Monthly Archives: June 2023

Who Do You Trust? Who Should You Trust?

Posted on by

Ken Ham (in a facebook post) writes:

Who should you trust first? God or the scientist? God or the theologian? God or the Christian academic?

Many times over the years, I’ve had a number of conversations with Christians who won’t accept the days of creation as ordinary days and vehemently defend millions of years and other evolutionary beliefs. Often, the person talking to me has quoted various Christian academics, well-known theologians/Christian leaders, or certain church fathers claiming that I should give up my position on a historical Genesis because these academics/famous Christians do not agree with me.

My answer to them has been, “But what does God clearly state in his Word? I judge the people you quoted against God’s Word, not the other way round.”

I have certainly been scoffed at and mocked at over the years because of my position. Now don’t get me wrong. I respect scholarship. But regardless, we need to recognize that we could have 100 PhDs from Harvard university, but compared to what God knows we would still know nearly nothing.

When I teach children about dinosaurs, creation, and evolution, I like to ask them these questions:

•“Has any human being always been there?” They answer, “No.”

•“Has any scientist always been there?” They answer, “No.”

•“Does any human being know everything?” They answer, “No.”

•“Does any scientist know everything?” They answer, “No.”

•“Who is the only one who has always been there?” They shout out, “God.”

•“Who is the only one who knows everything?” The shout out, “God.”

I then ask:

“Who is the one we should always trust first? God or the scientist?” They call out, “God.”

And I could add, “Who should we always trust first: God, the scientist, the theologian, the teacher, the pastor, the professor?” And the answer will always be God.

In a way that sounds rather simplistic. In fact, I’ve had people who oppose my position claim that I have too simplistic a belief to just take Genesis 1-11 as it is written. Now when someone claims it’s too simplistic, I believe this is showing up a problem we all have to battle with because it’s a part of our nature, the sin nature we have, because we are descendants of Adam. The problem is pride.

God’s Word has a lot to say about pride:

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom”(Proverbs 11:2).

“Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 26:12).

And God’s Word tells how to gain wisdom and knowledge:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7).

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

I would rather stand before the Lord and say that I’m guilty of simplistically believing what his Word states in Genesis than to trust the word of fallible humans and reinterpret God’s Word.

I’m reminded about this so-called “simplistic” approach when I read what Jesus said about children:

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3–4).

It is so much easier for children who have not had years of indoctrination from the world to believe God’s Word as written. Reading Genesis for them is just like reading a history book. Well, it is history, and history as God had it recorded for us. Sadly, the more educated people become, many find it harder to believe God’s Word as written in Genesis. And it’s not because Genesis is literal history, but I believe it’s because of pride.

And a reason for that is we all have an underlying problem.

It doesn’t matter who we are, we all have sinful hearts.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

The origin of sin is found in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve were tempted by the devil to disobey God. Now consider two elements of the temptation that help us understand our sin nature:

“He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say . . .” (Genesis 3:1).

Note the first attack by the devil was on the Word of God to get Adam and Eve to doubt God’s Word so that doubt would lead to unbelief.

“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).

The second part of the temptation was really to offer them to be their own god.

We know Adam took the fruit and disobeyed God and brought sin and the judgment of death into the world. God’s Word states:

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come” (Romans 5:12–14).

So we have that sin nature. And Genesis 3:1 and 3:5 sum up that nature.

Our propensity will be to doubt the Word of God, as we would rather trust the word of man. I see that over and over again with Christian leaders/academics who would rather trust man’s word (beliefs) about millions of years and evolution instead of God’s Word as it’s clearly stated in Genesis 1-11.

Also, we have this propensity to be our own god. We want to decide truth for ourselves. We see ourselves as being proud of what we know. We think we can reason correctly by ourselves, so we have that problem of intellectual pride wanting intellectual respectability.

I believe this is why there is so much compromise in the church when it comes to God’s Word in Genesis. Our heart is such that we would rather trust man’s word than God’s Word, so we have a problem with intellectual pride and thus we cave to peer pressure. We must guard against this. However, none of us like being called anti-intellectual or anti-academic. And we will be called that if we believe in six literal days of creation and a young earth and universe.

But I often think about those in Hebrews 11 and the Christian martyrs of the past. They were sawn in half, thrown to lions, burned alive, lived in caves, were destitute and suffered many atrocities. And yet, so many Christians today cave because they are belittled by secular academics for believing the “simplistic” account of creation, the fall, the flood, and Tower of Babel as related in Scripture.

I wonder how many in the church today would have stood with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Would you? Who do you trust first: God or the scientist?

“‘Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?’

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up’” (Daniel 3:15–18).

What Should We Think About ‘Aliens’?

Posted on by

Ken Ham (in a facebook post) writes:

In recent times there has been a lot of talk about UFOs and supposed evidence of alien spacecraft. Are UFOs real?

