Blog Diyiin Bi

All four blogs that we administer use the plugin “broken link checker” in order to flag links in articles and comments that do not work. When such a link is found, the plugin adds a tag to the link that tells the search engine robots (google, etc.) that the link is broken, and also prints the link with the strikethrough attribute for the benefit of human readers.

In the past few days, the Vision for Life Ministries cofounders, identical twin brothers Olu and Kay Taiwo, have posted a couple of articles on Christian Internet Resources. The articles are so good that I want to link to them from here.

Bro. Olu Taiwo posted this article about answering God’s call. It is well thought out, and is obviously the work of a real man of God who spends much time in prayer and Bible study. Kay Taiwo wrote an article about Nations. What was just said about Bro. Olu applies to Bro. Kay as well.

Christian Internet Resources and The Go Light get articles from Free Traffic System. FTS is a service for webmasters and bloggers that provides quality articles to the blogs in return for backlinks within the article to the author’s website. Bros. Olu and Kay have joined FTS and are providing articles; TGL and CIR get articles from FTS, and I may write some myself in order to get backlinks to one or more of the four blogs we have. So both of the articles under discussion might be posted to as many as 30 blogs, but with minor changes in order to not have exactly duplicated content, which the search engines are not too fond of!

I highly recommend both articles, and also recommend that you check out the Vision for Life website.

There were some minor technical problems with Bro. Olu’s article, which I was able to correct:

The two links Bro. Olu Taiwo had placed in his article were flagged as broken by broken link checker, and so were edited to correct them. Also, an additional link to the Vision for Life Ministries homepage was placed in the last paragraph of his excellent article; as originally posted by Mr. Taiwo, it was just text, not a clickable link. (FTS has a limit of two clickable links for articles submitted through them, but blog admins can add links as they see fit – so we did!) The same link was added to Bro. Kay’s article as well.

The references to Bible passages (for example, John 3:16, NOT the actual Bible text, “For God so loved the world…”, as may be quoted in the body of the article), were reformatted to work better with the Wordpress plugin “reftagger,” which, when the mouse cursor is held over a properly formatted Bible reference, pops up a window displaying the passage from bible.logos.com’s Bible search engine using the NKJV translation. (All articles and comments containing Bible references will have those references reformatted in a similar manner as we find time to do so – not just on CIR, but on all four blogs.) Blog Diyiin Bi does not get articles from the Free Traffic System, because not all articles are as good as these two.

We also added the tag “vision for life” to both articles, and will add the tag to any future articles posted by VFLM, whether through FTS or directly, in addition to any other tags that they may use themselves. You will be able to find any of their articles by clicking on the tag either in the tag cloud on CIR or at the end of any of their articles. (If any other authors use the same tag on CIR, we will change it unless the Taiwo brothers tell us that the authors using the tag are writing on behalf of Vision for Life Ministries.) We are contemplating adding another category on CIR just for articles by VFLM. We think their articles are that good.!

And, as we routinely do (as we find time) with articles posted through Free Traffic System, the generic link to FTS was replaced with a link to our FTS referral URL, which goes through our own website but ends up at the same place. (The magic of the “Pretty Links” plugin for Wordpress, our own private link cloaker!) That way, if you sign up as a member of FTS through a link in a post on one of our blogs, you will be in our FTS downline. If we didn’t make that minor change, you might be placed in some random member’s downline.

I also slightly reformatted the quotation from Genesis 11:1-9 in Bro. Kay’s article; on some of the verses, there was no space between the verse number and the text, so I added one. That makes it easier to read and does not change what it says.

Nothing else was changed in either article.

Thank you, both Bros. Taiwo, for such excellent articles!

