Saturday, April 27, 2019

WHY WE NEED JESUS


9. IMAGINE WHY BELIEVING IN JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING

An excerpt from the book Imagine the Future You


E-book, paper and audible. Read or listen to first chapter free! Great narrator.




By Ada Brownell


Why we need Jesus



“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things you can see and the things we can’t see—kings, kingdoms, rulers and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together” (Colossians 15:17NLT).

We only need to listen to or watch the news to know we need Jesus.

So many worrisome things are occurring, even beyond economic problems, unemployment, staggering national debt, terrorists’ bombings and nations who hate America accumulating nuclear bombs.

I worry about the spiritual state of our nation, where it seems everyone—even those who claim to be Christians—use the Lord’s name in vain for every emotion under the sun.

 Furthermore, secularism (yes, it used to be listed among religions in encyclopedias) has become the religion of the United States, and freedom of religion is in danger.

Where will you fit in these perilous times?

The Bible describes the future this way:

 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4)

IMAGINE “BEAMED UP” WITH THE CHURCH

Do you love God? Do you believe Jesus will be involved in your future as prophesies about His catching away of the church and the second coming indicate?

From 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:  For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 

His first coming certainly impacted the world.

When I think of Jesus and his sacrifice to come to earth, I think of the big, husky evangelist who was a dinner guest at a home the same time we were eating there. The man piled his plate high with delicious food and then started de­vouring it.

“When you look at me now,” he said between chomps, knowing we all watched, “it’s hard to realize I was once helpless and flat on my back.”

“You were?” someone asked in amazement.

He grinned. “Yes. I was a baby once.”

It is even more amazing to realize the Lord Jesus Christ—who was there when the universe was created (the verse above and John 1)—gave up all his supernatural strength and wisdom to become a baby.

Last Christmas when I pondered with amazement the thought that He would become completely helpless—with his whole existence dependent upon humans—I realized it wasn’t so amazing after all. Jesus, as God the Son,[1] downloaded the instincts and programmed parents’ brains so a baby’s cry would be so irritating they would do al­most anything to stop the sound. They would offer food. They would change the diaper. They would hold the infant.

He also knew parents’ love is so deep they want to see their offspring tenderly and adequately cared for.

IMAGINE EVENTS THAT AFFECT YOUR LIFE FORETOLD

But how do we know Jesus was no ordinary baby?

If you have studied religion at all, you know many religions recognize Jesus as a prophet, but deny He is God. Only Christians recognize Him as God’s son and our Lord. Almost anyone will tell you He was a good man.

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis proclaimed, "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”

 Some religions try to give you another Christ, which the Bible calls an antichrist, a false prophet, and false god. But the Bible says, “There is no other name given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

One way we know Jesus was no ordinary baby is God the Son fulfilled prophecy written hundreds of years before He came.

IMAGINE EVIDENCE THAT IMPACTS YOU

Josh McDowell, in his book Evidence That Demands a Verdict,[2] states that the Old Testament contains over three hundred references to the Messiah that were fulfilled in Jesus, and all of these prophecies were written at least 250 years before Christ was born.

Among these prophecies are his virgin birth, his ancestry, his birth­place, his presentation of gifts from the East, the massacre of infants by Herod, his name, the flight into Egypt, a messenger would precede his ministry, his ministry would begin in Galilee, he would teach in the temple, he would teach in parables, he would enter Jerusalem on a donkey, he would be a stone of stumbling to the Jews and light to the Gentiles, he would have a Resurrec­tion, and he would ascend into heaven.

The events of his trial and events preceding his death were foretold. He would be sold for thirty pieces of silver and betrayed by a friend. The money would be thrown in the house of the Lord. The silver would purchase a potter’s field for burial. False witnesses would accuse him, and he would not answer them. He would be mocked, wounded, bruised, smitten, and spit upon. The weight of the cross would be too much for his beaten body.


His manner of death was foretold, as well as the piercing of his hands, feet, and side, but no bones would be broken.

Here is the scripture from the Old Testament about the piercing: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son” (Zechariah 12:10).

When John related the story of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, he wrote, “But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the Roman soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out.…For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, ‘Not one of his bones shall be broken.’ And again another scripture says, ‘They shall look on him whom they pierced’” (John 33:37NKJ).

When the soldier decided not to bother to break his legs, he had no idea he fulfilled prophecy.

The darkness that fell over the land at noon when Jesus died also was foretold by prophets hundreds of years earlier. The burial in the rich man’s tomb was predicted.

But was Jesus actually the Son of God and God the Son?

IMAGINE JESUS BLESSING PEOPLE TODAY

 Emilie Griffin, in her book Turning,[3] tells how she came from atheism to accepting Jesus Christ as Lord of her life. After realizing there had to be a Designer, she wondered whether a genuine relationship was possible between God and man.

