A Walk Along a River Into the Past

I can remember as a youngster  being very interested in dinosaurs and spending time collecting small miniatures of the more prominent types; one of my favorites being the Tyrannosaurus Rex.  You can imagine my excitement when an imaginative movie producer decided to make a motion picture with prehistoric beasts and a T-Rex as characters (The Lost World, King Kong [the 1933 version], The Valley of Gwangi, etc.).  They all seemed to have the same story line; how do men deal with 30 feet tall beasts with sharp teeth and a taste for human flesh?  In this case truth may be stranger than fiction.

Imagine a primitive hunting party with hand crafted weapons out tracking a potential prey to feed a hungry family group.  The prey of which they are in pursuit is a creature very familiar to the hunting party.  They know the creature’s habits and have developed the skills to bring down their prey.  An experienced tracker has been given the task of marking the trail for the remainder of the party who will devise the strategy to bag the prey.  This scenario has been played out for ions in mans recent past and in times past our remembering.  The Native Americans employed this method when hunting big game in North America.  Obviously, while tracking the weary prey, the tracker himself will leave his own tracks along the path.

A similar scenario might involve a large group of lumbering four footed beasts with juvenile members fleeing a flood event across a shallow marsh flat of mud and reeds followed by a smaller group of predators in the same frenzied state fleeing the same flood event.  Moving along with this stampeding sea of bestial flesh is a skilled tribe of native inhabitants staying clear of the dangers of such a stampeding mass while being all too aware of the need to escape the coming disaster; each individual in this story is leaving behind the evidence of this scene in the form of tracks in the soft mud through which they are traveling.

In each of the scenes described above, the tracks (if they are to be preserved) must be buried quickly and deeply before the effects of erosion obliterate them.  Many of these paleo trackways have indeed been preserved thereby producing fossil trackways or ichnofossils.  The study of fossil trackways and other trace fossils is none as paleoichnology.  Ichnofossils, or trace fossils, differ from body fossils in that trace fossils are an indirect evidence of some sort of behavior as well as environmental condition relating to the formation of the trace fossil.

Many notable trackways exist in Africa, North America, and Australia.  One of the more interesting sites is located near Glen Rose, Texas along the banks of the Paluxy River.  In this area the Paluxy River cuts down into a geologic layer known as the Glen Rose Formation of limestone.  The Glen Rose Formation is well known for its 50 or so known trackways of dinosaur footprints consisting mainly of sauropods (mostly plant eaters) and theropods (allosauroid type predator).  The sauropods (the largest of the dinosaurs) are herding type reptilian creatures with some juveniles in the groups.

The first known discovery of the Glen Rose dinosaur footprints was made by a truant schoolboy named George Adams.  While playing along the Wheeler Branch creek near the town of Glen Rose, Adams came upon some fossil three-toed tracks in the bed of the stream.  He reported his find to his teacher who talked of the find with others.  Eventually, the existence of the fossil trackways came to the attention of Ellis W. Shuler of Southern Methodist University who published three short articles about the dinosaur footprints found in the bed of the Paluxy River and its tributaries.

Interest in the Paluxy River dinosaur tracks was reignited in 1938 when well known fossil collectors Roland T. Bird and Barnum Brown from New York’s American Museum of Natural History came to Glen Rose to see and possibly collect the now notable dinosaur footprints.  During the depression, men of the Glen Rose area had begun to carve replicas of the dinosaur footprints to sell to tourists.  Bird had seen some of these carvings and was interested in examining the originals.  Bird and Brown both verified the authenticity of the Paluxy River dinosaur footprints and eventually removed a portion of the now famous sauropod trackway S2 for display at the American Museum of Natural History where I have personally seen it. The scientific community accepts these Paluxy River trackways as being authentic dinosaur footprints.  Many of them can be seen in the state park in Glen Rose, Texas.

The evolutionist’s claim that these fossil prints where gradually covered over thousands of years by sand as the mud hardened into limestone under an inland sea.  Of course, everywhere we find these limestone deposits covered by sand with dinosaur fossils it’s under an inland sea.  It seems like enough of these inland seas might just be one large sea like maybe a flood.  The fact is that if the tracks are not covered quickly they will erode away.

Instead of a gradual event spanning ions of time, why not apply a catastrophic scenario in which these animals were retreating to higher ground to escape rapidly advancing flood waters.  These flood waters eventually covered this area to such a depth that under water, sand laden, turbidity flows could have covered the dinosaur footprints with what we see today and have called the Paluxy Sand of the Fredericksburg Group.  The thick layers of sand along with the deep flood waters provided the pressure that hardened the mud with the footprints into the Glen Rose limestone formation of today.  In addition to the preserved tracks, paleontologists have found fossil bones of the sauropods in the Fredericksburg deposits.

The now famous fossil dinosaur tracks of the Paluxy River are the first known sauropod fossil tracks to have been documented and studied.  In studying fossil tracks, the method of determining whether the imprecision was made in the mud by an animal or was a product of natural erosion or manmade activities is well documented.  When a track or other imprecision is made in the soft mud, it produces laminar compression layers beneath the print that follow the contours of the imprecision.  Carved prints and erosional features that appear like prints cut into the limestone do not have these laminar compression layers as reported by scientific observation;  CT scans also reveal these conditions when studying authentic fossil tracks.   CT scans of the fossil tracks of the Paluxy River reveal these laminar compression layers thereby indicating that they were made when the mud was soft and then was hardened by some preserving process.

