Excerpt from the book IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU, by Ada Brownell
Also available in Audio. Read
or listen to first chapter free! #Teens #Family #Devotions
The Creator of the universe loves you and will guide you into blessed tomorrows.
God— the One who is, who always has been, and who always
will be, is the most important person you can meet. He is your Creator, and
what your future is like depends on your relationship with Him.
I know more and more young people are atheists today. This
is by design by the secularists who write curriculum, teach in our schools, the
universities, and have taken over our government and media. As I’ve said
before, there is active brain washing to assure you won’t believe in God.
I’ve said many times in the past “atheism is the opiate of
the sinner.” If wicked people at least think they don’t believe in God, it
helps quiet their conscience. But their conscience won’t quit, so they blame it
on other people . Apparently they know what Christians believe is real, so they
target Christians. They think stopping the influence of Christianity will help
them feel better in their sinful state. That is why religious freedom is in
danger in the United States.
So, your future is wrapped in whether you believe in the God
of the universe. For that reason I will present the truths to you in this
chapter you might not have heard.
Besides creating you, “In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.”[1]
That’s the opening verse of the Bible—Genesis 1:1.
That sentence is where the debate begins, but it’s nothing
new. Atheists and agnostics argue extensively on this subject. Yet, they can’t
prove God is not there. Neither, however, have Christians proved without a
shadow of doubt God is the Creator and interested in humankind.
Because we can’t prove how we got here, atheism takes faith,
as much or more faith than it takes to believe in a loving God. To be an
atheist, man must believe the eyes he sees with and everything he sees and even
things he can’t see just happened, including the origin of matter, life and the
exact mixture in the air we breathe: nitrogen, oxygen, water, argon, carbon
dioxide and trace gases.
IMAGINE HOW YOU GOT HERE
Now, some Christians do believe in evolution—but with God
starting the process. But those who believe in God don’t believe the universe
or the magnificent human body happened by itself.
Most secular professors and teachers will not hesitate to
tell you what to believe and not believe about your origins, but even
scientists disagree.
One of the most interesting debates on evolution occurred in
October 1980, when 150 scientists met in Chicago and began openly bickering
among themselves, thundering forth conflicting theories.
Some scientists at this conference promulgated the “big bang” theory.[2]
This theory, obviously not the TV show, contends that instead of millions of
leisurely evolutionary years, the world began all at once, Bang!, in a
great galactic explosion of atoms and enzymes.
Darwin’s theory also came under attack from
scientists—because missing links are still missing after more than a century
since Darwin.
“Fossil hunters have not found the fossils needed to explain
the glaring differences between major species,” Associated Press newspaper
columnist Hugh A. Mulligan reported. “In the whole cycle of environmental
selection, with all the genes and embryos playing splitsville according to the
evolutionary plan, no six-legged vertebrate has yet walked forth upon the
earth.”
Science has provided few or none of the examples of one
major species shading gradually into another.
Fossil experts, not clergymen, are Darwin’s most formidable
opponents, according to Phillip E. Johnson, author of Darwin on Trial.[3]
Although Darwin’s theory revolved around survival of the fittest,
paleontologists often disagree with Darwin because appearance of an improved
form implies a disadvantage of its parent form. Many supposed parent forms
still survive, and the missing links just aren’t there, even though they’ve
been searched for since 1859, when Darwin wrote Origin of the Species.
“There always will be missing links if we think in terms of
link between all change,” a university anthropologist argued when I interviewed
him. He said changes in Darwin’s theory have occurred, the most recent the
theory of “punctuated equilibrium,” which he explained relates to the time
taken for one species to shade into another.
“A form which had been a small variant, might have great
rapid growth,” he said.
He used the doubling of chromosomes in some species as an
example of radical change in a short period.
On the other hand, he admitted such doubling could be caused
by the environment and also that most mutations are undesirable rather than
desirable.
He used a fruit fly as an example of a species with a short
life span where such changes in chromosomes could be observed. But he admitted
the insect still was a fruit fly.