Now, a few technical details for anyone who might want to write articles or comments using Bible references for any of our blogs…

…when citing Bible references on any of the blogs, do it this way: <cite class=”bibleref”>John 1:1</cite>. If citing two or more consecutive verses, use a dash, not a comma, like this: <cite class=”bibleref”>Gen 1:1-2</cite> NOT <cite class=”bibleref”>Gen 1:1,2</cite>. The reason is that reftagger will make one link with two verses for the reference using the dash, but two links with one verse each if the comma is used. (Of course, if that is what you want, then use the comma!) A future article on one of the blogs will have more details, but this is enough to get you pointed in the right direction. For instance, it is also possible to override the default NKJV with a properly-formatted reference, but that will need almost a full article by itself. I will place several pdf documents that have more detail about standardized Bible references on one of the blogs, and will put the links to those documents on all four blogs so you can download them, as well as links to the various websites that have some details about using standardized Bible references in web pages.

in His service,
Pastor Marv
blog administrator for:
Blog Diyiin Bi (diyiinbi.org)
Christian Internet Resources (nizhoninet.com)
The Go Light (diyiinbi.com)
John’s Joint (geofam.org)

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While looking for ideas for my next article, I came across this article by William Verch intended for republication on any website that wishes to use it. It is so good that I am reprinting it in its entirety, exactly as written by William Verch and copied from the website, “A Bunch of Articles.” I can also recommend his article How To Hear God Speak, which is one of the links at the end of this article.

I couldn’t decide whether this fit best in Apologetics or Faith and Practice, so it is listed in both categories. -Pastor Marv

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What is the difference between Christianity and every other religion?

Can you do it in 30 seconds or less?

Well, I would like for you to be able to do this.

Unfortunately, the answer is not good news. The answer is a truth that keeps so many from being willing to follow God. In fact, it is really distasteful.

But my job is not to please your ears. My job is to tell you the truth. And here it is:

The Answer

Except for Christianity, every other religion in the world is basically a set of instructions on how to be good enough for God. Christianity is the ONLY religion that says, “You can not be good enough for God.” It is the only religion with a Savior.

The world wants to believe that people are good, or that they can become good. The truth is that we are NOT good and that we can not become good. Period.

You simply can not EARN your way to God, and that is what all of the other religions of the world are desperately trying to teach you to do.

Scriptural Proof

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. – Mark 10:18

Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. – Psalm 53:3

All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. – Romans 3:12

Everyday Proof

Ask yourself these questions:

1.) Have you ever sinned?

If you are not sure, you can check yourself against the 10 Commandments. (Exodus 20:3-17). The Bible say that this is the whole reason WHY we were given the 10 commandments.

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. Romans 3:20

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8

2.) Have you even known anyone who has not sinned?

In fact, even if someone does not accept God or the Bible, you can ask them if they have their own set of rules to judge what is right and what is wrong.

They will say “yes”, at which point you can ask them “Have you ALWAYS and COMPLETELY followed your OWN set of rules of right and wrong?” If they are truthful, they will say “no.”

Scripture backs up this truth too in Romans 2:14-15.

We are not good and we cannot become good. This is a hard truth, but it is true nonetheless. It is the core of Christianity.

How Does Obedience Fit?

I will take a full look at obedience in the future, but for now, just know that even many Christians get off track because they try to be “worthy” of the fact that Jesus died for them.

Do not get me wrong, obedience is important, but it is important only because of a love response to God. Obedience tells God that you love Him.

Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. – John 14:23-24

This is love for God: to obey his commands.- 1 John 5:3

Sum It All Up

We are not good and we can not become good enough (on our own) to get to God. However, God decided to make a way, because He is perfectly loving and perfectly just. He did this by sacrificing His Son, Jesus.

If confronted about your faith by someone of a different faith simply ask them:

“Who or what pays for your sins?”

Other religions have a strong sense of justice. Where, then, is justice regarding their own sin?

We MUST have a Savior. Muhammad did not die for your sins, neither did Buddha nor Confucius. Jesus Christ is the only Savior the world has ever known. Other religions are counting on the mercy of God, but this denies justice.

It is the most incredible love story that God wanted you so badly that He made the sacrifice of His Son, so that you could be good enough – perfect, in fact.

The more I recognize my own sins, the more extraordinary this love story becomes. Not only that God accepts me, but that He has actually chosen me to be adopted into His family as His very own child! Amazing, beautiful and humbling.

May you be blessed.

