Saturday, February 23, 2013

Because you have seen Me, have you believed

Often when I share my testimony many people say to me, “I never had anything like that happen to me!” Me response is John 20:29. “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”  
John 20:29
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

Commentary and highlights by me.

Jesus among His Disciples

19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and *said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and *said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. (Come back to this later and ask God to give you the Holy Spirit in the same way as the disciples received it here.)
23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, (Didymus meaning twin) was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” (Thomas was not believing his friends, the other disciples… he is saying, “If I don’t have the same experience you have, the same proof, I will not believe. The people who were telling me about Jesus knew he was real, I would challenge them and say, “IF he is real… You have 60 seconds… and IF he shows up I will believe.)
26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, (the door of my life was shut for the longest time… and he still came in and spoke with me, revealing himself to me in a way that would allow me to believe and receive Him as both LORD AND SAVIOR…), and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.(he is peaceJ) 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” (Were these not Thomas’ requirements he said to the others??? Jesus knows exactly what you need from Him. He knows every thought you think and everything you speak.)28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”  (Thomas just needed a little something, he gets it and immediately he recognizes who is in front of him… and he say’s “My LORD and MY GOD!!!) 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? (some of us will have to see… and He will show Himself to us…) Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
…30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
Blessed:
Transliteration: makariosPhonetic Spelling: (mak-ar'-ee-os)Short Definition: happy, blessedDefinition: happy, blessed, to be envied
3107 makários (from mak-, "become long, large") – properly, when God extends His benefits (the advantages He confers); blessed.
3107 /makários ("blessed") describes a believer in enviable ("fortunate") position from receiving God's provisions (favor) – which (literally) extend ("make long, large") His grace (benefits). This happens with receiving (obeying) the Lord's inbirthings of faith. Hence, faith (4102 /pístis) and 3107 (makários) are closely associated (Ro 4:5-7,14:22,23; Rev 14:12,13).

Friday, February 22, 2013

Believe Genesis

I know that some of you might struggle in believing exactly what Genesis says about the creation of the universe. Fortunately for me, Jesus has erased all doubt concerning his word. It is true and you can rest in it. Having seen the universe created with my own eyes and the revelation received from him while he was on the cross, I find that all the other theories are the deceiver’s deception in keeping us away from Him, truth, and power. I haven’t studied the theories of evolution since 1992… I have no need to. As you believe the bible’s account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ do the same with the rest of it and you will enjoy a great freedom and find power in HIS wordJ   


The following I copied from Relevant Bible Teaching making minor changes.


Evolution

Evolution in the strictest sense states that there was no creator (even going further than Darwin did). It argues that matter either always existed, or it came into existence spontaneously and by chance exploded into a universe. Life formed from non-life and gradually grew more complex, changing from one species to another. This would have taken billions of years and the process should still be ongoing. 

Problems with Evolution

Life doesn’t come from non-life, ever. Where do male and female species come from? Things go from order to disorder, not from chaos to order. Where is evolution now? (They answer with the theory of punctuated equilibrium- that evolution happens in short spurts every billion or so years, so we are just in a lull). Where did the initial matter come from? Why did it explode? Evolution contradicts the Genesis account totally. Organisms don’t change to survive (all genetic mutations are harmful). No intermediate species have ever been found that have not either been unclear or been proven hoaxes. Many more in-between forms should have been found if the theory was true. 

Theistic Evolution

This is a view many professing Christians take. It is a supposed wedding of theism and naturalistic evolution, and it proposes that the strongest survive while weak species are worked out of existence or change to survive. Basically, theistic evolutionists argue that God used and oversaw the evolutionary process, helping it begin and complete. God is used to solve all of the problems discussed above in the evolutionary theory.

Problems with Theistic Evolution

It contradicts the Genesis account of “after their kind” and six literal days. Since God is perfect and His ways are perfect, why would He use a chance process when Genesis plainly indicates that He spoke the world into existence (see also Hebrews 1:3 which states that He “upholds all things by the word of His power”). According to the Bible, death didn’t come until after sin. According to theistic evolution, plants and animals had been living and dying for billions of years until the strongest survived. Why doubt the Genesis account? Can we trust any other part of Scripture?

Progressive Creationism

This view argues that the universe is billions of years old, that stellar evolution is by natural process alone, that the stars were made before day four of creation (thus allowing for their light to reach the earth), and that the Big Bang was responsible for the “creation” of the world. Progressive creationists argue that the days of the creation process overlapped, and we are currently in the seventh day until the New Jerusalem. Death preceded the first sin; thus, the garden of Eden wasn’t really a paradise as meteorites and floods and other natural disasters including sickness and disease had been ongoing. Random, wasteful inefficiencies were used to “create” the world. The history of man is a minute fraction of the history of the earth and universe because the universe is so old. This view also seems to indicate that there were man-like mammals. Finally, it denies the worldwide flood of Noah. Many “conservative” evangelicals buy into this view.

