioso y experimentado  apologista en su investigación sobre la danza de las abejas escribe lo siguiente: “Este notable “lenguaje de danza” no podría haber evolucionado”. Códigos y lenguajes como este deben haber sido programados en abejas por un diseñador inteligente. La danza de las abejas no solo muestra a otras abejas el camino hacia la comida, sino que también muestra a los humanos que hay un Dios maravilloso que les dio a las abejas una forma asombrosa de comunicarse”.  Estas apreciaciones parecen ser la explicación más razonable de las características del diseño inteligente y especialmente la danza de las abejas.

REFERENCIAS

Butt, Kyle. (2010). La maravillosa danza de las abejas. Apologetic Pres.

 https://apologeticspress.org/the-amazing-bee-dance-3074/

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