Author Archives: John Samson

What Do These Stones Mean?

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Ken Ham (in a facebook post) writes:

What do these stones mean?

Millions of people, including those in Christian families, visit the Grand Canyon in America each year. As they stand on the edge of this stunning canyon, children and young people will ask their parents, “How did this happen? What formed all those rock layers and the canyon?”

Now, the signs and the park rangers will tell them that the layers of sedimentary strata (some with lots of fossils) were laid down slowly over millions of years. They will then tell the story that the Colorado River eroded the canyon over millions of years.

In essence, the question asked was, “What do these stones mean?” Sadly, most hear a story based on the belief in (religion of) evolutionary geology.

But how many fathers answer the question by saying, “This canyon is a relic of a past catastrophic event—the event of the Noah’s flood. The layers were laid down during the flood, and then at the end of the flood, God raised up the land surface forming mountains (Psalm 104), and in this area a dam formed that held back leftover waters from the flood. Then the dam was broken, and the water gouged out the canyon to allow the river (called the Colorado River today) to flow through it. The sediment was washed downstream into massive deposits called surge deposits.

“It’s all a reminder of the judgment God brought on the earth because of the wickedness of man. It should remind us that God’s Word is true, God judges wickedness because of our sin, and we all need to receive the free gift of salvation as all humans are sinners.”

Over and over again children have not been given the correct answers by their fathers, even Christian fathers, when they have asked questions about the origin of the universe and life, as so many of all ages have been indoctrinated by the world’s pagan evolutionary views.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is in Joshua chapter 4, where we read the account of the Israelites miraculously crossing the Jordan River. God told Joshua to get the people to have 12 men gather 12 stones from the river and build a memorial so that:

“When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.” For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever” (Joshua 4:21–24).

What a reminder! Make sure you tell this younger generation about the Lord and his Word so they will know who the true God is. And let this also be a witness to the world concerning the only one true God.

When we opened the Ark Encounter attraction in 2016, the board members laid 12 stones next to the massive ship. I explained to the 8,000 in attendance that this life-size Ark is our modern version of the 12 stones—to remind coming generations that God’s Word is true and that the saving gospel in that Word is true. We built the Ark and the Creation Museum as our 12 stones, so to speak, to help parents pass on the truth of God’s Word and the saving gospel to the coming generations.

We read one of the saddest passages in the Bible in Judges about when Joshua died, and then all that generation with Joshua died:

“And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals” (Judges 2:10–11).

The children who were to ask about the meaning of these 12 stones rebelled and they worshipped false gods! What happened? When we read Scripture, we find the fathers did not pass on the spiritual legacy to the next generation

This should be a warning to us today.

Psalm 78 instructs fathers to train their children to know the true God:

“He commanded our fathers

to teach to their children,

that the next generation might know them,

the children yet unborn,

and arise and tell them to their children,

so that they should set their hope in God

and not forget the works of God,

but keep his commandments” (Psalms 78:5–7).

And then we read

“And that they should not be like their fathers,

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

a generation whose heart was not steadfast,

whose spirit was not faithful to God” (Psalms 78:8).

It’s obvious these fathers of old did not obey the Lord and did not train up their children to fear the Lord as they should have. As a result, they lost the next generation after Joshua.

In essence, this is happening in the church today. Statistics back in the early 2000s made it clear that 2/3 of young people in the United States were leaving the church by college age (with very few returning).

Pew Research in 2010 clearly showed churched attendance for millennials was down to 18%, and by 2021, Generation Z church attendance was down to less than 9%!

Research we have done at Answers in Genesis over the years shows clearly that parents and the church have failed to raise generations who know what they believe, why they believe what they do, and how to defend the Christian faith.

Sadly, we have not raised up generations to hold a truly Christian worldview. In many ways, fathers have abdicated their God-given responsibility to be the spiritual head of their house and to make sure the correct spiritual legacy is passed on to coming generations. Personally, I believe many fathers need to repent of not investing the time to train their children. They’ve largely handed them over to the world (e.g., public schools, worldly media), and the church (which by and large has not taught apologetics but has compromised God’s Word in Genesis) as the primary sources for education.

