Poetry Corner

Welcome!  We are sharing a few poems from the author of Not for Pew Warmers, Tom Green.

I’m Calling God

I’m calling God on 911

With an emergency

The church is filled with sleeping people

Who’ve chosen not to see

The world around is growing dark

The lights that shine are few

To a carnal voice we seem to hark

God, Your fire must renew

Oh burn Your love into our lives

And wash away my sin

Show us the power You can give

If we’ll just let You in

Let Jesus walk upon the land

Using your hands and feet

It’s time for you to take a stand

For soon the Lord you’ll meet

Revival time is coming

An earthquake is very near

Hear the beat of the Spirit’s drumming

The call to march is here

  - Tom Green

Copyright © September 2001

Originally written 6-8 years prior

America’s Shame

America’s Shame

Parades upon her streets

We seek to blame

Why we see such defeat

Of values that for long we held

Too easily thrown away

We think that it’s the way to meld

Society now more frayed

The glue that should be binding

The truth we once revered

We hide from its reminding

In darkness we now steer

Rushing not to offend

We offend who really matters

His grace we overspend

Soon peace He brings will shatter

He’ll let us have our way

Though it leads but to death

We’ll be our own self’s prey

To draw but bitter breath

In a land we think devoid of truth

Just opinions that we hold

To reject the God we knew in youth

Worth more than all our gold

  - Tom Green

Copyright © May 1995

Who Will Choose

There’ve been written many verses

About God’s best and what the worst is

Heaven’s doorway out of hell

To God’s eternal wealth

Never trust in what you do

But only in God’s grace toward you

Treasures come and then they go

When ill fated winds shall blow

Earthly gold can be so fleeting

A lesson yet that bears repeating

Sanctuaries built to us

In which we often put our trust

Built of bricks and cedar wood

In our suburban neighborhoods

On our recliners we’re enthroned

A compact kingdom of our own

We barely know who lives next door

What, we wonder, is love for

If not to serve our selfish need

Within our kingdom built on greed

If God should strip our wealth away

Who, my friend, would watch and pray

If ours becomes a humbled land

Who would choose to show love’s hand

  - Tom Green

Copyright © May 2000

Deuteronomy 4 and the Age of the Earth

When did human history start?  A reasonable estimate by mainstream dating takes us to around 2500 BC. [1]  This only goes back to the post-Babel era.  Noah went into the Ark 1656 years after Creation Week.  Thus, a 6K year old world makes sense. 

Let's give thought to Deuteronomy 4: 32-35,

Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other.  Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?  Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?  Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?  You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.

Because of the signs and wonders, the Israelites had assurance that the Lord was the true Guardian of the Universe.  How could the Jews verify this?  Look at history, "Ask now about the former days, long before your time."  Is seems most likely that Adam, Noah and the other patriarch's wrote Genesis and then Moses edited their writings.  That is, history goes back to Adam.      

The famous Library of Alexandria was founded around 300 BC and had 200K to 400K books by some estimates.  Did some of these works contain pre-Flood history?  If so, there may have been a number of ancient chronicles that went back to the first human generation.

Christians who hold to a long chronology sometimes put Adam as far back as 150K years ago.  Where is all that history?  According to a report in NewScientist, writing may go back 35K years.  What happened to the missing historical accounts?  Some propose that the Sumerian King List takes us back 7K years before the Global Flood - that's far short of 150K years! [2]

Another problem for old earth supporters is all the millions of years of death and suffering before the Fall.  In Genesis 3 we read of the curse of the Earth.  Death and thorns came after the Fall in a straightforward reading of the text.  And later, the planet itself was destroyed because the world was wicked (Gen. 6:13).  That man's sin can have negative consequences in nature is repeated in Deuteronomy 28:

... if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you ...  You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it.  You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.  You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. (Deut. 28:15, 38-40)

Notes:

1)  YES - Young Earth Science by Jay Hall (IDEAS, Big Spring, TX, 2014), pp. 30-33.

2)  Ibid., p. 33.

*illustration:  Sargon of Akkad & the tree of life

My Daddy was a Rock!

Evolutionists say life started from a warm little pond - the primordial goo.  Where did these chemicals come from?  The Earth ... and what is the earth?  The 3rd Rock from the Sun!

My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.  Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices.  You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces.  Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water.  I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in your land.  I will give you a full life span. (Ex. 23:23-26, emphasis added).

In a NOVA episode this year (Life's Rocky Start) the earth of billions of years ago is depicted as a chaos of meteorite impacts, active volcanoes and wild weather.  Somehow life emerged, but how exactly?