While discussing the dinosaur tracks which are so well documented and studied in the Paluxy River basin we are confronted with the not so well known presence of what appear to be human foot prints in the same Glen Rose Formation as the dinosaur prints.  While the local people of the Glen Rose area capitalized on the discovery of the dinosaur tracks, there were others who discovered what they believed to be human tracks along the Paluxy River.  The same people who carved the dinosaur replica prints for sale in the Great Depression also carved replicas of the human looking prints they found as reported by Carl Baugh of Glen Rose.

In a museum near Glen Rose operated by Carl Baugh, a fossil human foot print with a theropod type dinosaur foot print claw cutting into it is on display (I have personally seen the print). The fossil print was found along the Paluxy River as verified by an impartial witness of TV newsmen and curious onlookers as well as a video camera recording logged and dated.  The track was removed and became part of the collection.  As has been stated, an imprint in mud causes laminar compression layers beneath the print which can be detected by CT scan and ground penetrating radar whereas a chiseled print does not have these laminar layers beneath it. The fossil human and dinosaur print combination, as revealed by CT scan, has these laminar layers which would lead to the logical conclusion that they were both made while the mud was still soft.

For evolutionists to accept this observed and collected specimen of fossil prints as authentic would mean that they would have to put aside their belief that some 60 millions of years of time separate the evolution of dinosaurs from that of man; in fact man and dinosaur lived together before the Great Flood of Noah.  It would shake there already unsteady humanistic denial of God and bring them face to face with a conscience that they have tried to ignore.  Evolutionary time, of which we have made mention, is a factor that must be measured in the millions, if not billions, of years in order to give evolution time to work it’s wonders of unpredictable, chance occurrences.  Do you believe that a group of hard core humanistic evolutionists with solid reputations in the evolutionary community to defend would allow evidence of this nature to be published in a science journal or to be circulated publically without bias and with impartiality?  The answer to this question is that they would not and, indeed, have not.  They claim that the method of recovery was unscientific and not observed by the professional community of accepted scientists when in fact they were invited to come and refused.  There are other natural observations that reveal a more accurate measure of the time that has elapsed in the natural scheme of things if they are examined impartially.  The fact is that this is just one of a number of examples that still exist to be seen by those with eyes to see.

I have not written this article to instigate a debate between a Great Flood geologist like myself and the evolutionist community at large though I would be glad to engage in such a debate and have done so in the past.  Such a debate seldom results in persuading the participants to adopt the opposing viewpoint.  The truth of the Great Flood of Noah is in the stones for everyone to see.  It is like pharaoh hardening his heart toward the truth of God’s power demonstrated in the ten plagues suffered by Egypt.  The truth was there for everyone to see but they hardened their hearts toward God and suffered great loss.  If the scoffers of today continue to harden their hearts against the true science of creation they will stand before God without excuse and God will proclaim, ‘depart from me all ye workers of inequity, I never knew you’.  Dear God of us all have mercy on them.

A Tribute to the Last of Her Kind

I recently attended the going home service of a great lady that was truly the last of her kind that I have known.  Mrs. Franklin Prindle (Doris), the mother of my good friend Daryl, was born into a farming family in Michigan in the year 1915.  She was a true daughter of that group we have come to call ‘The Greatest Generation’.  This group witnessed the baby steps of man into a new era of technology in what was probably one of the pivotal centuries in man’s history.  The ’War to end all Wars’ had just begun followed by ’the roaring twenties’ and Prohibition in which mankind had the biggest collective hangover in history; but thankfully there were families like Mrs. Prindles that maintained good values.

The 1930’s saw the Great Depression which was a hardship on all of society.  The people of these years had to learn to be self-reliant and resourceful.  They also had to trust greatly in God’s provision.  Mrs. Prindle was a great example to me of one who trusted totally in God and demonstrated the concept of praying without ceasing.  If she said that she would pray for you or for some need that she knew you had, you could count on her doing exactly that.

Her generation also experienced the greatest military conflict in this nation’s history.   In my opinion, only a group of people forged in the fires of hardship and adversity, clothed in the armor of the faith, with the character of this generation could have defended our country from the horrors of fascism that endangered our family structure and nation.  God raised up people like Mrs. Prindle and her husband, Franklin Prindle, to keep the faith of our Lord before the eyes of those men and women who fought and died for us.

I met Mr. and Mrs. Prindle while serving with Daryl Prindle at Heritage Baptist Church in the bus ministry.  They always impressed me as people of great faith with a true servant’s heart.  They were very friendly toward me and it was a joy to be around them.

My daughter (Sarah) met Mrs. Prindle at church one day while walking past where Mrs. Prindle was setting.  Sarah was wearing a pair of clunky shoes that reminded Mrs. Prindle of the days when young women worked in defense factories and was worried that she was doing a dangerous work.  Sarah assured her that she was in no danger which eased Mrs. Prindle’s mind.  This type of concern was in Mrs. Prindle’s character and she and Sarah struck an instant friendship.  Sarah would drop by Mrs. Prindle’s house after work and chat about all sorts of things which brought great delight to them both.

Sarah’s impression of Mrs. Prindle was that of a strength surrounded by stillness of purpose.  She did not have a flamboyant or outspoken speech but a still, small voice of faith; a confident spirit of independence that was an example of the pioneer type of mentality.  She didn’t feel entitled to be supported by anyone but was confident in the path that God had set for her and the faithfulness of God’s provision.  I will never know the like of her kind again and am comforted by the fact that Mrs. Prindle  is among that great cloud of witnesses looking down upon us from heaven.