(If the people who are so focused on UFOs and aliens were as focused on God’s Word, they would be focusing in matters of eternal value!)

Actually, I do believe in UFOs. But no, I don’t believe in aliens!

Why do I believe in UFOs? Well, any flying object that can’t be identified is a UFO!

But do I believe in UFOs piloted by Vulcans, Klingons, or Cardassians? The answer to that question is a definite no. (Even though I am a fan of some science fiction.)

Now, I usually get some quite emotional reactions when I discuss UFOs and aliens. But this is my perspective from what I believe is a biblical worldview.

If I don’t believe in aliens flying around in UFOs, does that mean I reject the idea that intelligent life could exist in outer space? As one of my friends once said, “Looking at the mess people get themselves into in this world, sometimes I wonder if there’s intelligent life on earth, let alone outer space.”

A good friend of mine back in the 1980s was Dr. Clifford Wilson, author of the million-copy bestseller “Crash Go the Chariots.” He did a lot of research on UFOs. He once told me that he concluded that, by far, the majority were either misunderstood natural phenomena or misinterpreted manmade objects. However, he did conclude there was a very small percentage that couldn’t be explained, and he allowed the possibility of some supernatural origin—albeit evil. But regardless, he, like me, did not believe in intelligent physical beings on planets other than our earth. There can always be some evidence we don’t have which could give a logical explanation for claimed sightings and objects.

A number of leading evolutionists, like the late Dr. Carl Sagan, have popularized the idea that there must be intelligent life in outer space. From an evolutionary perspective, it would make sense to suggest such a possibility. People who believe this possibility contend that, if life evolved on earth by natural processes, intelligent life must exist somewhere else in the far reaches of space, given the size of the universe and the millions of possible planets.

One can postulate endlessly about possibilities of intelligent life in outer space, but I believe a Christian worldview, built on the Bible, rejects such a possibility. Here is why.

During the six days of creation in Genesis chapter 1, we learn that God created the earth first. On day four he made the sun and the moon for the earth, and then “he made the stars also” (Genesis 1:16).

From these passages of Scripture, it would seem that the earth is very special—it is center stage. Everything else was made for purposes relating to the earth. For instance, the sun, moon, and stars were made “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” (Genesis 1:14).

Throughout the Old Testament, many passages distinguish between the heavens and the earth. Psalm 115:16 states, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth has he given to the children of men.”

Many other passages single out the earth as being special, made for humans to dwell on, and a focus of God’s attention, such as Isaiah 66:1: “Thus says the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.”

Isaiah 40:22 likens the heavens to a curtain that God basically stretches around him: “It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in.”

Such verses certainly imply that the earth is to be considered separate and special when compared with the rest of the universe, so they suggest that the earth alone was created for life. So far, based on man’s limited exploration of space and the solar system, this certainly has held true.

But there is a theological reason that I believe rules out the possibility of intelligent life in outer space.

Once when I wrote an article on this topic, secularists posted headlines that I believe aliens were going to hell! Well, the point of what I want to say from a theological perspective is that this is one of the reasons why I don’t believe in aliens. I don’t believe aliens are going to hell as I don’t believe aliens exist!

The Bible makes it clear in Romans 8:22 that the “whole creation groans” because of Adam’s sin. When Adam fell, the entire universe was affected. Not only this, but one day in the future, there will be “a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away” (Revelation 21:1).

Isaiah 34:4 states, “And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.”

Now here is the problem. If there are intelligent beings on other planets, then they would have been affected by the fall of Adam because the whole creation was affected. So these beings would have to die because death was the penalty for sin. One day their planet will be destroyed by fire during God’s final judgment, but they cannot have salvation because that blessing is given only to humans.

If intelligent beings lived on other planets, they would suffer because of Adam’s sin but have no opportunity to be saved through Christ’s sacrifice.

When Jesus Christ stepped into history, he became the God-man. The Bible calls him “the last Adam” and the “second man” (1 Corinthians 15:45, 47). He became the second perfect man (Adam was perfect before he sinned), and he took the place of the first Adam by dying for the human race. As the first Adam was the representative head of the human race, so Jesus became the new head, the last Adam. So there can be no other Savior, only Christ. Jesus now sits in the heavens, still in human form, sitting on his throne next to the Father. If Jesus stepped out of his human form, we would no longer have a Savior. He remains the God-man forever.

But note: Jesus didn’t become a “God-Klingon,” a “God-Vulcan,” or a “God-Cardassian”—he became the God-man. It wouldn’t make sense theologically for there to be other intelligent, physical beings who suffer because of Adam’s sin but cannot be saved.

Now, regarding animal life and plants, we cannot be so dogmatic because the Bible does not state whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. Based on the passages about the heavens and earth, however, I strongly suspect that life does not exist elsewhere.

Now angels are a different topic altogether.

So the next time you hear someone talking about UFOs, think on the Scripture passages quoted above, and use them to segue into a presentation of the gospel: “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:21–22).