“It is very difficult for an average scientist to test
evolution,” he said. “Our lives are too short and the research too specialized.
The theory is the result of collective effort.”
IMAGINE OUTDATED TEXTBOOKS
One psychology professor openly ridiculed Christians in one
of my university classes with more than seventy students. As the instructor
made sarcastic remarks about Christians in the news and preached his atheistic
ideas, I wondered why no one challenged him. One day I raised my hand.
“You said this
textbook will be outdated in ten years,” I began. “So what you are saying today
might not be true in ten years?”
The questions flowed.
“Can you prove evolution? Isn’t it true you accept it by
faith? Are you aware that many scientists have thrown out missing links because
they couldn’t find them? Did you know scientists are even putting forth the
idea that man might have fallen from outer space?
“How did creation turn out so perfectly without a Designer?
Why aren’t monkeys turning into humans now?”
He admitted that, yes, the textbooks and the theories and
knowledge in them would soon be outdated; that he didn’t have all the answers;
and, “Yes, we do accept some things by faith. But when something is universally
accepted, we treat it as fact.”
I should have asked, “Then because the God of creation and
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ are universally accepted, that should be
treated as fact?”
A few weeks later, I asked a science teacher if the first
and second laws of thermodynamics violated evolution. The teacher had opened
the class on the environment by stating everything would be based on evolution.
No more than thirty-five pages into the text, Living in the Environment, by G. Tyler
Miller Jr., the class was studying the law of energy degradation, also known as
the second law of thermodynamics. The law states that matter, if left to itself
and undergoing physical or chemical changes, will always change in the
direction of decreased order and decreased energy content. The entire
universe obeys this law, and this includes every chemical reaction.
In words plain and simple, the law means anything left to
itself will slowly fall apart. Every time you see an old barn with the roof
sagging and the walls falling in, you see demonstration of this law. Despite
galaxies thought to be expanding (are they expanding, or are we increasing our
knowledge?), scientists will tell you the entire universe is slowing down,
growing old, and, as the saying goes, is running out of steam.
The second energy law also tells us energy tends to flow or
change spontaneously from a compact and ordered form to a dispersed and random,
or disordered, form.
“No one has ever found a violation of this law,” Miller
states.[4]
When the teacher read that, I put up my hand. “Isn’t
evolution a violation of this law?”
In order for evolution to occur, many complex chemical
changes must take place, and they must all be in the direction of increased
order and energy to move from the simple to the complex.
The teacher paused a moment, cleared his throat, and said,
“Well, evolution is the only violation.”
The theory of evolution also violates the first law of
thermodynamics, which simply says energy (or matter) neither can be created nor
destroyed.
A story goes that God and Satan were having a discussion.
“I can do anything you can,” Satan said, stretching his puny
body so he looked taller.
God smiled. “OK. Make a man.”
Satan bent over and began scraping up dirt.
God grabbed his shoulder. “Use your own dirt.”
IMAGINE DECEPTION
In the camp of atheism, we even have deception. Among
attempts to “prove” evolution, we have the Piltdown Man, which for forty years
was acclaimed as the “missing evolutionary link.” In 1952 it was proved to be a
hoax designed by Charles Dawson. The skull actually was the cranium of a man
and the jaw of an ape. The specimen was believed to be a million years old
before it was discovered to be a fraud. The teeth had been filed and stained to
suggest age.
Among other attempted deceptions was the Solid Muldoon,
which appeared to be a petrified giant with a tail about three inches long at
the base of the spine. The figure was dug up in 1877 near Pueblo, Colorado.
The Solid Muldoon was exhibited by W. A. Conant, the
“discoverer,” and George Hull, who planned to show the figure with P. T.
Barnum, the showman. But scientists were skeptical because Hull exhibited
another “petrified man” known as the Cardiff Giant. Hull later confessed he and
a stonecutter carved the “giant” out of stone and buried it for “discovery.”
