Today I'm going to be at an anuall committee meeting of the Biblical Creation Society, one of the British organizations upholding the word of God with scientific support of recent creation. I volunteered to help with PowerPoint illustrations, visuals, etc. Pray for the organization to grow in strength in a country now steeped in evolutionism. Visit their website at
I know God has love for everyone, and I hate generalisations about people, but one thing I've observed about atheists - they are amazingly arrogant and often extremely rude when it comes to defending their beliefs!
I came across a website with a YouTube video. It's called "Why won't God heal Amputees", and seems to be linked to "10 embarrasing questions Christians can't answer" Well I decided to answer, (there was an email address, but no blog spot - needless to say, I didn't receive an answer!) this is what I wrote:
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I enjoy responding to websites like yours, which I found through your YouTube presentation. It helps keep my thoughts and rational beliefs straight. I have answers to your 10 questions. To understand them, a few words to make the reason and rationale for my position clear. First, consider the battle of worldviews.
ATHEIST WORLDVIEW Humanists/ rationalists/ materialists/ atheists live by a worldview where 'the cosmos is all that there is was or ever will be'. That the universe is without purpose, that we are here by accident through a process of molecules to Man evolution (or just happen to be in the multiverse where such processes are possible). Life is a struggle against entropy, you are responsible for your own life, your form and actions are a result of your selfish genes, and when it ends so does your existence. We invent our own morality.
BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW Encourages retaining enough humility to believe that our five senses may not detect everything about the universe, and there may be more to the universe than the [matter/energy bouncing around in 3-D space and time] that those five senses detect. The universe was created by an intellegent, rational loving God who is responsible for and owns everything in it, including the order that scientific method probes. WE are made in some sense in the image of this God, our lives have a purpose, it is His values we should live up to, and when physical life ends, our existence continues in some way, derived from what we do in this one.
The business of rational science is carried out by humans. Like all humans, scientists are imperfect, have their own belief system - derived from their education and background - which colours their conclusions, are knowledgable in some areas, ignorant of others. So why, during the last 100 years or so, has the scientific community, the media and the education systems of the western world collaborated in the delusion that all scientific statements are uncoloured truth?
Many scientists are turning to a view closer to the biblical one, believing that creation is too organised, designed and full of information - which must come from an intellegent source. For decades gravity is explained as a bending of 3-D space into some other dimension, and now we have String Theory demanding 10 or 11 dimensions to try to explain aspects of Quantum Mechanics. Seems to me like a few extra dimension gives plenty of 'space' for the SUPERNATURAL realm - i.e. that which is ABOVE (super-) the NATURAL (M/E in 3D+T) realm we normally experience. So why do we see rational atheists calling faith believers derogatory names for believeing the same thing? Surely it's unwise to regard information derrived or inferred through using our own imperfect and incomplete knowledge database as superior to knowledge obtained through revelation. And I would recommend not paying too much attention to Richard Dawkins, who is seem as an emabarassment even to his fellow atheists, one of whom declares his most recent writing are the incoherent ramblings of someone with a chip on his shoulder.
Intellegence is not the same as rationality, in just the same way that someone with a high IQ can do dumber things than someone with experience. Faith is not rational, but neither is it blind. Christianity is based on factually reported evidence.
Please be aware that Christianity as a faith and Christianity as a religion are different activities. It's a simple enough test to see if something done in the name of Christ is of faith, or of religion. If an action lines up with what Jesus taught (such as much of what Mother Teressa did), it is faith; if not (such as the Crusades or the Inqusition), it isn't. Jesus DETESTED religion - he came to enable relationship. And the argument about all the war and death that Christians have caused surely cannot hold water in a world where there are over 30 local conflicts raging, where other religions are Comitted to war and death, and where we accept as a fact of life road deaths of 1.2m per year and abortion of 14.4m per year.
I wonder why you make such a fuss over Christian faith, which is already a fringe activity because even many who would call theselves 'Christian' don't have either the humility or the guts to put it truely into practice.
Now for those 10 answers.
1) Why wont God heal amputees? He does, but not very often. The miracle of Calanda seems to be one well documented example. I know there are more contemporary ones, but need to research them. Assuming 'nothing will happen' from the start is guaranteed to KILL faith. Faith involves believing that something has changed or something exists BEFORE it is visible. All human endeavour starts with faith; before a space capsule had orbited the Earth, someone had faith that a man could walk on the Moon, and that it would be worth doing. Faith is always ridiculed, until it maifests. It is easy to believe nothing will happen if you're not man enough to trust God and believe something will happen, epsecially if that miracle is something so visible as a restored amputation and may take time to manifest. And you can't use the apparent dearth of amputee miracles to deny ALL miracles, which are happening around us even today, often medically attested to. In fact, it takes more faith to believe that there is no God. So I ask you: Why dont more amputees open their hearts to enable God to heal them?