Chemical evolution leading to the origin of life requires that amino acids link up to form long chains and possibly proteins.  According to the Committee on the Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems (National Research Council), "Two amino acids do not spontaneously join in water.  Rather, the opposite reaction is thermodynamically favored."

In 2007, Harvard chemist George Whitesides was given the Priestley Medal, the highest award of the American Chemical Society.  Whitesides  frankly admits that the Origin Of Life (OOL) is an enigma:  "The Origin of Life.  This problem is one of the big ones in science. ... Most chemists believe, as do I, that life emerged spontaneously from mixtures of molecules in the prebiotic Earth.  How?  I have no idea."

Massimo Pigliucci (Philosophy Prof, CUNY) makes a bold confession regarding OOL: "... we really don't have a clue how life originated on Earth by natural means."

Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it.  I am the Lord your God. (Lev. 26:1)

My Daddy was a Rock?  Maybe not.  What do you think about OOL?  Let us know >> ned_oa_1657@yahoo.com

Abortion Answer

Last month the Supreme Court rejected Texas' regulations on abortuaries.  The real "killing fields" of abortion clinics were required to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers (e.g. halls wide enough to allow gurneys through).  In addition, abortionists must have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.  Are these unreasonable rules?

Can judicial activism determine ethics?  Is it right to kill babies and sell baby parts for profit?  Most contraceptives are actually abortifacients.  Is there an answer for these tragedies?

Have you heard of the Billings Ovulation Method (BOM)?  In 1953, Dr. John Billings (d. 2007) discovered the relationship between cervical mucus and fertility.  This method of natural family planning has even been taught to illiterate groups with positive results.  In 2005, 18% of abortions were performed on married women!   This could have been avoided completely by using the ovulation method.

According to John Brennan (M.D. OB-GYN, Medical College of Wisconsin), "One of the most significant discoveries of this century [20th] in the field of human reproduction has been the development of this new natural method of family planning - the Ovulation Method. ... a woman is only fertile approximately 100 hours per cycle ..." [1]

Love and Fertility by Mercedes Wilson is an excellent down-to-earth explanation of the method and includes tons of helpful illustrations.  The Ovulation Method has been used in over 100 countries, is about 99% effective, has no side-effects and costs nothing‼  For detailed research supporting this technique see The Ovulation Method of Birth Regulation published by Van Nostrand Reinhold (also by Wilson).

For a vital intro on life issues, be sure to see the documentary Whatever Happened to theHuman Race? by C. Everett Koop (former Surgeon General) and Francis Schaeffer.  What do you think about abortion?  Let us know  ned_oa_1657@yahoo.com

Note:

1) Love and Fertility by Mercedes Wilson (Family of the Americas Foundation, Dunkirk, MD, 1986), p. iv.

The Evolution of Roy Masters

** UP D@teZ **

Re: The Doctrine of the Trinity

 

We highly recommend the following >>

 

The Forgotten Trinity by James White:

https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Trinity-James-R-White/dp/1556617259

 

The Trinity - Evidence and Issues by Dr. Robert Morey:

https://www.amazon.com/TRINITY-Dr-Robert-Morey/dp/1619042932

 

The Westminster Confession (Ch. 2, pp. 8-12):

https://www.pcaac.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WCFScripureProofs2022.pdf

 

Here are just two of Dr. White's debates on the Trinity >>

Roger Perkins #AussieLand (2011):

https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/debate/debate-the-trinity-roger-perkins-queensland-australia-10-21-2011/

Robert Sabin - Patchogue, New York (1999):

https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/debate/debate-how-biblical-is-the-trinity-robert-sabin-patchogue-new-york-5-18-1999/

 

Justin Brierley (Unbelievable) hosts Trinity debate (Sijuwade vs. Galadari):

https://youtu.be/xG6huhijhxs

 

Feel free to contact Dr. White directly:

A&W Ministries

POB 37106

PHX  AZ  85069

  

RoyMasters (d. 4-22-21) has hosted Advice Line since 1961!  Masters was born in London with the name Reuben Obermeister.  His Jewish family were diamond cutters.  According to Masters, "I lost all my relatives in the Holocaust."  In 1943, when Masters was just 15, his father died.  Masters did not attend college.

Masters served with the British Army during World War II.  He traveled to  Amsterdam, Brussels, Belgium, South Africa and the U.S. as a diamond cutter.  He hosted a daily radio show called "Story of Your Diamond" and soon traveled to nearly every state.  As a teen, before the war, Masters saw a vaudeville stage hypnotist and wondered why this technique could not be used to help people.

