The 'Two' Books of Isaiah

by Henry Morris, Ph.D.

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortable to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins." (Isaiah 40:1-2)

These two verses introduce the so-called book of "Deutero-Isaiah," which biblical critics (who deny that prophecy can be fulfilled) claim was written by a second Isaiah simply because it contains prophetic claims which have come to pass. The Lord Jesus, however, quoted more than once from both "divisions" of Isaiah, attributing both of them to the same inspired author, and He surely knew more about their true authorship than do modern liberals!

Actually, however, the two divisions of Isaiah are quite distinctive in their respective vocabularies, simply because their respective themes are different. In fact, the chapter structure of the two divisions is quite remarkable, possibly even providential. The first book (chapters 1-39) contains the same number of chapters as the Old Testament has books. The second book (chapters 40-66) contains 27 chapters, the same as the number of books in the New Testament. The New Testament portion begins with John the Baptist (Isaiah 40:1-5), just as the New Testament itself does, and ends with the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 65 and 66; compare Revelation 21 and 22).

The central chapter in the New Testament part of Isaiah is Isaiah 53, which contains the clearest and fullest exposition of the substitutionary death of Christ for our sins to be found anywhere in the Bible. And the central verse of this chapter (which actually should begin at Isaiah 52:13) is: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). HMM

Delight in the Law

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” (Psalm 1:2)

Most Christians feel that God’s law is harsh and burdensome, and they rejoice that God’s grace has set them free from the law. The fact is, however, that the law should be a joy and delight to anyone who really loves the Lord. Even Paul, the great apostle of grace, said: “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man” (Romans 7:22). “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans7:12). David testified that “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting [or ‘restoring’] the soul” (Psalm 19:7).

The majestic 119th Psalm contains no less than 25 specific testimonies to the benefits of the law. For example: “Blessed [i.e., ‘happy’] are [those] who walk in the law of the LORD” (v. 1). “Great peace have they which love thy law” (v. 165). “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (v. 18). “Thy law is my delight” (v. 77).

That God’s law was not set aside when Christ came is evident from the first mention of the law in the New Testament: Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law. . . . Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18). That the law was not for Jews only is suggested in its first mention in the Old Testament: “One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you” (Exodus 12:49).

The law cannot save, of course: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). But “Christ . . . redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Galatians 3:13) when He died for our sins. His law (which now includes the entire Bible) is no more a burden but a delight—restoring the soul and bringing true success and great peace to those who love it. HMM

My King of Old

“The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.” (Psalm 74:16-17)

The 74th Psalm is a sad lamentation over the apparent triumph of the enemies of God, but its central verse is a beautiful statement of faith: “For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth” (Psalm 74:12). Then, in support of his faith, the psalmist remembers the mighty creative acts of God in ancient times, giving assurance that He could, indeed, work salvation in these present times.

Those who believe that man is the measure of all things, sufficient unto himself, ignore how dependent all people are on God’s provisions. The very rotation of the earth, with its cycle of day and night, has set the basic rhythm of biological life, and it was God—not man—who “divided the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:4).

There is even the testimony in Genesis that God “prepared the light” before He prepared the sun (Genesis 1:3, 14), thus rebuking all those who later would worship the sun as the source of the earth and life.

God also “set all the borders [or ‘boundaries’] of the earth.” This refers both to the emergence of the continental land masses after the Flood and then also to the enforced scattering of the peoples from Babel into all the world, when He “determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.” (Acts 17:26).

He has even made “summer and winter, and day and night [that] shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). God did all this—not man! Evolutionary humanism is futile foolishness, and one day soon God will answer the cry of the psalmist: “Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily” (Psalm 74:22). HMM

Fiery Trials

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you . . . But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye.” (1 Peter 4:12-14)

In addition to the normal distresses of life comes outright persecution—direct opposition to the Christian and his faith by enemies of the cross. Millions of Christians down through the ages have even suffered martyrdom for their testimony, and many are suffering today around the world.

