Biblically, Could Death Have Existed before Sin? (Satan, the Fall, and a Look at Good and Evil) by Bodie Hodge. A big picture of sin and death and how they are related in the Bible.
Introduction
Death and sin—these are two things today’s society seems to want to avoid in a conversation! In today’s secular society, kids have been taught for generations that death goes back for millions of years. But there is a huge contrast when you open the pages of Scripture beginning in Genesis.
The Bible is the authority on the past (as well as the authority on scientific and theological aspects), and it is logical that the Bible should be the authority on the issue of death and its relationship with sin. Getting a big picture of sin and death and how they are related in the Bible can make us better witnesses to today’s culture.
Everything Was Originally Perfect
Genesis 1:31 – God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Deuteronomy 32:4 – He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
When God finished creating at the end of Day 6, He declared everything “very good”—it was perfect. God’s work of creation is perfect. We expect nothing less of a perfect God.
What was this “perfect” or “very good” creation like? Were animals dying? Was man dying? Let’s look closer at what the Bible teaches. Continue reading
A 200+ mile backpacking experience through Yosemite National Park captured by Colin Delehanty and Sheldon Neill, filmed over the course of 10 months. A combined 45 days was spent in the park capturing the images. Simply stunning!
Yosemite HD II from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.
Is creation a viable model of origins in today’s modern, scientific era?
Leading creation apologist and bestselling Christian author Ken Ham is joined at the Creation Museum by Emmy Award-winning science educator and CEO of the Planetary Society Bill Nye.
UPDATE: I believe Rick Phillips gives some excellent insight in this article in reaction to the debate.
Here is a report by Dr. Al Mohler that really nails what the debate was all about. A very insightful article. I urge you all to read it and spread it around. Here is one quote:
“The central issue last night was really not the age of the earth or the claims of modern science. The question was not really about the ark or sediment layers or fossils. It was about the central worldview clash of our times and of any time — the clash between the worldview of the self-declared reasonable man and the worldview of the the sinner saved by grace.”
In this excerpt from his message at the Ligonier 2012 National Conference, Dr. Stephen Meyer tells the story of how Hubble showed Einstein that the universe was not eternal but must have had a beginning.
The Universe Had a Beginning from Ligonier Ministries on Vimeo.
Transcript
Hubble came into astronomy in the 1920’s at a very propitious time. It was at just the time that astronomers were gaining access to these large dome telescopes that were able to resolve very tiny pinpoints of light in the night sky. Prior to Hubble and the scientists who were looking into the night sky in the 1920’s, there was debate among astronomers as to whether or not the Milky Way galaxy, in which our solar system resides, was the only galaxy, or whether there might be others beyond it. Hubble resolved that issue as he also resolved these points of light, because as he looked through this great dome telescope at the Palomar Observatory, he was able to determine that little points of light that had been viewed through ordinary telescopes before, and just looked like little points, actually revealed galaxies—whole galaxies with hundreds and millions of stars.
The picture behind us is a Spindle Nebula, and he saw Spiral Nebula, many different galaxies in every quadrant of the sky. Such that today, astronomers have something they call the “Hubble Deep Field,” and it’s a picture of the night sky. On the picture behind you’ll see a little square box, a little quadrant. Now the next slide is going to be that quadrant magnified further and you see that even in the tiniest little square in the night sky there are galaxies galore. Continue reading
Ken Ham, from the 2013 Answers Mega Conference on the State of the Nation (and much of the western world):
Ken Ham’s final presentation at the 2013 Answers Mega Conference addresses the fact that two-thirds of our children are walking away from the church—as explained in the book Already Gone—and what must be done to avoid losing our children to the evil one.
Rescuing our kids:
(1) There’s a variety of resources in this week’s including such topics as preaching, Charles Spurgeon, free will, church history, the church, music, faith, and more.
(2) There are two books which outline where the American culture is and where it is heading in no uncertain terms. This review by Starr Meade introduces them.
(3) Its important for all parents to think about what the movies children watch are teaching about gender roles in society. Colin Stokes asks some pertinent questions in this recent TED Talks video (approx. 13 minutes):
(4) Is a belief in particles-to-people evolution really necessary to understand biology and other sciences? Get answers here.
Ben Stein: What do think is the possibility that there then, intelligent design might turn out to be the answer to some issues in genetics… or in evolution?
Richard Dawkins: Well… it could come about in the following way: it could be that uh, at some earlier time somewhere in the universe a civilization e-evolved… by probably by some kind of Darwinian means to a very very high level of technology and designed a form of life that they seeded onto… perhaps this… this planet. Um, now that is a possibility. And uh, an intriguing possibility. And I suppose it’s possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the um, at the detail… details of our chemistry molecular biology you might find a signature of some sort of designer.