The Easter Constellation: A Story in the Stars

How many of us have gone out on a clear, dark night and peered into the heavens at the wonderment of the stars and the patterns they make.  Many of the patterns are familiar to us like the Big and Little Dipper, Draco the Dragon, the Pleiades (the ancient eye test), and a few others that we remember from our school days.   There is one, however, that is most prominent in my mind; that of Orion known by most as the hunter.

The area around the star group of Orion is called the hunting group.  It contains the star patterns known as the Great Dog, the Little Dog, the Bull, and the Pleiades which all surround Orion.  The Great Dog contains the brightest star in the night sky called Sirius.  The Little Dog contains Procyon which is also a bright star.  Orion contains two bright stars named Betelgeuse and Rigel while the head of the Bull is the Great ‘V’.  This is probably the most recognizable group of stars for the average star gazer.

In my earlier years in science, I was taught that the star pattern of Orion depicted a hunter with a club in his right hand facing the charging Bull.  At his feet are the two Dogs that were part of the ancient story.  Now that I am a Christian and am studying science in the light of the Bible, I have found a different meaning to this group of stars.  A meaning that the Evil One has tried to hide from those that are unaware of his desire to cast doubt on God’s Word.

In Psalm 19:1-3 we are told that, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth His handywork ……night unto night sheweth knowledge…..There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.’  It is fitting that these stars are seen high in the southern sky at Easter and Passover for I believe they depict the great sacrifice of Christ and the glory of the Captain of the Host of Heaven (Joshua 5:13-15).  The central figure is the Captain of the Host with the Sword of the Spirit in His right hand and The Shield of Faith in His left.  Around His waist is the Belt of Truth from which hangs the sheath of the naked Sword that is in His hand and His feet are shod with the Shoes of Peace.

I am in awe of the great 22^nd Psalm of King David which contains the prophetic verses of the scene at the Cross; the opening words of,’My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’  In verse 12 it states that, ‘Many bulls have compassed me’ and later in verse 16 we read that, ‘For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.’  Scoffers beware; for God has given all of humanity the truth written in the heavens for all that have eyes to see and ears to hear.  Whenever I look up into the sky at Easter now, I no longer see Orion but the Captain of the Host of the heavens.

The Controversity Over Diversity

Apart from the play on words used in the title of this article, there appears to be a group of individuals in society who struggle with human diversity while a significant number of others revel in diversity even to the point of manipulation and contrivance.  As I was driving to a town hall meeting at the local university recently, I noticed a sign on campus proclaiming the celebration of diversity week.  The thought immediately came to mind of which diversity are they celebrating?

The obvious answer seems trite and manipulative to anyone that would desire to rise above the attempts of a few to cause separation and division among we the people.  I began to list in my mind a number of human diversities such as finger prints, voice tone and inflection, height and weight, hair color, eye color, posture along with others that combine to make us all unique individuals.  If a blind student were to walk into class at the university during diversity week, what diversity would they celebrate?

I have heard of and observed individuals blind from birth that recognize their friends and associates by the sound of their footsteps, the tone of voice, a particular fragrance, or a characteristic speech accent that made each person a familiar part of their lives of darkness.  These special people who live sightless lives are able to experience the light of friendship so completely that they are able to share in the pains of depression or the exhilaration of happiness by the tone of a familiar voice or the warmth of a gentle touch on the shoulder.

I once drove a van for my church that picked up blind people attending our morning service.  I developed a close bond with them and observed their reactions to the ride from home to church.  They became trustingly comfortable with my driving and grew familiar with the route by remembering the turns, the sound of the wheels on different pavements, and the sounds made by bridges and walls that we past.  They were aware of any deviation from the normal route.

Just ask yourself what a blind person might have perceived standing near the foot of the cross some 1983 years ago.  He might have heard the jeering of the crowd as the cross was dragged up the hill and wondered what had been down to deserve such an outcry; he may have heard those called soldiers by someone near him arguing over something and the sound of dice rolling followed by the words ‘that scarlet robe is mine now’; he would have heard the hammers striking nails and the thud as something heavy dropped into a hole.  Most of all, he would have heard the words from the cross that scattered the forces of evil and overcame the cruelty of the moment to offer forgiveness and love even to those that had jeered and cried the loudest.

Jesus had occasion to heal a blind man in Bethsaida as recorded in Mark 8:22-25.  A group brought a blind man to Jesus and asks Him to touch the man.  Jesus took the man by the hand leading him out of town and then spit in the blind man’s eyes.  Jesus touched the man and asked if he could see to which the blind man replied that he saw men as trees walking.  Jesus then touches the man’s eyes a second time asking again and as the man looked up he proclaimed that he saw all men clearly.

Like the blind man of the story, we tend to walk around day by day seeing men as oak trees, pine trees, cedar trees as well as many other kinds without really seeing our fellow men clearly.  We judge each one that we see according to appearance without learning about the real inner person because this could take more time than we are willing to invest.  If John the Baptist were to walk around the streets today dressed in his camel skins eating a locust bug we would judge him as insane.

We the people need to develop a new kind of vision for our fellow men around us; we need a kind of selective blindness that ignores the shallow external diversities that tend toward corruption and recognize that each of us have internal diversities that really define who we are.  If you do not want to take the time to really know someone then afford each other the dignity of not judging someone based on a hurried glance.   We need to celebrate the diversities that really matter and that make us the servant that the Lord leads out to serve in truth and love.