Christ promised that we would be hated for our stand (John 15:18-21), but He also prayed for us, not that we would be spared the persecution but that we would be victorious in it and sanctified through it. “The world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. . . . sanctify them through thy truth” (John 17:14-17). This is the message of the fourth verse of “How Firm a Foundation.”

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,

My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply,

The flames shall not hurt thee, I only design,

Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

In His wisdom, He may choose to allow persecution to block life’s pathway, but we will not face such opposition alone. His grace will supply our every need.

Heating gold above its melting point allows the denser gold to be separated from the frothy impurities (or dross), thus purifying the gold. Just so does God allow “fiery trials” in our lives, pushing us beyond the melting point, to “purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). JDM

Click here for the sheet music for this hymn.

The Active Power of Faith

“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)

When God grants the gift of faith that enables us at the point of salvation (Ephesians 2:8), it should not be seen as a static power that merely resides in our minds but rather an empowerment that is expected to grow into a dynamic and demonstrable “divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4-9).

Faith preserves and protects us. Jesus insisted, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). These words are precise. Once faith is exercised, an eternal transaction takes place wherein a person is “passed” from spiritual death to eternal life. This is an absolute change and eliminates the possibility of hell (John 10:28-29).

Faith is power for effective prayer. The “mustard seed” promise in Matthew 17:20 does not refer to size or amount but to quality. The Greek comparative hoce, translated “as” in that passage, refers to the same kind of faith as the mustard seed. Just so, the promise of Matthew 7:7 (that if you ask and seek, you will find) depends on our confidence (faith) in the heavenly Father.

Faith is our “shield” against the Enemy. The seven pieces of God’s armor identified in Ephesians 6:10-18 include “the shield of faith” that provides an ability “to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (v. 16). That shield is defensive in the sense that it only provides protection when we use it to block the “darts.” The active use comes when we “resist the devil” (James 4:7) “in the faith” (1 Peter 5:9).

Do you use faith as God intended? HMM III

Walking in the Spirit

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)

This promise in our text is followed in a later Pauline epistle by two nuanced commands in the letter to the church at Galatia.

“This I say then,” Paul says, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Then again, “if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

Although they appear to be the same command in English, there is a significant distinction in the original Greek language in which Paul penned the letters.

Both the Romans 8:1 and the Galatians 5:16 passages use the word perepeto, which carries the connotation to “walk around” and to “be at liberty.”

The second iteration in Galatians 5:25 uses stoicheo, which means to “step precisely,” to “march,” or to “go in procession.” Same command but different emphasis.

The context of Galatians 5 stresses the difference between a lifestyle of fleshly behavior and a life controlled by the Holy Spirit. The “fruits” of the flesh and the “fruit” of the Spirit are diametrically opposed. They cannot exist together; they are not harmonious (Romans 8:5-8). We either “mind” the things of the flesh or the “things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5).

The Christian walk has great liberty (Romans 8:21), but that liberty must “step precisely” in honesty (Romans 13:13), good works (Ephesians 2:10), and in truth (2 John 4-6). Our walk is expected to be by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), and we are to conduct a spiritual warfare in the Holy Spirit’s power (2 Corinthians 10:3-5) protected by the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). HMM III

A Fuss Over Dust: Planck Satellite Fails to Confirm Big Bang 'Proof'

by Jake Hebert, Ph.D. *

...With so many such defeated proofs littering the scientific landscape (Piltdown Man, vestigial organs, the supposed missing link "Ida," smoking gun evidence for the Big Bang, etc.), one would think that Christians would learn not to be so intimidated by the dogmatic claims of secular scientists. Yet many Christians are still reluctant to question the scientific "high priests" of the new secular religion and can only bring themselves to meekly suggest, against all logic and common sense, that perhaps such claims don't really contradict the Bible after all! This recent debacle should encourage Christians to toughen up and exhibit a little hard-nosed skepticism the next time scientists announce the latest "proof" for their theories. After all, aren't secular scientists always telling us that skepticism is a virtue?...

Read the rest of the article here

The Circle of the Earth

“It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.” (Isaiah 40:22)

The discovery that the world is round is considered one of man’s greatest scientific achievements, often wrongly attributed to Christopher Columbus. Columbus was, indeed, a courageous thinker and explorer, as well as a Bible-believing Christian, but many scholars had long before so concluded, and many people had already migrated to the New World.