“I wanted to know who Jesus was, what he actually said, and how that made people willing to die for his sake,” she explains. Her own starting point was whether one might believe God acted in history and Jesus was in any real sense His Son.

She read the New Testament and saw the Gospels had a firmer historical validity than she had been led to believe. The Book of Acts and the Epistles opened her eyes.

“Paul lived at the same time as others who knew Jesus,” she writes. “Paul was acquainted with men and women who witnessed the events of the Crucifixion and who insisted upon the fact of the Resurrection. I began to feel these letters were either a true account—or the most extraordinary fabrication ever concocted.

“By this time I was reading straight through the New Testament, and it was affecting me deeply. I could not get over the conviction that Jesus was real.”

Those who study the New Testament soon see Jesus claimed to be God, his claims were confirmed by others, and other indirect claims say He is God the Son.

WHAT A FUTURE! IMAGINE NEVER DYING

Who do you say I am?” Jesus asked Peter at Philippi.

“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God,” Peter answered.

“You are blessed, Simon, son of John,” Jesus told him, "Because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.”[4]

Jesus claimed to be God at other times in his ministry. When Jesus told the Jews that if they kept His sayings, they would not see death, they were outraged.[5] (He spoke of our souls and spirits living forever.)

“Now we know you are possessed by a demon,” they said. “Even Abraham and the prophets died, but you say that those who obey your teaching will never die? Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Are you greater than the prophets, who died? Who do you think you are?”

Jesus answered, “If I am merely boasting about myself, it doesn’t count. But it is my Father who says these glorious things about me. You say, ‘He is our God,’ but you do not even know him. I know him. If I said otherwise, I would be as great a liar as you! But it is true—I know him and obey him. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it, and was glad.”

“You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you’ve seen Abraham?” the Jews asked.

Jesus answered, “The truth is, I existed before Abraham was even born!”

Then they took up stones to throw at him.

Later, at his trial, Jesus acknowledged his divinity.
“Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”
“I am,” Jesus said.[1]
Jesus showed his claim to being the Messiah and His divinity in other ways also. In the entire Bible, Jesus is the only person who accepted worship from others.
Jesus made other indirect claims to his divinity. He forgave sins. He said He was the Giver of Life. Judgment has been assigned to him by the Fa­ther, according to the teachings of Jesus.
The claims made by Jesus were substantiated by others. John the Bap­tist proclaimed Him to be the Messiah. Peter confirmed that he believed Jesus to be the Son of God. Stephen preached that Jesus was the Messiah and testified he saw Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” as he lay dying after he was stoned.
The apostle Paul (previously called Saul) was one of the Jews who stirred up the people who killed Stephen. But soon Paul also became a believer and pro­claimed Jesus as the Son of God. Paul was imprisoned and given the death penalty because of his faith in Jesus Christ.
IMAGINE DEMONS TREMBLING
Demons even acknowledge knowing Jesus, and they tremble.[2]
To the Jews He proclaimed that He would rise from the dead if they destroyed Him.[3] He also taught His disciples in private that He would be killed and after three days rise again.[4] The disciples would not listen to such teachings, though.
After Jesus died and buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, the chief priests and Pharisees asked Pilate to guard and seal the tomb. They said, “We remember that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’”[5]
Despite the guards and the seal, the Lord Jesus Christ did walk out of that tomb, alive forevermore.
Yet, Easter still is a mystery. From a purely physical point of view, if there was no Resurrection, what happened to Christ’s body? And if he didn’t come out of the grave triumphant, why would the disci­ples, who were so wishy-washy before his death, suddenly become strong enough to give their lives for their faith in Jesus?
Josh McDowell, author of Evidence that Demands a Verdict,[6] wrote great in-depth studies on the Resurrection and other historical evidences for the Christian faith. He said people will die for a religious leader they think is equal to God, but if Jesus had not risen from the dead his disciples would have known it, and people will not give their lives for belief in a person they know is a fraud.
 According to the Bible, history, and tradition, all of the twelve disciples of Jesus except Saint John and Judas were martyrs. John died a natural death while imprisoned on Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. Judas, who sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, committed suicide.
Jesus’s resurrection is an amazing fact. But so is the wonder of life’s origins.