It's not very well known that Masters' teachings are heretical.  Walter Martin (d. 1989), who founded the Christian Research Institute in 1960, had a debate with Roy Masters (see the 4^th & 5^th entries).  Elsewhere, Martin boldly stated, 

The basic doctrines and many of the practices of Roy Masters and the Foundation of Human Understanding are decidedly not Christian.  They are certainly not in harmony with what God has revealed to us in the Bible.

LindaMethod has posted a number of videos on the potential dangers of Roy Masters' meditation exercise.  Let us know what you think >>

DeepTimeSkeptic@protonmail.com

"But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good" (1 Thes.  5:21, NASB).

The Chicago Statement, ICBI, Walter Bradley & Henry Morris (Pt. 2)

The inerrancy movement led to the Chicago Statement generated by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI).  To get the background read Part 1.

Walter Bradley, former Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M, wrote a very influential paper “The Trustworthiness of Scripture in Areas Relating to Natural Science” which abandons Creation In Six Days (CISD), Young Earth Science (YES) and the Global Flood.  Unfortunately, Bradley claimed in another work (Three Views on Creation and Evolution) that bacteria death is a problem for traditional creation.  Not so, as Andrew Kulikovsky explains:

However, this is a straw-man argument. To be frank, it is common courtesy to learn what people actually teach before criticizing them (but to be fair, the choice of creationist spokesmen might not have given him the chance, at least as far as the book was concerned). The major creationist organizations like Answers in Genesis and the Institute for Creation Research have never taught that plants, microbes or individual cells didn’t die before the Fall, but only nephesh (soul) creatures.

Our review of Three Views on Creation and Evolution can be found here.

The companion book to the Chicago Statement on Hermeneutics was Hermeneutics, Inerrancy, and the Bible (1984).  In that book, Bruce Waltke states, "... many Evangelicals err egregiously against the text [Gen. 1:1 - 2:3] by reading it as a scientific treatise. ... it is not history in the proper sense of that term because no man was present to record the events at the time of creation." [1]  This is not a real stumbling block for Orthodox Protestants who take Genesis as Historical Narrative (OPGHN, "opgane").  God was present and active during Creation Week.  The Lord communicated with Adam in the cool of the evening (Gen. 3:8). [2]  Furthermore, it's very reasonable that Adam himself wrote the early part of Genesis with Moses as editor.  In 2001 Waltke said this,

The days of creation may also pose difficulties for a strict historical account.  Contemporary scientists almost unanimously discount the possibility of creation in one week, and we cannot summarily discount the evidence of the earth sciences.

Now we can clearly see that the Slippery Slope Syndrome is real.  Bruce Waltke (formerly at Reformed Theological Seminary - Orlando) now favors theistic evolution and warned evangelicals that rejecting evolution earns the label “cult.”

Once believers see that the Deluge really happened, a young earth is obviously the best option.  Consider these timely words from Henry Morris:

... the whole geological-age system is based squarely on the philosophy of uniformitarianism ... the actual data of the geologic column can be explained at least as well in terms of recent catastrophism ... [3]

Morris also points out that widely accepted dating methods deserve closer scrutiny:

... the few physical processes that seem to point to an old earth (e.g. uranium decay) in terms of the uniformitarian assumptions on which they are based will show that these assumptions are not only unproved but are also untestable and unreasonable.  All the real history we have (that is, written human records) goes back only a few thousand years. [4]

YES - Young Earth Science is a great book that defends a youthful planet from History and Science.  This work documents numerous natural processes that indicate a young earth.

A Biblical WorldView requires us to take a strong stand on Genesis because Jesus did as well (Mk. 10:6, Mk. 13:19, Lk. 11:50,51).  Genesis and true Geology do not contradict! 

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. ... It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones" ... In the last time there will be mockers ... But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit ... And have mercy on some, who are doubting ... (Jude vv. 3, 14, 18, 20, 22)

If you have not read The Genesis Flood by John Whitcomb and Henry Morris, I highly recommend it!

Notes:

1) Hermeneutics, Inerrancy, and the Bible ed. by Earl Radmacher and Robert Preus (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1984), p. 108.

2) Bing Crosby even sang a song about it, "Shore! said the dinosaur."

3) Radmacher and Preus, p. 345.

4) Ibid., p. 346, emphasis in original.