As far as the sphericity of the earth is concerned, the “flat-earth” myth of the Middle Ages was not the belief of many scholars of antiquity. The Bible, in particular, never hints of a drop-off point at the earth’s edge or any such notion as that. Its few references to “the four corners” of the earth (e.g., Isaiah 11:12) literally mean “the four quarters of the earth”—that is, the four quadrants of the compass.

In our text for the day, the word for “circle” is translated “compass” in Proverbs 8:27: “[God] set a compass upon the face of the depth” (same as “deep,” referring to the ocean). Other occurrences are in Job 26:10: “He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end,” and Job 22:14: “[God] walketh in the circuit of heaven.” All of these passages are best understood in terms of a spherical earth, with its basic shape at sea level determined by its ocean surface as controlled by gravity. The Hebrew word itself (khug) basically means a circle. Any vertical cross-section through the earth’s center is a “great circle,” of course, with any “straight” line on the ocean surface actually representing an arc of such a circle.

This is only one of many “pre-scientific” insights of the Bible written by divine inspiration long before the rise of modern science. HMM

The Wisdom of God

“And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.” (1 Kings 3:28)

Although God’s wisdom is expounded in depth in the Scriptures, there are only seven times that the specific phrase “the wisdom of God” is used as such. The above text is indicating that God’s wisdom can actually be manifested in men through divine inspiration. The Persian king recognized this also in Ezra. “And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges . . . all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not” (Ezra 7:25). The wisdom of God thus is always consistent with the laws of God—that is, with the Scriptures.

The first New Testament reference is from Christ. “Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles” (Luke 11:49). Here the Lord is applying a scriptural principle from 2 Chronicles 36:15-16, in effect calling the Scriptures themselves “the wisdom of God.”

Then Paul three times uses the same phrase: “In the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God.” Human wisdom can never, by itself, discover God, but this very fact is bound up in the divine wisdom, revealed only through the Word of God. “We preach . . . Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.” That is, through both the written word and the living Word, we can proclaim true wisdom. “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery . . . which God ordained before the world unto our glory” (1 Corinthians 1:21, 23-24; 2:7).

Finally, with God’s wisdom manifested through chosen men of God, we also can preach true wisdom in Christ, “to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3:10). HMM

The Man Born Blind

“And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” (John 9:2-3)

Mankind has always found it easy to fall into the trap of thinking that suffering of any sort is due to sin. To be sure, much suffering is due to sin, and even after repentance and forgiveness, scars may remain. Furthermore, evil and its attendant grief surround us. Our civilization is plagued by sin and its evil fruits—some of which reach even the most godly Christian. Indeed, “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain” (Romans 8:22) as a result of the curse brought about by sin. If there had been no sin, there would have been no suffering.

But this does not imply that all personal suffering stems from personal sin. The blind man was the way he was to bring glory to God, we are told. Although many at the time failed to recognize “the works of God” when this man was healed, countless millions have glorified God throughout the centuries for this act of creation.

Now some may ask, how could God have been glorified in this grown man’s life of blindness up until his healing? Actually, all life is a miracle, even the single-cell amoeba. Nothing living could possibly have arisen by accident, and as such testifies to the marvelous “works of God.” In this case, the item of interest was a human being, complete with fully functioning organs and systems. Even though he could not see, he could smell, taste, hear, speak, touch, move, walk, eat, breathe, digest, think, etc. This could not be the result of time and chance acting on “primeval slime,” as the evolutionist would claim. Any living system points to a loving Designer. Those who “willingly are ignorant” (2 Peter 3:5) of such facts are more blind than the Pharisees. JDM

Lo, I Come

Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:7)

 

These marvelous words (in Hebrews 10:5-7) are an interpretive quotation from Psalm 40:6-8, which in turn was being cited prophetically as the testimony of the eternal Son of God as He prepared to leave heaven and “the bosom of the Father” (note John1:18) to descend to Earth to become also “the Son of man,” with no “where to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).