Just to relate a side note on the perceptiveness of the blind; when I was a youngster, I became aware of the famous handicapped educator and lecturer Helen Keller.  She suffered both deafness and blindness as a very young child.  She learned to communicate by the grace of God and the efforts of Anne Sullivan eventually earning a degree from college.  When Ms. Keller was first made aware of the Lord Jesus, she exclaimed that she had always known He was there, she just didn’t know His name.  How exceedingly great is our Lord God who allows such imperfect creatures as we to serve Him!

Traditional Values and the Evolution of Social Perception

Today, we live in a world that is both paradoxical and dichotomous.  We the people have access to more information on a daily basis than any that have come before us.  The paradox is that the children of the 21^st century may turn out to be the least equipped to benefit from the treasures of knowledge and discovery purchased by the generations that have come before them.  The fathers of the ‘baby boomer’ generation watched the Wright Brothers make the first powered flight while about 60 years later their children watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.  The 21^st century children of this fading great republic have not seen an American blast off into space on an American made launch vehicle.

What kind of leadership would allow a dichotomous system of education (the Common Core) that favors those with a gift for abstract thinking to excel while leaving the rest behind to struggle with mediocrity or failure.  Have the people of today failed to perceive what the dangers of such a value system might produce; a society of gifted individuals nurtured by the elite in contrast with those of mediocre performance with an entitlement mentality.  Mediocrity begets mediocrity just as dog begets dog.

From the time of the dark ages up to the first half of the 19^th century, news traveled through the various societies of the world at the rate of one horse power per hour or at the speed of the mighty currents of air that filled the sails of the wooden ships that were guided across the vast oceans by men with sinus of iron.  Electrons coursed through nature understood only minutely by a few gifted individuals and ignorantly witnessed in great bolts of lightning.   Electromagnetic waves (radio and television waves for example) bounced through the ethereal realms searching in vain for receivers that would not exist for many decades to come.  Information made its way from community to community and from individual to individual by word of mouth or, in some rare instances, within the pages of a treasured volume doggedly protected by a person of letters.

Formal education was the exception and not the norm with the average person reaching a sixth grade level only by perseverance and the dedication of a good educator.  It was mostly a rural, subsistent life with pockets of industry and knowledge seekers in the more populated areas.  Traditional values and moral teachings came mainly from family members, the church, and from rare hand written journals.  The family Bibles were carefully passed from generation to generation.  Each family jealously guarded the ways of life that had proven successful in past generations; the secret equations that allowed one family to excel in growing a particular food, building a special piece of furniture, or preserving the bountiful harvest through long winters of fruitlessness.  It was paramount that these families grow in numbers providing more hands to produce greater quantities of the essentials of life.  Knowledge was only valuable if it helped increase production.  Excursions into sinfulness or deviations from the accepted value system met with deservedly harsh retribution.  What was at stake was the survival of the society within an environment that showed little mercy for mistakes.    If we were to have visited these communities, we would have perceived a life of simple pleasures, great faith, and much thankfulness for God’s great provision.

Then, as thou inevitable, war changes the very fabric of society.  America inters into an internal war of brother against brother.  It was a war that divided families and consumed great quantities of flesh and blood; a war that changed the peaceful agrarian life of the past to the grinding of its sons and daughters up like so much fodder to feed the ‘great beast’ that is the enemy of all peace loving men.   The electron was unleashed to flow through thousands of miles of copper and steel carrying news and information at the speed of light across land and sea even as the Pony Express was gasping its last breath.  The telegraph fired the starting gun of the information explosion and the railroad increased the rate of speed of people and news from one horse power to steam engines with the power of hundreds of horses moving at 30 miles per hour.

The country could now be crossed in a few days instead of weeks.  The sons and daughters that had survived the war were not content to return to the slower, traditional life of the past, but plunged themselves into a life that saw knowledge as power and speed of travel as a tool to propel themselves to what they believed to be real success.  The traditional values of strong, close knit families were not gone, but they had suffered the infection of a virus that would continue to spread unceasingly; a disease that would cause men to begin to doubt God’s providence and introduce the ‘messiah of science’.  Now we cross the country in hours and information and news are at our fingertips.  The ‘messiah of science’ is finding cures for cancer, but can it cure the disease of separation from God.

All men will die once but those whose souls are diseased with separation from God will die twice, the second death being in the ‘lake of fire’.  This disease of the soul, this separation from God leads men to a humanistic mentality that causes them to embrace any science, whether true or false, that in their minds makes God unnecessary.  Why has God allowed man to gain so much knowledge even to the point that this earthly wisdom turns men from the very face of God?  The Bible proclaims Solomon as a man of great wisdom.  In Ecclesiastes 1:13 & 14 Solomon states, “And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven:  this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.  I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit”.  In verse 18 Solomon continues by saying, “For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”

These are harsh words to the scholarly nature of man.  The fact is that man’s scholarly nature must be exercised.  It must be an exercise of trust.  Do we trust God’s Word or science?  It must be an exercise of faith.  We must have faith that the real savior of mankind is not science but God’s Son.   It must be an exercise of will.  Man must overcome his will to resist God and humble himself before his Creator.  And it must be an exercise of grace.  We must appropriate the grace of God in order to see through the false science of this world to the truth of God’s Word and the real science it contains.   Satan has counterfeited the true science of the Word of God into the false science of this world.  This, indeed, is a sore travail for man but the Bible says, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”.  It is understandable for a person who does not believe in God to put his trust only in what he can see but for a believer in God to embrace a false science that flies in the face of God’s truth is an abomination.