Author Resource:-> Do you know how to hear God? William Verch is the author of a Special Report entitled How To Hear God Speak

For a limited time, enjoy a complimentary copy at TheWayGodWorks.com. You will be pleased with this unique resource for helping you to be able to know Gods voice.

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Article From A Bunch Of Articles

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We have added a new category, “Doctrine”, to Blog Diyiin Bi. Also, as subcategories under Doctrine, we currently have “Baptist”, “Lutheran”, and “Pentecostal”, with others to be added in the near future. (So if a subcategory for your denomination is not here yet, it soon will be!)

If you would like to write about your particular denomination’s doctrine, use the “Contact” page to let me know. But before you do, read the page “Write for us” (link is in the main menu, which is at the bottom left of the header photo) to find out what we want from our authors. If you (and your denomination) believe in orthodox Christianity as summarized in my brother’s blog post on John’s Joint, if your denomination is evangelical, and if you meet the other criteria listed on the “Write for us” page, then you have an excellent chance of being approved as an author for Blog Diyiin Bi. At some time in the future, we may publish articles about non-orthodox denominations and cults, but those articles will be by one of our approved authors or will be a one-time-only article written at my invitation by a member of that denomination. No person who is a member of a cult, a non-orthodox Christian denomination, or a non-evangelical Christian denomination will be approved as an author for Blog Diyiin Bi except for these one-off articles.

Now, for those of you who might want to contribute articles to the newest category, here’s what we specifically want in “Doctrine” and its subcategories…

…You should write a single article, or a series of articles, explaining what your denomination’s doctrine is. The purpose of these articles is to inform our readers what the different denominations believe. We do NOT want debate, but information. There probably will be more readers who disagree with your doctrine than readers who agree. Comments by readers might reflect this fact, so you just might need a thick skin. (I will delete comments that make personal attacks any person or group.) If you are not Pentecostal (and maybe if you are!), I will probably disagree with some of your doctrine…but when I write about doctrine, I will write about what I believe without pointing out where you and I may disagree. We here at Blog Diyiin Bi expect the same respect from all of our authors for one another. If some of our authors want to get into debates with each other, and if that debating can be done with Christian love, maybe we could set up one or more appropriate categories on John’s Joint specifically for that purpose, but NOT on Blog Diyiin Bi. Blog Diyiin Bi is a ministry blog, not an entertainment blog. We want to encourage Christians in their walk with God, and we want to encourage non-Christians to consider the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ, hopefully with the result that they will accept Him as their Lord and Saviour.

Of course, if you are approved as an author for Blog Diyiin Bi, you can also write on any topic that we cover (and for our other three blogs as well), not just doctrine. If you wish to write about general doctrine that is common to all orthodox Christian evangelical denominations, that should probably be in the main “Doctrine” category, or we can set up a “General” subcategory under Doctrine for such articles. However, we prefer not to have our authors writing about the doctrine of denominations that they are not part of, unless they are writing about cults and other non-orthodox or non-evangelical beliefs.

There is no reason that we should limit articles in Doctrine and its subcategories to only one author for each, so if we get two or 20 authors, all who are of the same denomination and who want to write about their denomination’s doctrinal beliefs, that is OK.

So fire up your word processor and start writing! There’s a world out there that is hungry for God’s Truth!

in His service,
Pastor Marv

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In the Minister’s Conference worship service on Thursday night, evangelist Dan Hughes preached a great message. His text was 2 Timothy 3:1. He also read portions of Ezekial 22 and Romans 12, as well as other scripture. The theme of the Conference was “The Pursuit of Excellence,” and Rev. Hughes’ sermon set the tone for the remainder of the Minister’s Conference.

To illustrate what it takes to really pursue excellence, he used the inspiring article, “The Fellowship Committed to Doing Whatever it Takes.” After the worship service, I asked him for a copy of it. I have since found this, or variations of it, on about a dozen or so websites. (I went to Google and used part of the title as the search term.) I was trying to find out who the missionary was, but the best I could find was that the unnamed missionary was in western Africa for 20 years. Most of the websites that posted this article or portions of it used the attribution “author unknown.”