 

He first took up residence on Earth in the womb of Mary, then in a manger, then a house in Bethlehem, then somewhere in Egypt until the death of King Herod, who had tried to kill Him, then in the home of his foster father in a despised village, eventually on a cross on which His enemies would impale Him, and finally for three days in a borrowed tomb.

 

And all this, amazingly, was to do the will of His Father in heaven, which He fully understood would include the terrible death of the cross. “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again” (John 10:17).

 

We can never comprehend such love—only believe it and receive it. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Now we can testify with Paul “the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God [His faith, not ours!], who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

 

But anyone who ignores that love should note this sobering truth: “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). HMM

The Savior of the World

“And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” (1 John 4:14)

 

This unique title of the Lord Jesus Christ assures us that when the Father sent His Son away from the glories of heaven down to a world lost in sin, it was not just to be the Messiah of the Jews, or to assume David’s throne as King of Israel, or to punish the wicked Gentile nations.

 

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).

 

In fact, this special title is used only one other time in the Bible, and it was used by Samaritans rather than Jews when they came to know Jesus as He ministered among them for two days. These people were mostly of Gentile background with a mixture of Israeli blood who had become adherents of a quasi-Jewish religion that was also part pagan.

 

But they were actually looking for a Savior, and their testimony after meeting Jesus was: “Now we believe . . . and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world” (John 4:42). They perceived that He had come to bring salvation to lost sinners in every nation, not just to Israel or Samaria. As He said later, “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47).

 

And so He commanded His disciples “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations” (Luke 24:47). He became to the Father “the propitiation . . . for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2) when He offered up His life as a sacrifice for sins, then died and rose again. We who have believed on Him as our personal Savior are now to be His witnesses “in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). HMM

The Sign of Science and Travel

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” (Daniel 12:4)

The book of Daniel contains the most detailed description of the end times of any book in the Bible except the book of Revelation. In Daniel’s last chapter, after all the prophecies had been recorded, the condition in our text was given as a sign of their imminent fulfillment, at “the time of the end.”

A more striking summary of our own times could hardly be imagined. The Hebrew word for “run to and fro” is used first in 2 Chronicles 16:9. “The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth,” and its sense is “race back and forth.” What a description of our present society, with speeding automobiles all over the land and airplanes filling our skies! In little more than one lifetime, the world “progressed” from horse and buggy to spacecraft, and almost everyone is racing to and fro.

Furthermore, “knowledge” has been “increased” far beyond the wildest imaginations of people in the days of our founding fathers. The Hebrew word could well be understood as what we mean today by “science.”

It is significant that the foundations of our modern scientific age were laid mostly by great scientists who were creationists (Newton, Boyle, Pascal, Pasteur, Faraday, Maxwell, etc.). In our present generation, however, science has been largely taken over by non-Christian evolutionists, and science has also generated deadly instruments of destruction and pollution which are threatening life’s existence. This rise in “science falsely so called” is also given as a sign of the last days (1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Peter 3:3-4; etc.).

In any case, the explosive increase in science (both true and false) and rapid travel in our day is one of the many God-given signs that the return of Christ is near! HMM

Cambrian Fossil Intensifies Evolutionary Conundrum

by Brian Thomas, M.S

New fossil finds further verify one of evolution's biggest problems: the Cambrian explosion. According to evolutionary reckoning, a massive explosion of new life supposedly spawned dozens of brand-new fully formed body plans about 530 million years ago. How could so many novel body plans emerge in such a short time while today's emergence rate of new body plans is zero? Details from newly discovered Canadian fossil fish intensify this Cambrian conundrum.

Very few fossils show up in rock layers below the Cambrian—some sponges, cnidarians, a mollusk, what look like worm trails, and several fossils now reclassified as non-animals, known as the Ediacaran fauna. Then, suddenly, most of the basic animal forms occur in Cambrian rocks, including echinoderms (e.g., starfish), various arthropods including shrimp and sea scorpions, clams, brachiopods, annelid worms, and chordates—a group of animals including vertebrates like fish.