Thus, when children ask the questions about the evolutionary views they have been indoctrinated in at school and are not given the correct answers by their parents or church leaders, to point them to the literal truth of the Genesis history, many walk away from the church. If they can’t trust the history in the Bible at the beginning, how can they trust any of it?

Just like in the days after Joshua, we are now seeing the consequences of this lack of training as the secularization of generations has increased and an anti-Christian sentiment has grown in the culture. Yes, when we contemplate this reality, every day should be a sad Father’s Day.

As fathers contemplate Father’s Day each year, I challenge them to commit to doing what God has commanded us to do in the spiritual training of our children. After all, each child is a human being who will live forever and ever, in heaven or hell, which should convict each one of us concerning the time and resources we invest into each child.

Fathers need to be teaching their children to defend the Christian faith and giving them answers to the evolutionary attacks of our day! They need to be teaching Genesis chapters 1–11 as literal history, as it is the foundation of the rest of the Bible, of all doctrine, of the Christian worldview, and of everything. They need to be teaching against compromising God’s Word in Genesis as is happening in much of the church.

“The father makes known to the children your faithfulness” (Isaiah 38:19).

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

On Father’s Day (regardless of when it is celebrated in different countries), as well as every day of the year, let’s remember what God commands concerning our responsibilities to our children. (Father’s Day in the USA is this coming Sunday.)

The Supremacy of Scripture

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Quotes by Tim Chester from his upcoming published book “Scripture is Supreme”:

  1. “When Christians say that Scripture is supreme, we are saying that the Bible is the authoritative guide to God.”
  2. “Scripture is supreme because it is wholly trustworthy, and it is wholly trustworthy because God himself inspired its creation, acting through human authors to ensure Scripture’s complete accuracy.”
  3. “We accept Scripture as our supreme authority because we recognise God as our authority. By submitting to Scripture, we are submitting to God.”
  4. “We accept the supremacy of Scripture because we accept the supremacy of its author.”
  5. “The true Christ is the Christ we find in Scripture. And therefore, the supremacy of Christ becomes the supremacy of Scripture.”
  6. “Through the Holy Spirit, God himself speaks through the Bible as it is read and preached. That’s why Scripture is our supreme authority—because it is the voice of God.”
  7. “The supremacy which God-through-Scripture claims over us is the loving, liberating, life-giving rule of a loving, liberating, life-giving God. If ever we have reason to doubt this, then we can look to the cross, for at the cross we see the love of God in all its height, depth, and breadth (Rom. 5:8).”
  8. “Whenever we have to choose between what the Bible says and what anything else says, we choose the Bible every time.”
  9. “The supremacy of Scripture is not a dictate imposed on us by a faceless despot. The words of Scripture are the words of Jesus, the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for his people.”
  10. “God becomes supreme in our hearts not by battering us into submission but by gently changing our desires and fuelling our love. This is why we read the Bible every day: to hear God speak to us in love and so be energised to serve him.”

What About Cavemen?

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Ken Ham writes (n a facebook post):

Do I believe in cavemen? Of course I do.

Cavemen are people who lived in caves. Actually, there are people today who live in caves in certain parts of the world. For instance, in central Australia where opals are mined, it is so hot that people live in caves. Some of the American Indians used to live in caves in areas around the Grand Canyon. So there were ancient cavemen, and there are modern-day cavemen!

But despite popular opinion to the contrary, ancient “cavemen” were completely human and in need of a Savior, Jesus Christ, just like every other human being.

When many people hear the term cavemen, they usually think of primitive-looking, hairy (even ape-like), cave-dwelling brutes. That is how they have often been depicted in secular museum dioramas illustrating man’s supposed ancestors or ancient relatives. Neanderthal man was often depicted this way.

Because of this evolutionary type of propaganda, many people are confused about cavemen. However, as I stated above, there is a very simple definition for this term: “Cavemen” are people who live (or lived) in caves!

After Noah’s flood, eight people came off the Ark, and from Noah’s three sons and their wives came all the people who live or have lived on this earth. The genealogies in Genesis make it very clear that these eight people descended from the first couple, Adam and Eve. This means that every person who has ever lived is a relative of everyone else. We are all members of the one human race—Adam’s race—which means we are all sinners in need of salvation.

Now consider what happened at the time of the flood. A massive amount of technology was lost. Except for what Noah took on the ark, the pre-flood world’s technology, architecture, and other expertise were completely destroyed.