Hull finally admitted that, in an attempt to make the Solid
Muldoon appear authentic, he made it from pulverized stone and bones, clay,
blood, plaster, and dried eggs. He pounded the “skin” with a needle-studded
mallet to give it “pores.” Then it was fired in a kiln for two weeks.
Now, even a person who rejects evolution must admit there
are few blatant deceptions such as these in the scientific realm today. But
that is not to say you can rest your future and eternal destiny on science.
IMAGINE NEW EVIDENCE
New evidence makes it necessary to continually revise the
theory of evolution. In fact, according to US
News and World Report, the theory is radically being revised.[5]
An article several years ago by William F. Allman says, “The
branches of the human family tree are being given a thorough shaking.”
One of the recent shakings, Allman said, concerns Lucy, a
primate thought by evolutionists to walk upright and represent the oldest known
human ancestor. But he said a number of distinct creatures, and possibly ten
different species of upright, large-brained ape-like creatures, have been
discovered, changing thought about Lucy’s species being the evolutionary link. Some
creationists discount Lucy entirely because pygmy chimps wander about upright
much of the time in rain forests today.
One of the most hotly debated issues among experts on human
origins concerns Neanderthals—stocky, primitive hominids thought to be a direct
ancestor of modern humans.
Researchers recently recovered DNA from a Neanderthal fossil
and decoded it to see how closely it resembles human DNA. The Neanderthal DNA
differed from human DNA in twenty-seven places, while human DNA differs from
person to person by an average of just eight variations in genetic sequence.[6]
The author of the article in US News and World Report concluded the DNA tests showed Neanderthal
men died out and were not the ancestors of modern humans.
The “prehistoric” models used by evolutionists also are
sometimes built on a very few bones and often rely on artists for fossil
reconstruction. For instance, Science
Magazine showed a half whale and a half land animal on its cover on April
22, 1983, and according to Dave Nutting of the Alpha Omega Institute in Grand
Junction, Colorado, the picture was reconstructed from teeth, a small fragment
of the jaw, and one bone at the back of the skull.[7]
IMAGINE CREATION
One of the biggest
stumbling blocks to belief among educated people is the idea that the Earth was
created in six days.
Recently a young man asked, “But how can Christians be
right? I heard someone counted genealogies of the Bible and figured the Earth
is about six thousand years old. We know it’s older than that!”
Do we? How do we know scientific dating is correct? During
the early 1960s in Leadville, Colorado, I worked at the Leadville Herald Democrat and did a story on the town’s old opera
house. On display in a small museum at the opera house was what appeared to be
a petrified foot in a high-topped shoe. The toe of the shoe was torn and a very
real-looking big toe and toenail protruded from the end. Every detail,
including the eyelets and strings, appeared real, but the shoe and foot, broken
off above the ankle, were stone. The specimen was found in a mine.
Years later I tried to find this artifact again to get more
information, but it was gone from the opera house, and I couldn’t discover
where it was taken.
Dr. Carl Baugh of Creation Evidences Museum in Glen Rose,
Texas, believes man and dinosaurs walked together. In his museum is a
fossilized human finger and fossilized human footprints in dinosaur paw prints.
He says there are other human and dinosaur footprints together in the Paluxy
River Basin in Texas.[8]
Baugh[9]
believes Earth’s atmospheric pressure before the flood in Noah’s day was 2.18
times what it is today, and the air was super oxygenated—enabling dinosaurs to
live and pterosaurs to fly. Ultraviolet light was filtered out, and this
atmosphere also gave man a longer life span.[10]
Dating methods are being challenged by some of today’s
Christian scientists. The potassium-argon dating method, which dates the
Earth’s age in billions of years, is said by scientists to be valid because of
the amount of time needed to make evolution seem reasonable, say textbook
authors Emmett L. Williams, a former metallurgical engineering professor at
Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and George Mulfinger Jr., a physics specialist
(Physical Science for Christian Schools).