William Jennings Bryan, the famous prosecutor of the Scopes Trial, wrote a short essay called, The Prince of Peace.  In this essay Bryan stated an interesting concept.  To wit, Darwinian Evolution is based on what Bryan called the “law of hate” or survival of the fittest.  The strong crowd out and kill off the weak, brother destroys brother and the child abandons the parent to a death of loneliness.  In contrast, God has introduced the “law of love” to a world of hate and sin.  Evolution and the “law of hate” have inspired men to attempt to exterminate whole races of people in the name of the survival of the “super race” or attack and kill without warning to destroy the infidels.  The “law of hate” excuses others to kill the unborn for lack of want.  The “law of love” commands us to love our enemies and to do good to those who despitefully use us.    Which of these laws has spoken all of the wonders of the universe into existence and created man in His own image?

The ecclesia is the called out assembly of believers.  Solomon is addressing his last words of wisdom to God’s people and not the lost.  Solomon concludes the matter in Ecclesiastes 12:13&14, “let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:  Fear God, and keep His commandments:  for this is the whole duty of man.  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”  How many of those secret things will God find to judge in our lives?

 

Some Trust in Chariots and Some Trust in Atomic Bombs

According to traditional thinking, the North and South American continents were the last to be visited by Europeans.   Apart from the Bering Sea, North America is separated from Europe and Asia by thousands of miles of ocean.  On the other hand, Europe, Asia, and Africa have been connected by land during recorded history.  For the early settlers to get to America required weeks of arduous journey.  The ones that made it and established viable settlements developed a sense of protected isolation from the continued influence of foreign governments.  The British found it difficult to hold on to their colonial interests and eventually lost them due, in part, to the vast ocean they needed to cross to reinforce their armies.  This eventually led to an isolationist doctrine within the minds and hearts of the average American who placed a certain amount of trust in this vast ocean of protection.

During the years leading up to the 20^th century, very few serious attacks upon American soil had any serious consequences.  We expanded our influence from coast to coast.  Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism were the rule of the day.  The Americas flourished under the Monroe Doctrine and no other country gave any serious challenge to it.  The indignities of our internal struggles were a black mark in our history, but we were able to fight off the Spanish, French and Russian entreaties into our affairs and we acquired vast new territories.   It was reminiscent of the glorious days of King David and King Solomon when Israel received tribute from all of the great kingdoms of the Middle East.  The Israelites could have easily trusted in their great armies of war horses and chariots of iron more than in the divine intervention of an Almighty God.  King David settled the matter in Psalm 20:7 by proclaiming that ‘Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God’.

The beginning of the 20^th century opened a new chapter in the hearts of Americans.  The ocean was not as vast as it used to be. It could now be crossed in a few days instead of weeks.  Wars broke out that, in some respects, challenged the Monroe Doctrine of hands off America.  A German U-boat sank the Lusitania and plunged America into the ‘war to end all wars’ or so we all thought.  Then 23 years later the Japanese crossed the wide Pacific and sank the fleet in Pearl Harbor.  For the next five years, eight million Americans were engaged in a truly World War.  A war with rockets that could carry bombs across oceans, planes that could carry bombs across oceans and ships that could carry planes across oceans.  Finally it ended, or so we prayed, with an atomic bomb that could destroy thousands in a split second.  We could no longer trust in the vast ocean of protection around us.  The greatest war had ended only to give rise to a new war.  It was a cold war that required steely nerves with an enemy that could no longer be seen.  Then terror became the great tool of war. Planes no longer carried bombs, but became bombs carrying innocent people to a target filled with innocent workers and not soldiers.

On a fateful November day in 1963 at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas we, my fellow post war baby boomers (or bummers as the case may be) and I, were brought face to face with the reality that we were no longer safe.  We couldn’t trust in our atomic bombs and we couldn’t trust in government.   The police couldn’t protect the president so how were they going to protect us.  In the years since, our government hasn’t really done anything to garner any modicum of trust from the people.  The recent death of Justice Scalia (one of the most conservative constitutional jurists of our time) does not raise any hope of future government success in returning America to a real government of the people, by the people and for the people.  I wonder what Abraham Lincoln would think if he were here today?

While driving home the other day, these thoughts that I have just related flooded into my mind and suddenly the LORD God of the universe brought me to my knees.  My leader is not in Washington, D.C., but in heaven seated on the throne of my heart.  My citizenship is not of this world, but of a heavenly country beyond the control of mortal men.  My wealth is not in my hands on earth; but there is laid up for me treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot tarnish it.  My trust is not in chariots and horses or in atomic bombs, but I will remember the name of the LORD my God; the creator of heaven and earth and of me.  As the Bible proclaims, ‘A sparrow does not fall to the earth without God’s notice.  How much more are we than sparrows?’

Are Death And Taxes Really Necessary???

We live in a day and age of statistics.  Everywhere we turn we are informed about some probable result of a particular action or decision we make.  If we smoke we greatly increase our chances of contracting cancer.  Overweight people have a greater risk of a number of possibly fatal illnesses.  Drinking and driving will probably get someone killed.  And so on and so on until you are afraid to do anything without consulting the statistics.  While pursuing my master’s degrees, I was required to take six courses in statistics.  You might well ask why one round of statistics for one master’s program would not fulfill the requirements for the rest?  Well, I did just that and was informed that statistics for life sciences was different from that of education and geography because the sample populations are different.  So that’s why I took six courses.