It took time for humans to restore knowledge and rebuild technology after the flood. For instance, the Bible tells us that Noah initially lived in a tent (Genesis 9:21).

As time progressed and the population increased on the earth, perhaps some people built homes out of stone. Some may even have taken pieces of the ark to build wooden structures to live in. Others may have found or dug caves to live in. If I had been one of those people, I would have found a cave to live in as I don’t have a talent to build things!

Throughout history, people have lived in different types of structures, depending on the available natural resources, the talents of individuals, and the amount of accumulated knowledge for technological advances.

Now, because of the indoctrination in evolutionary beliefs, many people believe that man evolved from slime, and as he did, he first learned to grunt and then eventually speak. Then he developed stone tools that gradually became more sophisticated as he supposedly evolved.

From a biblical perspective, however, man was highly intelligent right from the start. Adam’s immediate descendants were soon inventing musical instruments and working with brass. No doubt Noah and his family began reinventing some of the technology lost at the flood. As time went on, their descendants developed new technologies as knowledge about the elements and laws of nature increased.

Some people (such as the group we call Neanderthals) probably became isolated from other humans. They lived in caves, invented musical instruments, made jewelry, and buried their dead. Yes, they were “cavemen,” but they were our relatives—descendants of Noah.

They certainly had some external features that made them look a little different from people today, but they were still members of the human race. They may have looked slightly different on the outside, just as Australian Aboriginal people look different from northern Canada’s Inuit, but their genetics clearly show they are all members of the human race.

This brings us to the most important scientific point. In 2000, the Human Genome Project announced to the world that all humans biologically belong to one race. Although the people heading this project did not acknowledge it, they confirmed the Bible’s account of the creation of man—that all people are descendants of Adam and Eve and all belong to one biological race.

Now, because of the immense variability God placed into the genome of each kind of creature, including humans, there is enormous potential for differences on the “outside”—e.g., physical traits. Sadly, many people see these outside differences as major and important—whereas in reality, these differences only reflect the genetic differences that God placed in the genes of each type of creature and humans.

Humans, however, have a difference inside that is vitally important. There are actually two “races” of people! There is only one race biologically, but there are two races spiritually. You are either for Christ or against him (Matthew 12:30); you either walk in light or in darkness (1 John 1:5).

The Bible makes it clear that the two spiritual “races” can be distinguished ultimately only by what is on the inside—the state of one’s heart.

In 1 Samuel, we read the account of Samuel going to anoint a king. He did not know God had chosen David. From the text, we are given the impression that Samuel saw one of David’s brothers and was convinced that he would be the king because of his physical characteristics. However, that was not to be.

In 1 Samuel 16:7, we read, “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’”

This reminds us all that it is not the outside that matters, but the state of your heart.

It is easy for us as humans to focus on the outside as we look at people—their physical characteristics, their clothing, their lifestyle—but God reminds us that the inside makes all the difference.

As we think about all this regarding the Great Commission, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15), we need to remember that the saving power of the gospel is for all our relatives—every human being.

So whether they live in apartments in New York City or in caves in Coober Pedy (real cave-people who even have TV sets) in Australia, or in caves in France, or in ice houses in the Arctic—all humans are descendants of Adam and are thus sinners in need of salvation.

The next time we hear the term “cavemen,”it will make a difference if we consider the fact that all humans are our relatives. What a reminder that, regardless of where people live or what they look like, they are all our relatives!

And everyone has a heart problem (sin) that needs attention. From what we know about most past cultures (including many cavemen), it would seem that many did not deal with their heart problem, and so they died as a member of the wrong spiritual race.

Let that remind us as Christians that we need to do our best to obey the Great Commission so that the good news of the gospel will reach the hearts of every human being. We need to lovingly challenge others to deal with their heart problem and become members of the spiritual race of the Lord Jesus.

Objection: Amazing how all the people in the Americas were killed by the Flood and yet their Indian cultures ancient mythology still mention the Flood.

Response: Actually there was no “Americas” before the Flood – mosts likely one continent that was totally destroyed by the Flood. Flood legends are changed versions of the original account that is preserved in God’s Word.

Gospel People

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A series of teachings by Dr. Michael Reeves

What Are Gospel People?