[1] Mark 14:61–62
[2] Matthew 8:29; James 2:18–20
[3] John 2:18–22
[4] Matthew 16:21
[5] Matthew 27:63
[6] Josh McDowell, Campus Crusade for Christ, Here’s Life Publishers, Inc., 1979



[1] There is only one God, but in three persons known as the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and they are eternal with no beginning and no end. Jesus said He and Father are one and if you know Him, we also know the Father. See John 14:5-12.
[2] San Bernardino, CA: Here's Life Publishers Inc.
[3] Emilie Griffin, Doubleday, 1980.
[4] Matthew 16:16–17
[5] John 8:51–58

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Thursday, April 25, 2019

WHY FAITH IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR FUTURE

THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH
By Ada Brownell
Excerpt from the book Imagine the Future You
Links: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06



God prevents people from proving He exists 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.”[3]

In another scripture the Bible says, “All who believe in God’s Son have everlasting life.”[4]

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.[5]

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] CNN report by A. Chris Gajilan on April 4, 2007.
[2] 2 Corinthians 517
[3] Hebrews 11:6KJ
[4] John 3:36
[5] Josh McDowell, Foreword, Evidence That Demands a Verdict (San Bernardino, CA: Here’s Life Publishers Inc., San Bernardino, CA, 1979).

Monday, April 22, 2019

EVIDENCE FOR FAITH


Excerpt from Ada Brownell's book, Imagine the Future YOU



IMAGINE EVIDENCE FOR FAITH
By ADA BROWNELL



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.[1]

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.”[2]

 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?
The answer next time.



[1] CNN report by A. Chris Gajilan on April 4, 2007.
[2] 2 Corinthians 517


IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU
By Ada Brownell

A GREAT GIFT FOR TEENS OR FAMILY WORSHIP. This motivational Bible study will help youth discover evidence for faith; how to look and be their best; who can help; interesting information about dating, love and marriage; choosing a career; how to deposit good things into the brain you can spend; and how to avoid hazards that jeopardize a successful life on earth and for eternity, all mingled with true stories that bring a smile.

E-book, paper and audible. Read or listen to first chapter free! Great narrator.


Monday, April 15, 2019

NEW EVIDENCE SHAKES THEORY

By Ada Brownell
http://ow.ly/TY6uO

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.[1]
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.[2]
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.[3]
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.[4]
Baugh[5] 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.[6]
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). [7] 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.


[1] William F. Allman, “A Family Legacy for Lucy,” US News & World Report, April 11, 1994, 55.
[2] Laura Tangley, “Not So Close After All,” US News and World Report, July 21, 1997, 9.
[3] Pueblo Chieftain, Pueblo, CO, Jan. 12, 1991, page 1B; and The Alpha Omega Institute, bulletin, Grand Junction, CO.
[4] Ada Brownell, Pueblo Chieftain, Nov. 4, 1989, 1B; and Carl Baugh and Dr. Clifford Wilson, Dinosaur (Orange CA: Promise Publishing Co., 1987).
[5] 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.
[6] Carl Baugh, Panorama of Creation (Oklahoma City, OK: Southwest Radio Church), 55-62.
[7] Bob Jones University Press, Greenville, SC, 1974, 271.


*Excerpt from Ada Brownell's book, Imagine the future You http://ow.ly/TY6uO




Wednesday, April 3, 2019

How deception leads to atheism

HAVE YOU BEEN DECEIVED BY YOUR PROFESSORS?
By Ada Brownell
 (Excerpt from the book Imagine the Future You)





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.[1] 

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.[2]

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.[3]



[1] William F. Allman, “A Family Legacy for Lucy,” US News & World Report, April 11, 1994, 55.
[2] Laura Tangley, “Not So Close After All,” US News and World Report, July 21, 1997, 9.
[3] Pueblo Chieftain, Pueblo, CO, Jan. 12, 1991, page 1B; and The Alpha Omega Institute, bulletin, Grand Junction, CO.




IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU

By Ada Brownell

Will you be the person you dream of becoming, or the person in your nightmares?

Ready or not, you are headed into your future.

Would you like to achieve your dreams of being all you can be inside and out? Would you like to deposit good information in your brain you can spend and invest in your future?

Read or listen to Ada Brownell’s book, Imagine the Future You.

This author, who taught church youth for more than 30 years, spent a good hunk of her life as a journalist interviewing successful people who achieved great things, but also met and wrote about those whose lives had become so entangled with baggage they needed a miracle to turn them loose. In addition, she has picked brains and studied how to believe in yourself and things greater than you.

You need this book.  E-book, paper and audible. Great narrator.

Mom: Our teenage daughter loves this book!




Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Outdated Textbooks


Excerpt from Ada Brownell's book Imagine the Future You
Links: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284    http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06



IMAGINE OUTDATED TEXTBOOKS
By Ada Brownell



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.[1]

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.
I interviewed a anthropologist professor, and we discussed changed in a fruit fly that can be observed. "What did you have then?" I asked.
A fruit fly, he admitted.
A Christian sociologist pointed out to me that any species where changes have been observed is still the same species.

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.”



[1] G. Tyler Miller Jr., Living in the Environment (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.), 34–43.