Here it is:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Upon the death of a missionary who had spent 20 years in Africa digging out a work for God, tacked on the wall of his mud hut was this note:

I’m a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has already been cast. I’ve stepped over the line. I’m out of the comfort zone. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, or back away. My past is Redeemed, my present makes sense and my future is Secure.

I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarf goals. I’m a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes.

I no longer need pre-eminence.
I no longer need position.
I no longer need promotions.
I no longer need popularity.
I don’t have to be Right!
I don’t have to be First!
I don’t have to be Tops!
I don’t have to be Recognized, Praised, Regarded, or Rewarded.

I’m a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes. I now live by presence. I lead by faith. I love by patience. I lift by prayer. I labor by power. I’m a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes. My face is set. My gait is fast. My goal is heaven. My road is narrow. My way is rough. My companions are few, but my guide is reliable. My mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, or lured away.

I cannot be turned back or diluted. I will not be delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, or hesitate in the face of the adversary, or negotiate at the table of my enemies. I will not ponder at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze called mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, let up, or burn up until I’ve preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of the Jesus Christ. I’m a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes.

I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He comes. I must give until I drop. I must preach until all know. I must work until God stops and when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me, because I’ve dedicated my life to being a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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I had hoped to find a plugin for Wordpress that would place a search box for Amazon.com in the sidebar. Unfortunately, the only such plugin I was able to find has not been updated for over six months, and as of August 11, 2009, the API (Application Programming Interface) that allows an Amazon.com search box to work was radically changed by Amazon. So the plugin would not work.

I ended up doing what I thought I did not want to do…there is now a link in the menu (under the header photo) for Blog Diyiin Bi’s Amazon.com associate store. And I wrote another non-ministry article to let my readers know what is happening with the blog.

The store has been set up to list (mostly) Christian books. Some of the books you will be able to find in our store are not about protestant Christian topics, such as the book that is displayed on the bottom row of the first page (as of the writing of this article), which is a book about the Catholic doctrine of Mary worship. The list of books displayed on the store’s website will be refined as I find time to work on it. The store itself will also eventually be modified, so that it will display the header photo of Prayer Mountain as well as a menu to make it easier to navigate back to the blog. Until then, the link to the store will open in a new window so you can return to the blog by closing the store’s browser window. The Related Reading links will always open in a new browser window.

For now, the Related Reading list of books at the end of each article will stay, but I have reduced the display of those books to picture only and set them to display across rather than down. This results in less clutter, and will still show books that you can buy which are relevant to the tag words and phrases attached to the article. Any books you buy, whether from the Related Reading list or from the Bookstore, will help support Blog Diyiin Bi as long as you order from the links on the blog.

If you want books on topics other than Christianity, the other three blogs will have bookstores as well. As of this writing, The Go Light has one up-and-running that displays business-related books, computers, and office products. Christian Internet Resources (CIR) and John’s Joint will have bookstores within the next few days. John’s Joint and/or CIR will sell computers, electronics, music, and movies from Amazon.com as well as books.

There are links to the other blogs in the sidebar box labelled “Elsewhere on the Internet.” You might have to refresh the page a time or two to see all three of the other blogs listed since only five of the many links in Blog Diyiin Bi’s links list are displayed at one time. As the bookstores for John’s Joint and CIR are brought on-line, the links for them will appear in their respective menus, so check often.

The Go Light and Christian Internet Resources are owned and operated by Diyiin Bi, LLC, which is a business incorporated in the state of New Mexico and owned by Pastor Marv and Betsy. John’s Joint and Blog Diyiin Bi are owned and operated by Pastor Marv. Diyiin Bi, LLC, is a corporate sponsor of Blog Diyiin Bi and John’s Joint. We are looking for other sponsors, either corporate or otherwise.

Pastor Marv

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The annual Southwest Indian Ministry Minister’s Conference was held Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, September 3 – 5, 2009, at the Gallup Inn in Gallup, NM.

The theme of this year’s conference was “The Pursuit of Excellence.”