Problems with Progressive Creationism

The Bible says that death was the result of sin, not that it preceded sin (Genesis 2:17). The Bible teaches that man was created at the beginning of creation, not much later as Mark 10:6 indicates saying, “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’” It is a violation of text interpretation to assume that the days overlap. There is no way anybody reading the account with no Bible knowledge would conclude that the author is intending for the reader to understand that the days overlapped. As one ended, morning and evening, another began. There is no Biblical basis to assume that we are still in the seventh day. No Scripture gives ground to make such a statement; it is merely hypothetical. They do not believe that the universe was created with the appearance of age (Adam and Even were created as adults, for example, yet they were only a second old). There is no hard evidence for ape-men. Finally, in regard to Noah’s flood, why would God make Noah stay in an ark for so long if there was land elsewhere? 

Day Age Theory

This view states that each day in Genesis 1 is actually millions or billions of years. Many supposed conservative Christians take this view, seeing it as some kind of compromise with “scientific evidence.” It is merely one way to try to reconcile the evolutionary account with the Genesis account. God doesn’t need anymore time than 24 hours. The verse quoted to give supposed credence to this view is 2 Peter 3:8 which says, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” The curious thing is that the verse is not making a literal claim. It is saying that our view of time is different than God’s view of time when it comes to His delaying His return. Yet they take this verse literally and deny the literal interpretation of Genesis.

Problems with the Day Age Theory

It is dangerous because it undermines the authority of the Scripture. For example, why does the Genesis account emphasize the evening and morning of each day every time?  The text gives no evidence of a drawn out evolutionary process for creating man. There is no reason to believe that when God said He created man in one day that it took him a thousand years. Where this view really wants to go is to allow millions and billions of years, which Scripture in no way grants. Many times, it is no more than a cleverly devised scheme to let theistic evolution creep in the back door. 

Gap Theory

This view states that a primitive earth was created in Genesis 1:1, Satan fell and corrupted it, God flooded it, and a second earth was created in Genesis 2:2 out of corruption. This is an attempt to harmonize with the supposed “clear evidence” of the “ancient” geologic column. Sketchy scientific conclusions are held as being more important than what the Bible plainly indicates (two creations and two earths?). They do not believe that God used evolution, but they do believe that the earth is indefinitely old. They try to take the Genesis account literally, but they feel compelled by science to read into it.

Problems with the Gap Theory

They assume that some scientific assumptions and conclusions are grounds to be forced to doubt the Word of God when there are plenty of contradictory scientific claims to uphold it (see young earth creationism below). This view jeopardizes confidence in the written Word by adding to it, a dangerous thing to do and condemned by God. That there was a previous creation with evil, sin, and corruption doesn’t square with the perfection indicated in the Garden of Eden. Death came only through Adam’s sin (Romans 5:14).

Old Earth Creationism

This is the view that the earth is millions or billions of years old. Light travelling from distant stars is often cited as proof that the world has been around for billions of years.  While a logical argument, it assumes that time has been constant, which as the theory of relativity states, may or may not be the case.  Also, God could have created the world with light already having travelled to its visible destination.  Regardless, old earth creationists are quick to dispense of the idea of a young universe rather than taking Scripture at face value when it speaks of six literal days.  This view is typically accompanied by progressive creationism or theistic evolution. It typically holds to uniformitarianism which states that the geologic changes on the earth happened gradually over billions of years rather than quickly through a catastrophic worldwide flood. Thus, a worldwide flood is typically denied, also denying a literal interpretation of Scripture.

Young Earth Creationism

This is the view that the Genesis account is to be taken as an historical account with every word being taken literally. They believe (and I) that God created the world in six literal 24 hour days and rested for a literal 24 hour seventh day. The Garden of Eden was a paradise because death happened only after Adam and Eve sinned, as the Bible plainly indicates when it says that death came through Adam.  The earth was changed rapidly during a worldwide flood (no more water under the earth or above it), so therefore the geologic column is not uniform across the face of the earth, which is indeed indicative of a catastrophic event. The earth is likely 6 to 10 thousand years old as the genealogies of the Old Testament would seem to indicate. There never was nor ever will be any in-between species because evolution never did occur nor will it again in the future. There is plenty of scientific evidence to support this view (no reliable in-between fossils and a certain shortage of what should be found if evolution was true, no evolution has happened in the recorded history of man, geologic columns are mixed up, life doesn’t come from non-life, species don’t change from one to another, the universe has evidence of divine planning and design, etc.).  Copyright ©  2013 Relevant Bible Teaching.