The point is, all of this knowledge of statistics doesn’t really help me cope with the constant influx of information.  If we listen to all these warnings we could become hypochondriacs.  On the other hand if we quit smoking and drinking, lose weight, put our cell phones down while driving, do ten thousand (10,000) walking steps a day, and all of the rest of things suggested by the Nanny state,  is it possible that we might live indefinitely (ha,ha)?  They say that one out of three women will die of heart disease so we must institute a campaign to educate women and reduce this statistic.  Does this really mean that death in women from heart disease may become a thing of the past?  That may well be so, but we will all die of something.  The Bible states quite clearly in Genesis 3:19 that from dust we have been made and unto dust we shall return.  In First Corinthians 15:22 all that have descended from Adam will die.  I personally am not afraid to die but I don’t necessarily want to leave on the next train.  The truth of the matter is that Hebrews 9:27 tells us that it is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment.   The judgment referred to here is made very clear in Revelation 20:13-15 in which death and hell (the place where those who die in their sins are kept) are cast into the Lake of Fire and this is called the second death.  So I think I can make a definite statement of truth, that the first death of the flesh is indeed inevitable but the second death of the soul and spirit of man in the Lake of Fire is not necessary.  It is only by our prideful resistance of Gods free gift (Romans 6:23) that we would be lost in hell’s fire.

Well, we have this thing about death resolved, now what about taxes.  From a purely civil standpoint, many of the taxes that we pay these days are not in the Constitution.  The federal income tax did not come into existence until about 1913 and social security was only supposed to be temporary until the end of the Great Depression.   There was no health insurance until World War II when the war time manufactures invented it as a perk to attract more employees.  Does the Bible have anything to say about taxes?  The answer is yes.  In Romans chapter 13, the Lord admonishes us to be subject to the civil authority and in verses 6 and 7 we are instructed to pay tribute (taxes) to support the civil authority.   There is an interesting account in Matthew 17:24-27 where Peter informs Jesus that they owe tribute to the local authority to which Jesus replies to His disciples that tribute is really collected from strangers and not the citizens of the district.  Jesus then instructs Peter to go to the sea and cast a hook.  The first fish that Peter catches will have the tribute money in its mouth.   This is a very interesting account in God’s Word.  It may first teach us that we are really not citizens of this world any longer as believers.  Secondly, if we owe tribute, we need to pay it.  Thirdly, if we have a need, God is the great and miraculous provider.

Are taxes, then, really necessary?  I will leave you with this final thought.  In Matthew 22:17-21, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees when they ask Him a trick question about payment of tribute.  Jesus then asks them whose image is on the tribute money to which they answer, Caesar’s.  Jesus then says, ‘render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s’. This is really the very crux of the matter.   If we choose to render allegiance to Caesar and the mammon of this world we will receive the rewards of this world.  But if we render unto God due benevolence which He deserves then we will receive the greater rewards of eternal life.

 

The Nature of Humanism and Creation

The question stems from I Cor. 2:5.  Does your faith stand in the wisdom of men or the power of God?  It really comes down to pride or humility.  The opposite of humanism is humility.  James 4:10 and I Pet. 5:5&6 state that if we humble ourselves before God, He will lift us up.  The humanist believes that he must lift himself up in the eyes of men around him.

Evolution is to the humanist what creation is to the Christian.  By creation God made man in His own image ( a reflection of but not the substance of ) and we are enabled by God and commanded by God to serve God and in powered by God through His will and grace and by His sacrifice to stand with Him in heaven when our days here on earth are done.

On the other hand, evolution proclaims that man, by some blind chance of fate, came into existence with all other beasts and like all other beasts must fight to survive and by himself improve himself and lift himself above the beast until one day through the power of science and his own will he himself will be a god ( see Gen 3: 1-5 ).

Mathematical Principles and the Nature of God

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit represent the triune nature of the God Head.  It is hard for finite creatures such as ourselves to comprehend the trinity.  It is equally difficult to understand the nature and qualities of God’s existence.  He is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent all of which are set in a picture of pure love, pure truth, and pure holiness.  These divine characteristics invite, yes even demand, our complete trust, love, and devotion to Him who first loved us.  In Romans 12:1, God beseeches us to be a ‘living sacrifice’ which is our ‘reasonable service’ to Him.   He has given us His Perfect Forgiveness, Perfect Mercy, and Perfect Sacrifice revealed within His Perfect Word in order to raise us up to become His worshipful friends just as Abraham was called the Friend of God and just as Jesus called His disciples His friends.  When Jesus knelt and washed the feet of His disciples, He was teaching true humility and friendship.  What a great, great honor to be proclaimed the friend of God.  He truly desires that we seek to draw close to Him and understand, as much as we are able, the nature and qualities of Himself.  No greater love has ever been demonstrated than that of God the Son who laid down His life for us His unworthy friends (John 15:13-15):  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatever I command you.  Henceforth I call you not servants;  for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends;  for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

The Bible is, without a doubt, the most logical, reasonable, and wisest compilation of words and thoughts ever presented to man.  It is God’s perfect wisdom, logic and reasoning that He desires to reveal to us that we may draw closer to Him.  As it says in Isaiah 1:18,’Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:  though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;’.   The great reason that our sins are as scarlet is that it required the blood of Jesus Christ to be shed for us His friends.  The Lord’s perfect love for His creation (man) moved Him to lay down His life to save us.  John Nash, the Nobel Prize winner in mathematics in 1994, stated so profoundly, “It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any real logic or reasons can be found”.