We had four excellent classes Friday – Pastoral Leadership Developement, taught by Pastor David Renfro; Pastoral Leadership for Small Congregations, taught by Pastor Scott Kazee; Pastoral Purity, taught by Pastor Randy Barr; and Practical Pastoral Leadership, taught by Pastor Samuel Salyer. Our Administrative Overseer, Bishop Douglas Cline, addressed the assembled pastors and evangelists on the topic of Pastors and District Overseer Relationship. Various Southwest Indian Ministry District Overseers and ministers opened each session with Bible reading and prayer, and closed each session with prayer.

Rev. Dan Hughes preached two of the best sermons I have ever heard for the Thursday and Friday night worship services, and also served communion for our closing service Saturday morning. Music for Praise and Worship on Thursday and Friday nights was provided by our very own Victory Gospel Singers. Special music was provided by Dillon Yazzie, the Thomas Brothers, Pastor Florence “Bunky” Barker, and others, all from the various churches of the Church of God Southwest Indian Ministry. The Victory Gospel Singers also provided the sound equipment for the conference, and recorded each session. Each attendee will get a set of CDs. T. J. Salyer, son of Pastor Samuel Salyer, took video and still photos of the services and classes.

All five of our guest speakers are Spirit-filled Men of God from Ohio. Overall, on a scale of one to ten, this year’s conference rated at least 18. All of us who attended were blessed beyond description and look forward to next year’s conference.

Over the coming weeks, I will post additional articles about highlights of the conference.

in His service,
Pastor Marv

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Blog Diyiin Bi will soon be moving from the b2evolution platform to Wordpress. During the move, progress reports will periodically be posted here.

Also, during the move, any non-move-related posts will be posted to the existing b2evolution installation of Blog Diyiin Bi, http://diyiinbi.org. When the move is completed, all posts and comments from the old installation will be available on the new Wordpress installation, and these progress reports may be deleted. (Or maybe not – still undecided.) The new installation will have the same address that the b2evolution installation now has, and the b2evolution installation will be removed.

As of the time that this post is being written, the basic Wordpress installation has been installed. There are no plugins other than the default, neither of which is enabled. There are three themes installed – the two which ship with Wordpress (default {enabled} and classic) and one I want to experiment with, dkret3.

Until the Wordpress installation is the one in use, indexing of the Wordpress subdirectory (actually, subdirectory is named ‘blog’) by robots is turned off, as is pinging of the various indexing services for the Wordpress installation. Both robot crawling and index pinging will continue to be enabled on the b2evolution installation.

Feel free to leave comments on any posts to these entries during the instalation and move. One purpose for these posts is to test things; another is to keep the blog’s readers informed as to our progress.

So check back often! The link to the Wordpress installation will be posted in the b2evolution installation of the blog.

Pastor Marv

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Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Like most Christians, I would like to think of myself as a man of faith. We (my wife and I) have learned to trust God to keep His promises, including promises to provide our needs. (Read Matthew 6:25-34 for Jesus’ discourse on how God has promised to do just that.) All of us who are born again have faith that God loves us, that He has forgiven our sins, and that Jesus rose from the dead. Creationists believe that the account of creation, the fall, and the flood, as recorded in Genesis chapters one through nine, are literal history. We also believe that the 66 books that comprise the Protestant Bible are the inspired Word of God.

Evolutionists say that the entire Bible is nothing more than a collection of fables and stories.

This article does not address those who call themselves Christians but deny the literal interpretation of the Genesis record.

One of the mis-statements made by evolutionists about creationists is that we creationists must rely on Faith, while they rely on Science. Is that really true?

At best, it is a half-truth. We creationists do rely on faith. But when you examine the evolutionist’s belief system and find out what can be verified by true science, you will see that they rely on faith far more than we do.

Let’s compare “our faith” to “their faith.” Read the first nine chapters of Genesis to see where we get our faith for each of these points of comparison. Read any public school science textbook to see what our kids and grandkids are being taught about the evolutionists’ faith for these same points.

Our faith:

By faith, we believe that God created life.

Their faith:

By faith, they believe that chance random processes produced life.