2) Why are there so many starving people in the world? There has never yet been a year when the harvests of the world haven't been more than enough to feed well every man woman and child on the globe. Politics and our culture of waste are what causes the starving millions. God had no choice to make us with free will. That means free will to make wrong choices. Wrong choices are the result of wrong attitudes and ignorance. The starving millions are not a problem, they are a symptom to be ashamed of. So I ask you: Why are there so few trying to solve the problem rather than the symptom? And by the way, I hope more Christians get that raise they're praying for, because part of their mandate is to help the sick, the poor, the starving, the thirsty,and to spread the gospel. They need money to do that.
3) Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the bible? The OLD covenant Law given to Moses is an indication of the kind of purity God requires from us, a purity we can't sustain because we are NOT innocent, we're all guilty of sin (sin is not naughty the things we do wrong, it is whatever keeps us separate from God). There is NO SUCH THING as an innocent person. The NEW Covenant is God's way to make it possible. But it take the courage and humility to admit that you can't do it - break ONE part of the law (steal a biro from work) - you've broken all of it. That's why Jehoshua had to die on a cross as the only perfect Man, making the only acceptable death sacrifice, so that you DON'T have to. So I ask you: Why don't more people accept the life that Jesus made possible?
4) Why does the bible contain so much unscientific nonsense? This only appears to be the case if you believe the atheist worldview, currently promoted by the secular scientific community through the education system and the media, is infallible. Why would any rational person believe that? There is not an infallible person on the planet. The truth is that there is much scientific revelation in the bible which was counter to the accepted knowledge of the time, too much to go into here. For example many creationists (highly intellegent, educated and experienced professional scientists) reject the questionable conclusions of radiometric dating, and even secular scientists are embarrassed by the circular reasoning in which these conclusions are used to support the concept of an ancient universe. To avoid error, it's vital to keep separate demonstrable science and interpretive science; and by the way, technology is the applied branch of demonstrable science. Creationists declare that the 'geological column' is a completely wrong interpretation of the evidence, instead demonstrating that the fossil evidence is EXACTLY the evidence you would expect from a global flood (billions of dead things buried in rock layers layed down by water all over the earth). By the way, the generally accepted Creationist scenario is that Everest didn't exist at the time of the flood, but that the unimaginably vast geological upheaval involved in the flood included a period of rapid mountain building as the land mass split along the mid-Atlantic ridge resulting in the Atlantic Ocean and the geography we see today. That is just one of many examples where evidence, correctly interpreted, supports the bible. So I ask you: Why does the scientific community propogate so much anti-biblical nonsense?
5) Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery? Our definition of 'slavery' - where a slave's life is denigrated and viewed as valueless - is very different to what is interpreted in the bible as slavery. Slavery in the bible includes concepts we would call employment, even Personal Assistant or Butler. This often included free 'fringe benefits', such as housing, food supply, medical insurance etc and every seven years the option to go free and have debts wiped clean. Where do you find that in our society? If 'slavery' was so awful, why would the 'slaves' so often CHOOSE to stay with their masters? It all depends on how you value life, which atheists (and therefore much of Western society) say is valueless and purposless. So I ask you: Why don't more people submit to God's slavery, which in truth is greater freedom and fulfillment?
6) Why do bad things happen to good people? The bible never promises that they wont! It reveals that from the supernatural realm, God wants you to have a great life, the devil wants to destroy you, and WE have the free will to choose. Because our values are so messed up, what we call 'bad' things are often a route (but not CAUSED by God) to better things. Joseph and Job are examples of this. We often have the school of hard knocks as the only way to mature. But the bible also reveals the way to overcome the bad effects of these 'bad things'. So I ask you: Why do so many good people allow bad things to destroy them?
7) Why didn't any of Jesus' miracles in the Bible leave behind any evidence? The Gospels ARE evidence. The empty grave is evidence. Christianity is based on factually reported evidence. In our age, where being economical with the truth, dis-information, spin and propoganda are everyday distortions of the truth (let's call it lying) it's tempting to assume this has always been the case, forgetting that in previous cultures truth was valued far more highly. The reports in the New Testament are historical fact, and there is much confirmation from the realms of archeology, geology, apologetics, history and other sciences to confirm (but not prove) this. Sadly, faithless 'Theologists' often join hands with atheists attempting to discredit the biblical record. These attempts are usually based on unsupportable ASSUMPTIONS or fraud, and are popularised in rubbish like 'The Da Vinci Code'. But it seems Hollywood and our TV stations would rather pour billions into making such things rather than promoting the truth. So I ask you: Why are so many ignorant of the evidence of Jesus' miracles?