[11]
The dating method, however, assumes no argon was present when the rocks were
formed. Yet, when volcanic rocks known to have been formed in 1800 to 1801 were
tested, their age was said to range between 160 million and three billion
years!
The radiocarbon dating method also is challenged by Williams
and Mulfingers, who say it is unreliable because the calibration curve cuts off
at about five thousand years ago and because the amount of carbon-14 in the
atmosphere does not remain constant and appears to be continually increasing.
But suppose scientific dating is correct. It does nothing to
undermine faith in God. Many Bible-believing Christians accept a very old
Earth.
Often people try to make the Bible say something it doesn’t.
The Bible doesn’t say the Earth was created in six twenty-four-hour days,
although some people believe it was. Neither does the Bible say when “the
beginning” was.
Here are some Christian ideas about the days of creation:
Twenty-four Days of Re-creation:
The belief there was a creation before Adam that was somehow destroyed. (This
idea leaves a gap of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.)
Age-Long Days of
Creation: The belief that creation occurred over six different ages
that could have been thousands of years in length.
Revelatory Days of Creation: The
idea that the days had nothing to do with creation but with the amount of time
God took giving Moses, the writer of the Book of Genesis, information about
creation.
Twenty-four-hour
days of creation: The belief
that God literally created the Earth and all that is in it in six
twenty-four-hour days, as we know days.
So when Genesis says, “So the evening and the morning were
the first day,” “The evening and the morning were the second day,” and so forth
until God rested on the seventh day, the length of time can be interpreted
several ways.
One thing that makes me believe in a young Earth is
population. Scientists use the “population J curve” to show exponential growth
of the number of humans. The “J curve” is any system that grows by
doubling—one, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, etc., or geometric growth.
Experts estimate the world’s population was two hundred
million in 1 AD and population continued to double and double until 1850—the
curve of the J— when eight hundred million people lived on the Earth. Estimates
and censuses showed two billion by 1930, three billion in 1960, four billion in
1976, five billion in 1990, six billion in 2002, and an estimated seven billion
in 2011.
It took nearly two thousand years to quadruple the number of
people from the time Jesus walked the earth but only eighty years for the
population to grow from one to two billion between 1850 and 1930 and twelve
years to grow a billion between 1990 and 2002. The US Census Bureau estimated
the world population to be 7.073 billion in 2012.
This increase is
despite diebacks because of disease and epidemics, natural catastrophes, and
wars. In my mind, there is no way man could have been here millions of years.
Again, science uses millions of years to make evolution seem plausible because
we can’t see any evidence for it in a lifetime of one hundred years.
But the length of
time that it took to create the Earth is not exceedingly important. What is
important is that we know and believe Genesis 1:1, that “in the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth.”
The whole world’s scientific thought constantly changes and
often contradicts what scientists thought was solid evidence. On the other
hand, the Creator and his witness never change and will never be outdated.
IMAGINE EVIDENCE FOR FAITH
It is not difficult to believe in God. Archaeology has found
evidence for many decades to support much of the Bible’s historical
information. Cities mentioned in the Bible have been discovered. According to the Biblical Archaeology Society, on July 18, 2013, the
Israel Antiquities Authority reported in a news release: King David’s Palace
was uncovered in the Judean Shephelah.
The Pool of Siloam where Jesus healed a blind man
was discovered after excavations in the Jerusalem. From reports, another pool
was thought to be the Pool of Siloam, but when this one about the size of two
football fields was discovered along with a series of steps leading down to the
pool. The pool was uncovered by a Jerusalem utility crew. Work was halted and
archaeologists took over.
The pool is at the end of an amazing aqueduct discovered
in 1838 by American biblical scholar Edward Robinson. The tunnel was far more
spectacular than anyone imagined, hewn out of solid rock and 1,750 feet long.
Skeptics claim the tunnel must have been created more recently than 1,700 years
ago, but analysis of the ancient writing found in the tunnel, carbon 14 dating
of the plant life disrupted by the tunnel, and uranium-thorium dating of
stalactites and stalagmites that grew after completing of the tunnel, support a
date of around 700 BC, the date given in the Bible.