Discussion:

The second law of thermodynamics has never been observed to have been violated. For the simplest form of life to spontaneously come into existence would require billions of such violations in the exact right sequence, and the evolution of more complex life forms as observed to exist today would require trillions (see the previous article.) Life has never been created from non-life in a laboratory, and even if it can someday be done, that would be evidence that it takes intelligent intervention to cause life to come into existence. It takes more faith to believe “their faith” than to believe “ours.”

Our faith:

By faith, we believe that each kind (”kind” roughly corresponds to “species”) reproduces only the same kind.

Their faith:

By faith, they believe that each of the species that we see, whether alive now or only found in the fossil record, evolved from more primitive species.

Discussion:

While scientists have observed species to go out of existence (the famous dodo bird, for example), no one has ever observed any new species to come into existence. Not in nature. Not in a laboratory. Not ever! It takes more faith to believe “their faith” than to believe “ours.”

Our faith:

By faith, we believe that God created male and female.

Their faith:

By faith, they believe that bisexual reproduction somehow evolved from asexual reproduction.

Discussion:

What an amazing series of coincidences! A male and female of the same species just happened to evolve from some asexual species at the same time and in the same place, and in such a way that the intermediate forms were still somehow able to reproduce while being half-asexual and half-female or half-male! It takes more faith to believe “their faith” than to believe “ours.”

Our faith:

By faith, we believe that God created animals that fly.

Their faith:

By faith, they believe that flying animals evolved from non-flying animals. And not just once, but four times! (Birds, flying insects, flying mammals, flying reptiles.)

Discussion:

The fossil record has thousands upon thousands of MISSING examples of this supposed sequence of evolution. 99% of the illustrations in our kids’ textbooks that depict what they believe about the evolution of flying animals are nothing but what some artist IMAGINES the supposed intermediate forms MIGHT have looked like. For example, no fossil has ever been found that has a limb which is halfway between being an arm and being a wing. It would not continue to evolve over thousands of years and become a full-fledged wing as would be required for a flying animal to evolve from a non-flying animal. Rather, because it would actually be detrimental to the survival of the animal to which it was attached, it would disappear in a few generations. This is called “survival of the fittest.” It takes more faith to believe “their faith” than to believe “ours.”

Our faith:

By faith, we believe that the fossil record is evidence of a catastrophic world-wide event in Earth’s history, commonly referred to as “Noah’s Flood.”

Their faith:

By faith, they believe that the fossil record is evidence of multiple millions of years of evolution.

Discussion:

All of the “evidence” for evolution exists, in actuality, only in the minds of those who do not want to believe in God. The discussion of their “evidence” for the supposed evolution of flying animals also applies to every supposed evolutionary sequence, not just flying animals. There is not one missing link, there are billions! It takes more faith to believe “their faith” than to believe “ours.”

Our faith:

By faith, we believe that God created the entire universe, including the laws of physics that govern all physical events, in six literal days of about 24 hours each, and that this took place about 6,000 years ago.

Their faith:

By faith, thay believe that the universe started with a big bang about 15 billion years ago.

Discussion:

They can’t explain where whatever it was that blew up came from. They can’t explain what caused it to go “bang.” They can’t explain who or what enacted the laws of physics that govern all physical events. It takes more faith to believe “their faith” than to believe “ours.”

Our faith:

By faith, we believe that man is sinful and is in need of a Saviour. This Saviour, Jesus Christ, was born in Bethlehem about 2,000 years ago, and He is the only begotten Son of God. He lived a life completely free of sin, and was put to death, becoming the perfect Sacrifice for our sins. He was buried, and rose on the third day. He has ascended to Heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father. He will return again, first to take to Heaven those who have put their faith in Him (the rapture), and then to judge the world (the second coming at the end of the seven years’ tribulation).

Their faith:

By faith, they believe that man will somehow right all of the wrongs in the world and, in effect, we are our own “saviour.”

Discussion:

Any person who is not living under a rock can see that the world is getting worse, not better. The armies of this world have the capability of destroying all life on the planet in just a few moments! The only reason that it hasn’t happened yet is because no political leader who has had the will to “push the button” has had access to that button. And the only reason for that is because God’s Holy Spirit is restraining evil from having complete control. Every year, more people die of starvation, not fewer. Every year, more people die of more new strains of disease organisms, not fewer. (BTW, that is micro-evolution – variation within the same kind. Those new organisms are still of the same KINDS, not NEW kinds as would be required for macro-evolution to be true.) It takes more faith to believe “their faith” than to believe “ours.”