Praying the Psalms

Posted on by

Article by Donald S. Whitney “Why You Should Be Praying the Psalms” – original source: https://www.9marks.org/article/why-you-should-be-praying-the-psalms/

I’m sure such folks are out there, but I’ve not personally met any Christian who hasn’t struggled in prayer because they find themselves saying the same old things about the same old things. Before long, such repetitive prayer gets boring. And when prayer is boring, it’s hard to pray—at least with any joy and fervency.

Note that the problem is not that we pray about the same old things. Actually, that’s normal, because our lives tend to consist pretty much of the same old things from one day to the next. Thankfully, the big things in life—our family, our church, our job—don’t dramatically change very often.

Instead, the problem is we say the same old things about the same old things. And prayers without variety eventually become words without meaning. The result of such praying is that we tend to feel like failures. We assume that, despite our devotion to Christ, love for God, and desire for a meaningful prayer life, we must be second-rate Christians because our minds wander so much.

But I’m here to tell you, the problem may not be you; it may be your method.

I believe that the most simple, permanent, and biblical solution to this almost universal problem is to stop making up your own prayers most of the time—because that results in repetitious prayer—and to pray the Bible instead.

Praying the Bible means talking to God about what comes to mind as you read the Bible. Usually you might read the passage first, then go back and pray through what you just read.

So, for instance, if today you turned to Psalm 23 in your devotional reading, after completing it you would come back to verse 1 and pray about what occurs to you as you read “The Lord is my shepherd.” You might thank the Lord for being your shepherd, ask him to shepherd you in a decision that’s before you, entreat him to cause your children to love him as their shepherd too, and pray anything else that comes to mind as you consider Psalm 23:1. Then, when nothing else in those words prompts prayer, you continue by doing the same with the next line, “I shall not want.” And on and on you go through the psalm, line-by-line, until you run out of time.

By praying in this way, you discover that you never again say the same old things about the same old things.

While you can pray through any part of the Bible, some books and chapters are much easier to pray through than others. Overall, I believe the book of Psalms is the best place in Scripture from which to pray Scripture. In part, that’s because Psalms is the only book of the Bible inspired by God for the expressed purpose of being reflected to God. God inspired them as songs, songs for use in both individual and corporate worship. The Psalms also work well in prayer because there’s a psalm for every sigh of the soul. You’ll never go through anything in life in which the root emotion is not found in one or more of the Psalms. Thus the Psalms put into expression that which is looking for expression in our hearts.

Christian, here’s how you’ll benefit from praying the Psalms.

1. You’ll pray more biblically-faithful prayers.

The Bible will guide your prayers, helping you to speak to God with words that have come from the mind and heart of God.

This also means you’ll be praying more in accordance with the will of God. Can you have any greater assurance that you’re praying the will of God than when you’re praying the Word of God?

2. You’ll be freed from the boredom of saying the same old things about the same old things.

One way this will happen is that the psalm will prompt you to pray about things you normally wouldn’t think to pray. You’ll find yourself praying about people and situations that you’d never think to put on a prayer list.

What’s more, even though you also continue to pray about the same things—family, church, job, etc.—you’ll pray about them in new ways. Instead of saying, “Lord, please bless my family,” the text will guide you to pray things such as, “Lord, please be a shield around my family today” if, for example, you’re praying through Psalm 3:3.

3. You’ll pray more God-centered prayers.

When you use a God-focused guide like the psalms to prompt your prayers, you’ll pray less selfishly and with more attention to the ways, the will, and the attributes of God.

Prayer becomes less about what you want God to do for you—though that’s always a part of biblical praying—and more about the concerns of God and his kingdom.

4. You’ll enjoy more focus in prayer.

When you say the same old things in prayer every day, it’s easy for your mind to wander. You find yourself praying auto-pilot prayers—repeating words without thinking either about either them or the God to whom you offer them.

But when you pray the Bible, your mind has a place to focus. And when your thoughts do begin to wander, you have a place to return to—the next verse.

5. You’ll find that prayer becomes more like a real conversation with a real Person.

Isn’t that what prayer should be? Prayer is talking with a Person, the Person of God himself. Prayer is not a monologue spoken in the direction of God. Yet somehow, many people assume that when they meet with the Lord he should remain silent and they should do all the talking. But when we pray the psalms, our monologue to God becomes conversation with God.

I’m not alluding to the perception of some spiritual impression or hearing an inner voice, imagining God saying things to us—away with that sort of mysticism. Instead, I’m referring to the Bible as the means by which God participates in the conversation, for the Bible is God speaking. God speaks in the Bible, and you respond to his speaking in prayer. That’s why people who try this often report, “The pressure was off. I didn’t have to think about what to say next, and the whole experience just kind of flowed.”

Want to experience these benefits for yourself? How about right now? Pick a psalm, read what God says there, and talk with him about it.