Why did Hezekiah build the canal?
At about that time, the Assyrian Army led by King
Sennacherib conquered nearly every prominent town in the southern kingdom of
Judah. Israel lay in ruins. Sennacherib’s strategy was to cut off all food and
water outside the fortified city walls, then when the people inside were near
death from thirst and starvation, begin the siege.
When King Hezekiah heard what was
happening around Jerusalem, he sought the Lord, and built a tunnel, a canal,
from the springs outside the city through solid rock to bring water under the
wall and to the people. You can read about it in 2 Kings 18-20 and 2 Chronicles
32.
There is much more archaeological evidence to
support the Bible. Ancient writings also
have been found that verify people mentioned in scripture lived at the time
described.
Archaeologists have found so much evidence for
the Bible accuracy it takes books to tell it.
Fulfilled prophecies
also show the Bible is something on which we can depend. The Jews returning
from being scattered over the earth after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD
and Israel becoming a nation in 1948 fulfill Ezekiel’s prophecy concerning the
valley of dry bones. You may remember the song about the “dry bones” connecting.
Fervent study of
scripture reveals many fulfilled prophecies.
IMAGINE EARTH THE WAY GOD MADE IT
Anyone who will look with an open
mind will see that creation is “programmed” the way God designed it. Species
reproduce only after their kind. The body returns to dust—from which the Bible
says it came.
If we look at creation,
there is too much perfection to be attributed to chance.
It is with awe toward the
Creator that we see not one but two kinds of humans, animals,
insects, reptiles, birds, and fish—which keep reproducing to populate Earth.
Doesn’t it take too much faith to believe two kinds evolved so perfectly so as
to join together and have the capacity to create others just like them?
Any part of the human
body or any other part of creation defies explanation outside of the design of
Almighty God.
More evidence for faith surrounds us. The
power of God at work in the lives of men and women today is a great testimony.
First, a personal relationship with God is the only thing that really satisfies
the soul of man. Even if we have access to everything the world has to offer,
if we don’t know God, we have emptiness.
IMAGINE WHY
FAITH IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR FUTURE
Dr. Andrew Newberg, neuroscientist and author of Why We Believe What We Believe, says our
brains seem to have a special place for faith. He has tracked how the human
brain processes religion and spirituality. It's all part of a new field called
neurotheology.[12]
Newberg says the
frontal lobe, the area right behind our foreheads, helps us focus our attention
in prayer and meditation. The parietal lobe, located near the back of our
skulls, is the seat of our sensory information. He says this place in the brain
is involved in that feeling of becoming part of something greater than one’s
self. The limbic system, nestled deep in the center, regulates our emotions and
is responsible for feelings of awe and joy.
Newberg says
similar areas of the brain are affected during prayer and meditation. He
suggests brain scans may provide proof that our brains are built to believe in
God. He says there may be universal features of the human mind that actually
make it easier for us to believe in a higher power.
I believe people search for God because of the
“God-shaped void” within. If they haven’t heard the Gospel or reject it, they
worship the earth, an idol they know is nothing but a figure humans created, or
devise their own religion—even making unbelief into doctrine.
IMAGINE GOD GIVING YOU JOY AND PEACE
Besides
satisfying the longings deep within us, we can see other results of the Lord in
the lives of men and women today. When people accept Jesus Christ as Savior,
their lives are changed for the better. They won’t be perfect, but they will be
much better individuals than they were before they came to know God.
Parents
who neglected their families begin to care for them. They clean up their lives
and become solid, dependable individuals. The Bible says they are “new
creatures in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away. Behold all things become
new.”[13]
If someone claims to be a Christian but
doesn’t turn from sin, however, he probably didn’t submit himself to God. By
the same token if they say they know God, and no longer walk in obedience to
Him, they are not Christians.