There are many more examples of “our faith” vs. “their faith” that could be disussed. We didn’t even touch on DNA, evidence for a young Earth, or many other subjects. Some of these topics will be addressed in future articles.

If you want to meet a man of faith, just find an evolutionist. The only problem with his faith is that it totally misplaced, and will take him and all who follow him to eternal punishment in hell.

If you want to know how to follow Jesus Christ, the one TRUE Man of faith, and be saved, please read What must I do to be saved?

in His service,
Pastor Marv

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• Is there really a God?
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Welcome to the new category, “Apologetics.” Apologetics is not the art of saying “I’m sorry.” Rather, it is the study of what we believe and why we believe it.

In this first article for the new “Apologetics” category, let’s jump right into the heart of all the debate between Creationists and Evolutionists. Evolutionists are really trying to do away with the need for a Supreme Being, and Creationists are, of course, saying the exact opposite. Obviously, this series of articles will be written from the Creationist point of view.

Can we prove that God exists? Can you prove that God does NOT exist? That depends on how one defines “prove.” No, not like our former president saying, “That depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is…” “Is” has a very clear definition, unless you wish to butcher the English language in order to justify some behavior which the voting populace might not approve of. And there are, in general, two kinds of “proof”: scientific and legal/historical, both with clear definitions and both recognized by our judicial system. (Actually, the existence of God can also be proven from logic. But this article is about evidence, not logic. A future article in this series may explore the logical argument.)

Scientific evidence is that evidence that can be found by repeatable experiments, usually in a laboratory but sometimes in the field. For instance, one can devise an experiment to show that a molecule of water is made up of one atom of oxygen and two of hydrogen, write a description of the procedure, and then another scientist can then duplicate the experiment and get the same results. (Presumably coming to the same conclusion.)

Legal/historical evidence consists of things like historical documents and eyewitness accounts. For example, we rely on historical documents to “prove” the fact that George Washington was once President of the United States. There is no living human who can testify that he actually observed George Washington being President. On the other hand, we can rely on both eyewitness testimony of presently-living humans and on historical documents to “prove” that Bill Clinton was once President. Even though there are no scientific experiments that can be done to prove or disprove either fact, neither is in dispute because of the preponderance of the evidence.

Sometimes, as is the case with DNA evidence, the distinction between scientific evidence and legal/historical evidence can be somewhat unclear. With DNA evidence, it can be scientifically proven that the accused person’s DNA is at the scene of the crime. But proving that the person’s DNA was there does not prove that the accused was the perpetrator. The DNA evidence lends a high degree of credibility to eyewitness’ statements that the person whose DNA was found at the scene is, in fact, the perpetrator, but does not in and of itself prove that he was.

Fossils and archeological finds provide legal/historical evidence. The writings of Josephus, Plato, etc., provide legal/historical evidence. Chemical analysis and radiocarbon dating of artifacts provides scientific evidence.

To the best of my knowledge, no scientist has devised a scientific experiment that proves or disproves the existence of God. But the preponderance of legal/historical evidence, and scientific proof that lends credibility to that evidence (and to the Creationist interpretation of that evidence), does prove that there is a God. (Our judicial system proves that someone is or is not guilty of a crime by examining the same types of legal/historical evidence and scientific proof that lends credibility to that evidence.)

There are two possible ways that we “got here”: 1) The creationist position: We were created by an eternally self-existent God; 2) The evolutionist position: We spontaneously evolved from matter that is eternally self-existent, or from matter that itself spontaneously came into existence.

The so-called “theistic evolution” position, which says that God used evolution to accomplish the process of creation, is not in agreement with either the observable facts as interpreted by Evolutionists, or the observable facts as interpreted by Creationists. This position will not be discussed in this series of articles, but may be in a future article or series.

Both Creationists and Evolutionists look at the same set of observable facts and come to radically different opinions as to what these facts mean. The facts are, briefly, these: 1) We are here. {duh!} 2) There are numerous fossils that suggest species lived in the past that are now extinct.