What we may know of the nature and qualities of God are revealed in His Word to us.  His omnipresences is demonstrated by His being everywhere in this universe in every single instance of time.  In Deuteronomy 4:39 He is in the heavens above and the earth beneath, in Psalms 139: 8-12 we are unable to escape Him no matter where we are, in Proverbs 15:3 His eyes are in every place, in Isaiah 66:1 the heaven is His throne and the earth His footstool, in Jeremiah 23:24 we are unable to hide ourselves because He fills heaven and earth, and in Acts 17:27 He is not far from every one of us.  There are scientists who attempt to boast their knowledge of infinity by talking of a curving universe and the ‘big bang’.  The truth is that only an infinite universe could contain an infinite God and His Holy Spirit is able to indwell each Believer simultaneously.

Omniscience is the quality of having infinite awareness, understanding, and knowledge.  In John 1:48, Jesus reveals His omniscience by proclaiming that he had seen Nathanael under a fig tree before they were introduced to one another by Phillip the disciple.   This act was in demonstration of His all knowing (omniscient) ability to see the future act of being introduced to Nathanael by Phillip.  Another example of the Lords omniscience was at the Sychar well (John 4) where He confronted the woman of Samaria and she proclaimed, ‘come see a man that told me all things that ever I did’.  Jesus had told His disciples that ‘He must needs go to Samaria’ already knowing that He would have a divine appointment with the Samaritan woman thereby offering salvation to many who would believe in Him.  There are a number of instances in the Scriptures where the Lord perceives the thoughts of those around Him enabling Himself to confront them with their sins such as the Pharisees as they dined at Peter’s house and Zacchaeus in the tree as the Lord past by saying that He would visit Zacchaeus for supper.  The Lord knows our thoughts even before we ourselves are aware of what we might do.

Omnipotence is the quality or state of having unlimited power as in almighty.  The only one in the universe possessing this power or state of being is God Almighty.  In Genesis 1:1, the first mention of God in scripture is the Hebrew word Eloheem which is the plural form meaning the Supreme God Head implying the Trinity.  In Genesis 2:4, the name of God, Eloheem, is preceded by LORD which in Hebrew is Yeh-ho-vaw-ha or Jehovah being in English the Self Existent One.  This name for God, Jehovah, continues to be used through Genesis and into Exodus to chapter 3 verse 14 where Moses at the Burning Bush asks God,’ Who shall I say hath sent me’ to which God replies, ’I Am That I Am, say I Am hath sent thee’.  In this reference, I Am that I Am is the Hebrew word Haw yaw asher haw yaw or I exist that I exist.  By this declaration, the Jehovah I Am or Self Existent One who ‘was and is and ever shall be’ is God’s personal name.   In Genesis 17:1, God is referred to as Almighty God which in Hebrew is El Shadday.  The name El for God is used throughout the Old Testment and where ever El is used it always refers to God almighty.

A very important and revealing instance occurs in Genesis 18 in which the LORD (Jehovah) appears to Abraham as three men.  Abraham immediately recognizes them and welcomes them as Lord (Adonai- our Master) which is the proper name of God .   Again in Deuteronomy 6:4, a passage refered to in the Jewish faith as the Shemma, the LORD our God is Adonai or Jehovah our Master.  Jesus in Matthew 6:24 states that we cannot serve two masters; we cannot serve God and mammon.  Either we serve the mammon of the world and make it our master or we serve God as our Master.

If we were to ask ourselves, ’Who would be most qualified to explain or operate a particular machine or complicated structure?’, we might say the designer himself.  We ourselves, and all of creation that surrounds us, have been designed and spoken into existence by Almighty God.  It is He alone, and to whom he is pleased to impart the power, that is able to alter or manipulate the laws of nature.   The Lord our Master turned water into wine, brought sight to those who were born blind, raised Lazarus from the dead, and healed lepers.  He demonstrated His authority over nature by causing the storm to cease and walking on water.  This was done in part to fulfill the prophecy of His coming as the Messiah to the Jews.  He also empowered His disciples with certain powers in order to provide them with authority to present the Gospel to the lost of the Roman world.  The Lord Creator of all things has all the equations of the universe in the Words of life He has spoken to us.

Those of us who devote a major part of our thoughts to the pursuit of science are quickly made aware of the fact that mathematics is the language that expresses the phenomena of the natural world around us.  The fact that the natural world is systematic in structure makes it possible to study and discover the truths of the created world.    All of the formal sciences require a degree of mathematical ability to understand and express the laws and concepts that have been discovered through systematic investigations into God’s creation.  When Einstein presented his ‘theory of relativity’ to the physics community, he expressed one of his basic principles as E=MC²    or the amount of energy required to hold an atom together is equal to the mass of the atom times the velocity of light squared.   Newton wrote in his ‘Mathematica Principia’ that the force exerted by an object in motion is the same as the mass of an object multiplied by the acceleration that is exerted upon that mass or F=MA.  This is one of the affects of gravity upon an object.  When a nurse takes your blood pressure, the sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff) is measuring the pressure exerted on the walls of the blood vessels by the beating of the heart per the unit of area of the walls of the blood vessel such as pounds per square inch.   In chemistry, we use mathematics to determine the formulas for compounds in our experiments.  We measure so many grams of this element combined with so many grams of another element to produce the desired compound such as H₂O (water) or C₆H₁₂O₆ (a simple sugar).  We could go on and on with examples of mathematics in the creation bringing us to the same conclusion.  Mathematics could be said to be the language by which God has written His creation.  From the smallest living thing or the minutest particle of matter to the greatest galactic cluster of stars, their mechanism and workings are expressed clearly by mathematics.  This in no way diminishes the fact that God spoke all things into existence.  In First Corinthians 14:40, God commands that all things are to be done decently and in order.  All of creation has been done decently and in order and this very order is certainly expressible mathematically.