This fossil pattern falls afoul of evolutionary expectations. Simpler animals in lower rocks, from supposedly earlier times, evolved into more complicated animals like chordates and those should appear in upper rock layers according to evolution. Instead, most fundamental animal forms classified as phyla, occur in lower Cambrian strata. In other words, instead of a slow and gradual appearance of new life forms, the fossils show just the opposite: the sudden appearance of fully-formed creatures.

...So, fully formed fish occur in both Chinese and Canadian Cambrian layers. This means the evolutionary problem of the Cambrian explosion is real and intense.

Reams of new information in the form of biological coding, represented by dozens of novel cell types in Cambrian fossils, demand a reasonable cause. A Precambrian sponge would have had five cell types, but the Cambrian fish had 60 cell types, equivalent to an encyclopedia of brand-new biological information.

Plus, over 67 percent of animal phyla have their lowest occurrence in the Cambrian. That's a lot of new animals suddenly appearing fully formed, and those same body plans have not changed.

If evolution is not adding new suites of biological information to any of today's creatures, then how could it have added so much, so fast, so long ago? Whereas the Canadian Cambrian fish Metaspriggina certainly punctuates this longstanding and unanswered challenge to evolution's defenders, it follows nicely from the biblical concept that Cambrian rocks represent the first of many Flood deposits, burying creatures that God had purposely fashioned.

Read the rest of the article here.

Jesus and Jonah

“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:17)

 

The Bible’s most famous “fish story” has been the target of skeptics for hundreds of years, but it was confirmed by none other than the one who Himself had prepared the great fish: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).

 

Jonah may actually have died and gone to “hell.” “Out of the belly of hell [Hebrew Sheol] cried I,” said Jonah, “and thou heardest my voice” (Jonah 2:2). The testimony of Jesus was similar: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [i.e., Sheol]; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:10; also Acts 2:27). Jonah also prayed: “Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God” (Jonah 2:6). His prayer ended: “Salvation is of the LORD” (v. 9), and this is the very meaning of the name “Jesus.”

 

Thus, 900 years before Christ died and rose again, Jonah died and rose again, a remarkable prophetic type of the mighty miracle that the Lord would accomplish one day to bring salvation and life to a world dead in sin. Only the power of God could direct a prepared fish to save Jonah, then three days later allow him to preach repentance and salvation to the lost souls in Nineveh. Then, finally God Himself, in Christ, died on a cross for the sins of the world, and this time it took the infinite power that created the very universe itself to bring His own soul back from hell and, three days later, to rise again. This is “the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead” (Ephesians 1:19-20). Truly, “a greater than Jonas is here” (Matthew 12:41). HMM

Ready and Able

“That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:17)

The word “perfect” in this verse is artios, and it is used only this one time in the Bible. Its basic meaning seems to be “fitted,” or “fresh.” Then, the words “thoroughly furnished” are one word, exartizo, in the original, which—interestingly enough—is essentially this same rare word (artios) with the prefix ex (meaning “out of”) added. It is only used one other time, where it is translated “accomplished” (Acts 21:5).

Putting these concepts together, Paul seems to be saying that the “man of God” is not necessarily a man who is sinlessly perfect but one who is both fresh (ready to meet present needs) and fully equipped (able to meet present needs).

And, of course, it is significant that this splendid testimony to what a man of God can be—and should be—follows immediately upon Paul’s grand testimony to the inspiration and power of the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures, first of all, “are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). Then, they are “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (v. 16).

“Doctrine,” more specifically, is teaching. “Reproof” is evidence orconviction. “Correction” is a word used only this one time, and it means setting straight. “Instruction” is chastening. Then, the end result of the perfect teachings, the convicting evidences, the correcting influences, and the chastening cleansing of the Holy Scriptures is to produce men and women of God who are both ready and able to meet the critical needs of the times in which they live.

By the same token, the large numbers of nominal Christians who do not diligently study, obey, and apply the Holy Scriptures in their lives are not either ready or able to face the awful challenges (vv. 1-14) of these last days. HMM

Bible May Solve Colossal Ancient Iceberg Riddle

by Brian Thomas, M.S.