Apparently ignored by Evolutionists are these two facts: 1) The Second Law of Thermodynamics has NEVER been OBSERVED to have been violated, either in nature or in a laboratory; and 2) Evolution requires trillions (that’s with a “TR”) of such violations of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in order to cause the proverbial speck of slime to become a reasoning, thinking being that wonders how we got here.

And what, some of you are asking, is this Second Law of Thermodynamics? In layman’s terms, it can be explained this way: Things go from a more ordered (or usable) state to a less ordered (less usable) state, unless some outside agent acts on the “things.” One way to think of this is that the gas that goes into your tank is less usable after it comes out of your tailpipe. Yet another: if you take a deck of playing cards and throw them into the air, they will come down in a very disorganized pile, not neatly stacked in order, ace through king, in each of the four suites.

Evolution says that things spontaneously went from disorganized (chemicals floating in the primordial sea) to highly organized (human beings, dogs, cats, trees, corn-on-the-cob, …). Creation says that (human beings, dogs, cats, trees, corn-on-the-cob, …) were all created by an Intelligent Designer who is eternally self-existent.

Evolution says that all those fossils we mentioned earlier are evidence of evolution. Creation says that those same fossils are evidence of a world-wide catastrophe – the Flood as described in Genesis chapters six through nine, commonly referred to as Noah’s Flood.

Future articles in this series will explore evidence for Creation (and, therefore, for the existence of God) in more detail.

Some thoughts to close out this first of several articles…

…if there is no God, then who or what enacted the so-called “Laws of Nature?” (Newton’s laws of motion, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, etc.) These laws are highly organized – were they not, scientists would have no way of discovering and describing them!

…If the “Big Bang” is true, what was it that exploded? And where did “it” come from? AND what caused “it” to explode? and FURTHER, what caused THAT cause, ad infinitum? Some original “uncaused cause?” Hmm-m-m…an “uncaused cause” is one way that we Creationists describe God!

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

in His service,
Pastor Marv

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No, the title of this article is not paranoia, it states a fact. You see, every one of us, whether we like the idea of it or not, are leaders. That means someone is watching us, and will imitate what we do – whether we do good, or whether we do bad. It might be our friends, our younger brothers and sisters, our cousins – and even, sometimes, someone way older than we are. Those of us who are parents know that our kids will follow every bad example we set! (Wouldn’t it be great if they were as quick to follow the good examples we set?) And often, we will not know who is watching us.

Every one of us probably knows of someone who died unexpectedly and tragically. When a person is 98 years old, their death is not unexpected; but when someone who is 19 years old or 9 years old dies, that person’s death is unexpected and tragic. You see, though, not one of us is promised another breath. God could call us to our eternal reward at any moment.

Can you think of anything more tragic than dying without having made things right with God? I can’t, either. But I can think of something that would make dying without God more horrible. Imagine finding yourself in hell because you kept saying no to God, and then died. To make it worse, you look around and see people who are there because they followed your example! How horrible! Maybe you say that you don’t care what happens to other people. Well, according to the Bible, if you end up in hell, you will care. Let’s see what God’s Word says about it:

Luke 16:19 – 31: There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: (20) And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, (21) And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. (22) And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; (23) And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. (24) And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. (25) But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. (26) And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. (27) Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: (28) For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. (29) Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. (30) And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. (31) And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

The rich man suddenly felt called to be an evangelist in verse 27! Unfortunately, it was a bit too late for him. But if you are reading this, it is not too late for you.

The Bible is full of warnings about making things right with God, and doing so as soon as possible. 2 Corinthians 6:2b tells us, “…behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” The prophet Elijah, in 1 Kings 18:21, asked the Children of Israel, “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.”

So, if you have not yet made things right with God, NOW is the time. Don’t delay – you can be born again no matter where you are, no matter what time it is, as long as you still have breath to pray. See the blog post What must I do to be saved? for how to be born again. Someone you love might be following in your footsteps. Don’t lead them to hell!

in His service,
Pastor Marv

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