Free Enterprise Economy vs. Socialism

A free enterprise economy provides an ideal environment for a free society to flourish in the free market.  Free enterprise implies that each individual has the opportunity to pursue his or her financial goals as far as they would like utilizing their talents and abilities in the market of ideas.  It affords the individual the opportunity to exercise his or her God given rights to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and all of the remaining inalienable rights that reside in mankind as Gods special creation.  Since the Declaration of Independence does state, ‘that among these rights’, which infers that other rights such as freedom of worship, ownership of property, freedom of expression and the right to have a family of any size one may choose, then a free enterprise economy would be ideal to finance the pursuit of these inalienable rights.  Here the word inalienable means that these rights reside in man from conception and are not a privilege allowed by government.  The Bill of Rights was not added to the Constitution to bestow anything upon us but to limit a tyrannical government from depriving us of that which we already possess.

The ability to exercise these rights to a lesser or greater degree is based upon our ability to gain the wealth needed to live at the level of existence we choose for ourselves and our families.  If our ambition is to have a large family and greater prosperity, then we must train ourselves and develop some marketable skill with which to achieve our goal.  The government, which essentially consists of the people around us (for we are a government of the people), is not responsible for funding the goals we choose for our life.  Our neighbors, the real government, are busy pursuing their own dreams and goals and should not be expected to finance ours.  If, out of individual benevolence, a neighbor chooses to help someone, that is their right and they would receive a blessing for doing so.  The free enterprise system in this case provides the opportunity for each of us to achieve our goals.  The key word here is opportunity and not guaranty.  Free enterprise does not guaranty our success but provides the environment for us to rise or fall on our own merits.

Socialism, on the other hand as relates to economics, is a system in which a body politic (whether elected, appointed or assumed) collects a large portion of the monetary wealth from the individuals in the society and then, through some prescribed set of regulations, redistributes the wealth in designated amounts to whom it determines to be worthy.  This, of course, means that the body politic makes all your choices of life for you and suspends the free exercise of your inalienable rights.  This form of economy belongs in the ‘Dark Ages” in which vassal states ruled by dukes and earls appointed by kings with armies of knights exerted their authority over the common serfs which were required to work and support the needs of the aristocracy. There was no middle class but only the landed gentry with their armies forcing the poor serfs to live as their lords thought best.  Any body politic (government) which, by some conspiratorial, deceptive statute, requires its citizens to give their wealth to finance someone else’s goals, goals for which they themselves are responsible, is in effect stealing from its citizens.  Everyone must rise or fall on individual, personal merits and abilities.  If there are those in the community which, for some unavoidable circumstance, have been unable to meet the needs of their family, then the decent members of the community will rise to the aid of those less fortunate.  That is the way it has been for centuries and it has worked well in our past.  The days of the old fashioned custom of ‘pounding’ and ‘barn raising’ live today in the hearts of Godly people who will rise to the occasion to aid their fellow man.  The victims of Katrina were aided with money, food, water, and manpower from their neighboring states.

The Communists have set forth a list of 45 goals for the takeover of America as taken from “The Naked Communist” by Cleon Skousen.  Among these are those that apply to economics such as:

•         Permit free trade among all nations regardless of communist affiliation
•         Extension of long term loans to nations with communist affiliations
•         Infiltrate and gain control of big business
•         Infiltrate and gain control of labor unions
•         Gain centralized control of social agencies and welfare programs

These goals plus the fact that our monetary system has been stolen from the control of a government of the people and has been rested in the hands of a group of private bankers under the name of ‘The Federal Reserve’ which is as federal as Federal Express shipping company.   Our money has gone from being backed by gold and silver to being notes issued by these private bankers with their dubious guaranty of value.  Any law or regulation of a socialist central power that redistributes the wealth of a society from the ambitious, free, hard working citizens to those who lack the drive and ambition to rise above their circumstance is weakening all of the members of society.  It discourages the hard working citizens and enslaves those that receive their living for nothing.  The old saying is that those with the power to take from the ‘haves’ to give to the ‘have nots’ also have the power to take away that which they have given.  It is the subtle power of the infamous bread lines of the former Soviet Union of which I have had the dubious distinction to have observed first hand.  If the residents, according to those with which we were assigned to be housed, misbehaved in any way the bread lines were closed for a time in order for the ‘powers that be’ to regain the desired behavior.

With regard to money, the question then arises, ‘just what is money?’  In the ‘Free Market’, money is a means of exchange that is related in value to the economic output of the people and the infrastructure that they have built for themselves and the complex that generates the output.  The more output and infrastructure a people produce and possess, the more value their money has.  The amount of money that flows through an economy of a free people should be set as a percentage of the total value of the economy.  This, in part, is related to the ‘gross domestic product’ of the economy or the value of the goods and services a people generate.  The government or ‘body politic’ does not generate the wealth of the people, it exists to produce, sustain and protect the environments in which a free people function that do create the wealth.  The creation of wealth in a free society is a product of the ambitions, talents, abilities and skills along with other conditions that allow each individual the freedom to pursue his or her dreams and choices of life.  The taxes a government of the people collects should be used to sustain and protect the free market environment and not interfere and regulate a free market that by nature regulates itself through competition and free choices of the consumer.