In
addition to changed lives, if a person gets to know a Christian well he will
learn of many answers to prayer. In most Bible-believing churches, all you
would need to do is ask, “What is the greatest answer to prayer you’ve
experienced?” I’ve done that and discovered many wonderful testimonies: God
turning a forest fire from a home; a man with a head injury from a motorcycle
accident back to work in six weeks—after doctors said he probably would never
work again; a slowly dying child healed; God keeping a rainstorm behind a
highway paving machine for three days so a man with a large family could
work.
We’ve
experienced miracles in our family—a daughter thought to have multiple
sclerosis totally healthy years later; a son where tests showed he had only 40
percent kidney function, but later tests determined his kidneys worked
perfectly. Our six youngest grandchildren are miracles, four because of
pregnancy issues of their mothers, and the last two loving gifts of adoption.
God
doesn’t always work the way we wish. We lost a daughter to cancer, but the Lord
was our Comforter and gave peace. He does great things in answer to prayer.
In the church, especially,
one can see the work of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus promised He would send
when He went away, drawing men and women to salvation, filling them with power,
and teaching them.
When all information for
belief in God or all information for belief in atheism is given, however, there
is still room for doubt.
Why would God leave room
for doubt?
IMAGINE YOUR FAITH
Because faith is necessary for salvation. The Bible states,
“Without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to him must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him.”[14]
In another scripture the Bible says, “All who believe in God’s Son have everlasting
life.”[15]
If God’s existence could be proved, there would be no reason
for faith!
When the whole matter of man’s existence on Earth is
questioned, there is nothing to settle it—but faith. So why not believe in God?
It’s the only thing that makes sense.
Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ
International, said he has never seen a single individual who has honestly
considered the evidence who was unable to believe in God. But he has seen some
who are unwilling to believe.[16]
Belief is a matter of the will. God created man with freedom
of choice. We aren’t forced to serve or obey him. Adam and Eve had that choice
from the beginning, and so do we. We can serve false gods, Satan, or ourselves
if we choose.
It is only when we choose to believe in the Creator that we
begin to build our life on the Rock where the hurricanes of life can’t destroy
us.
God’s love was demonstrated when He sent His only Son to
die, arise from the tomb, and be the Savior of sinful men. Belief in God the
Father is not enough, however. Devils believe and tremble (James 2:19). We also
must believe and confess Jesus Christ as Lord (Romans 10:9) and obediently
follow Him and His Word.
[1] Genesis
1:1
[2]
Charles Percival, Pueblo Chieftain,
Aug. 9, 1992, page 6B.
[3] Darwin on Trial (Downers Grove, Ill.:
InterVarsity Press, 1993), 45.
[4] G. Tyler Miller Jr., Living in the Environment (Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth Publishing Co.), 34–43.
[5]
William F. Allman, “A Family Legacy for Lucy,” US News & World Report, April 11, 1994, 55.
[6]
Laura Tangley, “Not So Close After All,” US
News and World Report, July 21, 1997, 9.
[7]
Pueblo Chieftain, Pueblo, CO, Jan.
12, 1991, page 1B; and The Alpha Omega Institute, bulletin, Grand Junction, CO.
[8]
Ada Brownell, Pueblo Chieftain, Nov.
4, 1989, 1B; and Carl Baugh and Dr. Clifford Wilson, Dinosaur (Orange CA: Promise Publishing Co., 1987).
[9]
Baugh’s credentials for making these claims are challenged by some experts,
however, and even some creationists are skeptical about the Paluxy footprints,
although they are in a protected national or state park.
[10]
Carl Baugh, Panorama of Creation
(Oklahoma City, OK: Southwest Radio Church), 55-62.
[11]
Bob Jones University Press, Greenville, SC, 1974, 271.
[12] CNN report by A. Chris Gajilan on April 4, 2007.
[13] 2
Corinthians 517
[14]
Hebrews 11:6KJ
[15]
John 3:36
[16]
Josh McDowell, Foreword, Evidence That
Demands a Verdict (San Bernardino, CA: Here’s Life Publishers Inc., San
Bernardino, CA, 1979).
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