Revelation From The Father

Redemption By The Son


Regeneration Through The Spirit

The Importance Of Being Gospel People?

Gospel Integrity

The Church Fathers on Justification

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Four quotes:

Tertullian (c. 155-230): God will “impute righteousness to those who believe in him, and make the just live through him, and declare the Gentiles to be his children through faith.”

Basil of Caesarea (330-379): “The is perfect and pure boasting in God, when one is not proud on account of his own righteousness but knows that he is indeed unworthy of the true righteousness and is justified soley by faith in Christ.”

Marius Victorinus: “We know that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith and the faith of Jesus Christ… It is faith alone that gives justification and sanctification.”

John Chrysostom (c. 347-407): God’s grace “has allowed Him that did no wrong to be punished for those who had done wrong… Him that was righteousness itself, ‘He made sin,’ that is allowed Him to be condemned as a sinner, as one cursed to die, so that we might be, not just ‘righteous’ but ‘righteousness,’ indeed the righteousness of God.”

Who Do You Trust? Who Should You Trust?

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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’?

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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

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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.

Calvin on the Lord’s Supper

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Article: Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper by Keith Mathison – original source: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/calvins-doctrine-lords-supper

John Calvin is widely considered to be one of the greatest theologians of the Reformation era. Many associate his name with doctrines such as the sovereignty of God, election, and predestination, but fewer are aware that he wrote extensively on the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. The topic occupied many of his sermons, tracts, and theological treatises throughout his career. Calvin’s emphasis was not unusual. Among the many doctrines debated during the Reformation, the Lord’s Supper was discussed more than any other.

By the time Calvin became a prominent voice in the late 1530s, the Reformers had been debating the Lord’s Supper with Roman Catholics and with each other for years. In order to understand Calvin’s doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, it is necessary to understand the views he opposed. Throughout the later Middle Ages and up until the sixteenth century, the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Mass was the received view in the Western church. Two aspects of the Roman Catholic doctrine require comment: Rome’s view of the Eucharistic presence and Rome’s view of the Eucharistic sacrifice.

According to Rome, Christ’s presence in the sacrament is to be explained in terms of the doctrine of transubstantiation. The doctrine of transubstantiation asserts that when the priest says the words of consecration, the substance of the bread and wine is transformed into the substance of the body and blood of Christ. The accidens (that is, the incidental properties) of the bread and wine remain the same. Rome also teaches that the Eucharist is a propitiatory sacrifice; in fact, the same sacrifice Christ offered on the cross. The Eucharistic sacrifice is offered for the sins of the living and the dead.

The Reformers were united in their rejection of both aspects of Rome’s doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. They rejected transubstantiation, and they rejected the idea that the Lord’s Supper is a propitiatory sacrifice. In his book The Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520), Martin Luther attacked both of these doctrines. Also opposed to Rome’s doctrine was the Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli. However, although Luther and Zwingli agreed in their rejection of Rome’s doctrine, they were not able to come to agreement on the true nature of the Lord’s Supper.

Zwingli argued that Christ’s words “This is my body” should be read, “This signifies my body.” He claimed that the Lord’s Supper is a symbolic memorial, an initiatory ceremony in which the believer pledges that he is a Christian and proclaims that he has been reconciled to God through Christ’s shed blood. Martin Luther adamantly rejected Zwingli’s doctrine, insisting that Christ’s words “This is my body” must be taken in their plain, literal sense.

Martin Luther argued that although Rome’s explanation of Christ’s true presence in the Lord’s Supper was wrong, the fact of Christ’s true presence was correct. He offered a different explanation for the presence of Christ. In order to understand his view, however, a brief explanation of some rather obscure theological terminology is required. Medieval scholastic theologians had distinguished various modes of presence, or ways of being present. They used the term local presence to describe the way in which physical, finite things are present in a circumscribed place. Spiritual presence described the way in which spiritual beings (such as angels, souls, or God) are present. Because this term was somewhat vague, other terms were used in order to be more specific. Illocal presence, for example, described the way in which finite spiritual beings (for example, human souls or angels) are present, while repletive presence described the way in which an infinite spiritual being (God) is present.