What is the recipe for making an iceberg? Scientists know the basics from watching polar-ice sheets. Huge chunks calve, slide off, and float away as icebergs. But that’s for modern icebergs. New research reveals evidence of ancient icebergs that would dwarf today’s frozen floating mountains, leaving secular explanations out in the cold.

Researchers from Germany’s Alfred-Wegener Institute (AWI), Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, published in Geophysical Research Letters their discovery of five deep scours at almost 4,000 feet below sea level and about 250 miles off Greenland’s eastern coast at Hovgaard Ridge. There, the Fram Strait permits polar ice to enter one of the world’s larger oceans, an annual process that helps regulate marine ecosystems and global weather patterns.

...Oceans had to have heated fast enough to encourage extreme evaporation. Only then could enough water evaporate into the atmosphere where it would cool, and then fall on the continents and add to an ice sheet. Creation geologists cite dramatic increases in volcanic activity across the entire ocean floor during Noah’s Flood to supply this heat.

Assuming a biblical timeline, massive amounts of volcanic activity took place during the Flood year and immediately afterward. The volcanic ash from these eruptions would have blocked out enough solar radiation to cool the atmosphere for hundreds of years after the Flood waters subsided—just what was needed to form the thick ice sheets that existed during the centuries-long ice age.

Secular models don’t work because they separate heating events like underwater volcanic eruptions too far apart in time. Given a timescale of hundreds of years, not millions, rapid sequential volcanoes could produce the heat required to build giant ice sheets—and the colossal icebergs that Arndt’s research indicates they calved.

Read the rest of the article here.

Are We Evolving Stupidity?

by Brian Thomas, M.S.

Are we dumber than our grandparents?

Social psychologists are tracking IQ scores and noticed a decline in the last decade after a steady rise since the 1950s. Some wonder if the recent downturn reflects genes that have been eroding all along. Are we evolving stupidity?

...Decent nutrition and education may have done all the good they can for intelligence, but those factors can’t erase the accumulated mutations, let alone increase our genetic potential for greater intelligence. This preserves Lynch’s “rather stark picture” of a world population that will continue, according to Holmes, “evolving to be more stupid.”

Is there any way to reverse this gloomy forecast? Holmes wrote, “The only way to stop that might be to tinker with our genomes. Given our ignorance about the genetic basis of intelligence, and the ethical complexities, that is a long way off.”

Basically, someone would need to restore every mutation inherited from every generation. For this task, Mankind has far too little knowledge and power. It could only be done by the One who wrote the original and pristine human genome in the first place.

Declining IQ scores, and the harmful mutations that likely cause them, powerfully confirm Scripture that teaches “the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” 

Read the rest of the article here.

Big Bang Fizzles under Lithium Test

by Brian Thomas, M.S.

...As science progresses, one would think it would increasingly confirm theories like the Big Bang. But instead of solving the Big Bang’s many problems, scientists are only finding more of them. The Big Bang theory has been imploding for decades as scientific experiments and observations continue to confirm Big Bang deal-breakers. And if the man-made narrative of the Big Bang never really happened, then God’s narrative of universal beginnings is back on the table.

Read the rest of the article here.

The Joy That Is Promised

“But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Joshua 22:5)

The fourth verse of the hymn “Praise the Savior, Ye Who Know Him” reminds us of our responsibility to be faithful to our calling. At our new birth we were fully granted eternal life, a standing we have now, and eternal life is not temporary. Yet we must strive to prove our love by obedience and holiness, and maintain the sweet relationship with God.

Keep us, Lord, O, keep us cleaving 
To Thyself and still believing,
Till the hour of our receiving
Promised joys with Thee.

While He doesn’t need our help in accomplishing His will, we are granted the privilege of serving Him. And we must never come to the place of unbelief. Doubts sometimes come, placed there by the Tempter, but they should drive us to further study, deeper growth, and the eventual resolution of doubt. Doubt must never be allowed to fester into disbelief.

There will come the day when our belief is complete, as faith passes into sight. Unknowable joy will be ours, He promises: “God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:3-5). JDM

Click here for the sheet music for this hymn.