Edith Schaeffer, Communism and Obama

Ideas have consequences.  Darwin had a big impact on Karl Marx's philosophy.  Evolution leads to depression.  Is Das Kapital good for humanity?  We think not.

On a recent trip to Argentina, President Obama said this,

... there's been a sharp division between left and right, between capitalist and communist or socialist.  ... you're some crazy communist that's going to take away everybody's property.  ... you should be practical and just choose from what works.

In communism, private property is gone, but what does God say?

"You shall not steal." (Ex. 20:15)

"... Anyone who steals must certainly make restitution, but if they have nothing, they must be sold to pay for their theft.  If the stolen animal is found alive in their possession - whether ox or donkey or sheep - they must pay back double." (Ex. 22:3,4)

If we have no private property, how can anyone steal?

Let us consider these wise words from Edith Schaeffer:

Where did Hitler come from?  Or Lenin?  Or Mao?  Or Stalin?  Or Amin?  What about the Berlin Wall?  What about Afghanistan?

What is the cause that brings an effect into the place where it is seen, smelled, touched, heard, felt?  How do actions come?

In the mind.  Just as creativity is in the mind first, so devastating destruction is in the mind first.  Violence is in the mind first - from ideas.

Ideas come first.

Ideas matter.

Ideas give birth to action - good or bad.

Ideas give people their world view. [1]

Edith Schaeffer (d. 2013) was the wife of Francis Schaeffer (d. 1984).

Note:

1)  The Art of Life by Edith Schaeffer (Crossway Books, Westchester, IL, 1987), p. 117.

The End of Free Speech?

Stop the dialog on climate change (~global warming), just put people in jail!   Twenty climate scientists favor the use of RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) to attack climate skeptics.

These climate change activists include Paul Dirmeyer (George Mason), William Lau (Univ. of MD), Vasu Misra (Florida State), Robert Dickinson (Univ. of Texas) and Lisa Goddard (Earth Institute) among others.

We have been burning fossil fuels for hundreds of years yet global temperature clearly tracks with solar activity.

A paper that appeared in Physics Letters A in 2014 showed a clear correlation between the temperature of the Pacific ocean (blue) and solar activity (red).

RSS (Remote Sensing Systems satellite) data indicate that there has been no global warming since 1997.

A great video resource on this controversy is Global Warming - A Scientific and Biblical Exposé of Climate Change featuring Calvin Beisner (Cornwall Alliance), Jason Lisle, Michael Oard, Larry Vardiman and Jay Wile.

A great book that deals with climate change, intelligent design, the reality of the soul, the Global Flood, gay marriage and other hot worldview topics is Sacred Cows In Science: No Objectivity Allowed, edited by Norbert Smith (Ph.D. Zoology, Texas Tech).  Smith appeared in the BBC's A Smile for the Crocodile.

As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night

will never cease.

  - Gen. 8:22

God's Sovereignty Implies Young Earth Science (YES)

Does the Bible speak to the age-of-the-earth issue?  YES!  "Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure’ "(Is. 46:10).  "Mortals have a limited life span. You’ve already decided how long we’ll live - you set the boundary and no one can cross it" (Job 14:5, Msg).

God’s sovereignty implies YES.  The King of the Cosmos has a plan and things happen for a purpose at a certain time!  Methuselah lived 969 years – when he died the Flood came.  Abraham predicted that the bondage of the Jews would last 400 years and must wait for the “iniquity of the Amorites [to be] complete” (Ge 15:13-16). Daniel foretold the exact time of Messiah’s coming (Dan. 9:25).  Jesus warned of the time of the Temple’s destruction (Mk 13:1-4, 30).

In his scifi Foundation series, Isaac Asimov introduces the idea of psychohistory – the future can actually be predicted far in advance based on average human tendencies.  Empires rise and they fall with interludes of low civilization, but these events happen at a certain time and for a reason.  That’s fiction, but the FACT is that given God’s original plan, it would take about four thousand years for the Savior to arrive (Gal. 4:4).

This is what the Lord says - Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty:

I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.  Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come - yes, let them foretell what will come (Is. 44:6,7).

Jesus clearly taught that our planet is not billions of years old (Mk. 10:6, Mk. 13:19, Lk. 11:50,51).   Peter echoed that sentiment (Acts 3:20,21). 

You'll be amazed at the fascinating facts from history, geology and biology that point to a youthful planet in the blockbusting work YES - Young Earth Science.

Your feedback is welcome:

ned_oa_1657@yahoo.com