Zwingli argued that the only mode of presence proper to the human body of Christ was “local presence.” Therefore, according to Zwingli, Christ’s body is locally present in heaven and nowhere else until the Second Advent. Luther rejected Zwingli’s view, claiming that other modes of presence were proper to Christ’s human body — specifically the illocal mode of presence. Because Christ’s body can be present in an illocal manner, according to Luther, it can be present in the bread of the Lord’s Supper. In his Confession Concerning Christ’s Supper (1528), Luther argues that there is a “sacramental union” between the substance of Christ’s body and the bread resulting in a new and unique substance that Luther refers to as fleischbrot (“flesh-bread”). Thus, according to Luther, Christ’s human body is present in the Lord’s Supper supernaturally in a real and illocal manner.

Calvin’s first significant contribution to the subject appeared in the 1536 edition of his Institutes, by which time the battle lines had already been drawn. He continued to progressively clarify and explain his doctrine of the Supper over the next two decades. Calvin’s doctrine of the Supper was very much influenced by Luther, but others were just as instrumental in shaping his approach to the subject. Among those whose influence is discernible are Augustine, Philip Melanchthon, Martin Bucer, and Peter Martyr Vermigli.

Calvin followed Augustine in defining a sacrament as “a visible sign of a sacred thing” or as a “visible word” of God. The sacraments, according to Calvin, are inseparably attached to the Word. The sacraments seal the promises found in the Word. In regard to the Lord’s Supper, more specifically, it is given to seal the promise that those who partake of the bread and wine in faith truly partake of the body and blood of Christ. Calvin explains this in terms of the believer’s mystical union with Christ. Just as baptism is connected with the believer’s initiation into union with Christ, the Lord’s Supper strengthens the believer’s ongoing union with Christ.

All of this raises a question. How does Calvin understand the nature of Christ’s presence in the Supper? According to Calvin the sacraments are signs. The signs and the things signified must be distinguished without being separated. Calvin rejects the idea that the sacramental signs are merely symbols (for example, Zwingli). But he also rejects the idea that the signs are transformed into the things they signify (for example, Rome). Calvin argues that when Christ uses the words, “This is my body,” the name of the thing signified (“body”) is applied to the sign (the bread).

Calvin repeatedly stated that his argument with the Roman Catholics and with Luther was not over the fact of Christ’s presence, but only over the mode of that presence. According to Calvin, Christ’s human body is locally present in heaven, but it does not have to descend in order for believers to truly partake of it because the Holy Spirit effects communion. The Holy Spirit is the bond of the believer’s union with Christ. Therefore that which the minister does on the earthly plane, the Holy Spirit accomplishes on the spiritual plane. In other words, those who partake of the bread and wine in faith are also, by the power of the Holy Spirit, being nourished by the body and blood of Christ.

This, of course, raises a second question regarding the mode by which believers partake of the body and blood of Christ. Zwingli had argued that to eat and drink the body and blood of Christ was simply a synonym for believing in Christ. Calvin begged to differ. He argued that the eating of the body of Christ is not equivalent to faith; instead, it is the result of faith. Calvin often used the term “spiritual eating” to describe the mode by which believers partake, but he is careful to define what he means. He asserts repeatedly that “spiritual eating” does not mean that believers partake only of Christ’s spirit. “Spiritual eating” means, according to Calvin, that by faith believers partake of the body and blood of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit who pours the life of Christ into them.

Calvin also rejected the idea that we partake of the body and blood of Christ with the mouth. Not only Rome, but Luther and his followers, asserted the doctrine of oral manducation (that is, oral eating). According to the Lutherans, the body of Christ is orally eaten, but it is a supernatural or hyperphysical eating rather than a natural or physical eating. Both believers and unbelievers receive the body of Christ according to the Lutherans, although unbelievers receive it to their own judgment. Calvin denied that unbelievers receive the body of Christ at all. According to Calvin, the body and blood of Christ are objectively offered to all, but only received by believers.

According to Calvin, the Lord’s Supper is also “a bond of love” intended to produce mutual love among believers. It is to inspire thanksgiving and gratitude. Because it is at the very heart of Christian worship, Calvin argued that it should be observed whenever the Word is preached, or “at least once a week.” It should be shorn of all superstition and observed in its biblical simplicity. Calvin considered the Lord’s Supper to be a divine gift given by Christ himself to His people to nourish and strengthen their faith. As such, it is not to be neglected, but rather celebrated often and with joy.