8) How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you? Jesus (who I prefer to call Jehoshua, rather than poor anglicisation of poor Latinisation of Hebrew!) said himself there would be many who would not believe, even if they should SEE someone raised from the dead. Jehosha hasn't appeared to me because I've accepted him willingly. Jesus does appear regularly to those where it is the only way to get through. There have been many reports over recent years of Jesus appearing to those in who have no vested interest in knowing him, in fact bringing great danger into their lives, such as Muslims and Sikhs. Has he appeared to you? You wouldn't know if he has, because you wouldn't recognise Him!
9) Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood? I cant decide if you're being deliberately literalist or just sarcastic. Consider: EAT=CONSUME. You are what you eat. You feed your flesh with physical food, you feed your mind and spirit with spiritual food. If all you read and watch is worldly, atheistic and scientific, your spirit will be that way. So I ask you: How much spiritual junk food have you eaten today?
10) Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians? There are different kinds of love. God's kind of love is called agape. It is love which continues to love against all odds, love which loves despite. Christians are people - imperfect, even in their desire to live the God life. They are prey to the same marriage destroying influences as anyone else. The world's values say adultery is OK, divorce is OK, abortion is OK, getting away with it is OK. Marriage in fact has lost most of its value, in fact it's hypocritical for a non-Christian to get married! Marriage is instituted by God, not to be taken lightly. It could be argued that in God's eyes a 'civil' marriage is no marriage, but then not believing in God, that doesn't matter. Other Christians aren't our example, Jehoshua is. Agape can ONLY result from choice - you can't programme a robot to love you. So I ask you: Why don't you use your considerable resources to help others seek out and spread God's agape love, rather than sowing seeds of doubt by asking such immature questions?
I've emailed this to you as - unless I've missed something - you appear to be too much of a coward to associate a blog page with your website. Is this in case you get to hear answers you may not like because they point to the Truth which sets you free? I believe you are a seeker after truth. I pray that God will remove the scales from your eyes so that you can see Him, see the love he showed through Jehoshua, and allow Holy Spirit to undo all the work the devil has so obviously achieved in you. Your choice. "
I've been somewhat withdrawn much of this year, and haven't blogged here for AGES! My day job has been a grind, and I've been recovering from my second divorce becoming absolute. But God answers prayer! I work temporary contracts. Last week I started a job, much more interesting, much pleasanter environment, people I can relate to - and 15 mins walk across a park from where I live!!
I've been doing music, composing, recording, arranging. First film music - I had to involve a violinist and a choir - a DVD short about a charity event - www.coldstreamkids.co.uk - looking after the families of servicemen who gave their lives for our country. Two power ballads I wrote a long time ago but never properly demo'ed. And a 'strange' new approach to electronic dance music! I pray every day "Lord let the desires of my heart be those desires that YOU put in there. I have no agenda, let my agenda be your agenda. Be my Shepherd" . Like the man says - "Be careful what you pray for - God will answer your prayer!!"
Oh and by the way, I haven't had a cigar for about four months now! Please don't condemn anyone who smokes, God will make the right time and circumstances to stop.
In Is.1:14 - 19, particularly 18, God asks us to use our minds about the hows and whys of what we do, especially in the area of how we worship Him, feasts and festivals we keep and so on. The (one) word translated "reason together" in the KJV also encompasses the ideas of:
to prove, decide, judge, rebuke, reprove, correct, be right, adjudge, appoint, show to be right, convince, convict, chide, argue
So God wants us to consult Him and use our intellegence about why we do what we do. Some questions:
Do you know why we celebrate Yashua's birth on December 25th?
Have you ever questioned why we have a tree with pretty ornaments hung on it?
Or why we often put a star on the top of that tree?
Do you know why "Santa's" outfit is red?
Or why he is show wearing a pointed hat?
I've found answers thanks in no small part to Michael Rood, that are shocking and disturbing; that reveal the inevitability that non-Christians would re-claim a festival that was once theirs.
The whole business of Christianity being made 'legal' by the Roman authorities in the 4th century - and how those 'Christians' absorbed pagan festivals (rather than destroy them) is riddled with questions and problems. 1Sam 15 tells the sorry story about Saul not totally destroying what he was commanded to. He lost his kingship. Are we in danger of the same attitude by maintaining pagan festivals, no matter how well disguised?
I think it's great to celebrate the birth of the physical form of our Saviour. But shouldn't it be done in a way that fits in with the rest of what we believe?
Next year I want to start celebrating Christ's birth in a way which is Godly, Holy and fun!