Ben Stein: [voice over] Wait a second. Richard Dawkins thought intelligent design might be a legitimate pursuit?
Richard Dawkins: Um, and that designer could well be a higher intelligence from elsewhere in the universe. But that higher intelligence would itself would have to come about by some explicable or ultimately explicable process. It couldn’t have just jumped into existence spontaneously. That’s the point.
Ben Stein: [voice over] So professor Dawkins was not against intelligent design, just certain types of designers. Such as God.
– From the movie “Expelled – No Intelligence Allowed.”
Ken Ham writes: I wanted to provide you with a link to a short video we just produced to counter an anti-creationist video that has gone absolutely viral on internet through YouTube and other outlets. The video shows Bill Nye, well-known for his popular PBS-TV program for young people called “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” taking a shot at creationists who teach that Genesis is true. It’s one of the most-watched videos this week on the Internet. (At last report, there have been over 2.2 million views on YouTube.) It was produced by an on-line think tank called Big Think.
Check out the link here to view two scientists with far greater qualifications than Bill Nye, respond in a short 3 minute video rebuttal.
Here’s an idea: A long long time ago there was something really, really, really small. It was so small that.. well, it was smaller than small could almost possibly be – a single unit of matter… small, reaaaaalllllyy small, get it?? Yeah, small!!
Well, this really, really small thing, suddenly one Thursday at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, just by chance exploded with a very, very, very big bang and…. lo and behold… became everything that now is – you know, the universe and everything in it.
Yes… and over a very, very long period of time this single unit of matter, without any personality, without intelligence and without even emotion, became personality, intelligence, emotion, retinas, livers, brain stems, backbones, blood vessels, mountain lions, electric eels, planets, stars, dandelions, colorful rainbows, snowflakes, waterfalls, woodpeckers, DNA, grizzly bears and stuff.
Yeah, its a totally amazing thing – this thing called chance. We owe everything.. and I mean everything, to chance. Yes, chance rolled the dice and “whammo!,” here we are and here is everything else too. All hail the power of chance!!!!
Except that… chance is actually not a thing; its a word used to describe mathematical probabilities.
Think about that for a moment…
Let’s take the flipping of a coin.. you know, a regular coin with heads on one side and tails on the other.
Let’s ask ourselves, “what is the chance that if we flip this coin, it will come up either heads or tails?”
Actually the answer is that there is a 100% chance that it will come up either heads or tails.
What is the chance that when we flip it, it will come up tails?
Answer: 50%, right?
OK, now ask youself this question: “What kind of power does chance have to actually MAKE the coin come up heads?”
Hmmmm – the right answer is, “no power at all.”
Why is that?
Because ‘chance’ is not actually a thing. It has no power. It has no mind. It has no will. It has no personality. It has no ability to change or alter anything. It is no thing.
Say the words “no thing” fast… what have you got?
No… thing! Nothing!
Chance is nothing.
hmmmmmm….
oh, and where exactly did this very, very, very small thing come from anyway? Where was it before it was?
Huh?
Yeah – where was this very, very, small thing hiding exactly?
Where did it come from? You know, before it ever grew to become really, really small?
What was it?
hmmmmmmm…
yeah! … ever stopped to ask yourself that?.. ever wondered why “scientists” don’t ever ask that question? Could it be because, they really don’t want to ask that question?
hmmmm…. Just a thought!
Well anyway, there’s this second idea. Are you ready for it?
I warn you that some people may not like it… but OK, here it is… its the idea that when there was absolutely no thing, yes… nothing around, can you picture it in your mind?
Yeah, imagine a whole lot of nothing.
Actually, you can’t have a whole lot of nothing.. because nothing is not a thing… and it gets worse… if there ever was a time when there was absolutely nothing.. all there could possibly be now is.. nothing…
What do I mean?
Well again lets try to imagine nothing… that’s hard to do… but as a concept – there’s nothing – and you leave it for 10 minutes… what will it become?
Nothing, right?
Leave nothing alone for 10 years. What will happen?
hmmm the same… nothing, right?
10 billion years?
Yes, same result…
Nothing is still nothing, no matter how much time you give it… Time does not help nothing’s cause….
and actually time is something anyway…
… the point here is that if nothing is ever to become something… time does not help it get there.
Anyway, back to this second idea…
When there was nothing except the God who always was.. yes this Personal God who has infinite power and infinite intelligence.. this God said, “Let there be.. and there it was….”
hmmmmm…
It seems to me that only one of these two ideas makes any kind of sense… and here’s a clue, it ain’t the first one.
If, however, you believe “chance” is what got all of us here, then bow down and worship it. But if you do, just remember, you’d be worshiping nothing at all because chance is not a thing. Its not even a quarter of the way to becoming something… Chance will not eventually evolve into something (if given enough time)…
Yes, there’s not even a chance!
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools…
