Re: Cobb County

Dave,

Your email of 17 Jan included the following: "If the Creator produced this universe about 6000 years ago so that any rational observer thinks it is billions of years old, he is deliberately deceitful. Bluntly, your deity is a liar." A serious charge, indeed. You later go on to say, "I do vigorously oppose scientism, materialism, dogmatic naturalism, all positions which deny the God who is Truth.", and I am thus encouraged to offer a brief scriptural defence of my position.

 It seems to me that the one biblical character Christians find it hardest to talk about - or even acknowledge - is Satan. Yet our Lord describes him as "...the prince of this world..." (Jn.14:30) and "...a liar, and the father of it." (Jn.8:44). The apostles also warn us of him - notably in Eph.6:11 where Paul, speaking to believers, writes, "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Yes, Satan - our adversary (1Pet.5:8) - is a real and powerful being; nevertheless, he is subservient to God (Job 1:6-12, 2:1-6) - and it appears that he is there, _unintentionally_ performing an important role in the unfathomable purposes of God.

Now, on the basis of these revelations, one has to ask why many Christians appear to believe that a consideration of the _physical_ evidences alone is sufficient to sustain the confident claims made in respect of the age of the earth and God's method of creating. The answer is again to be found in the Scriptures where we read "...for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth..." (Gen.8:21)

To summarise: my God is no liar; His word is true in its entirety. In believing differently, you have failed to heed its clear warnings and, in my view, have become embroiled in a gross deception. An eminent evangelical theologian here in the UK has described Darwin's, The Origin of Species as "more responsible for undermining people's faith and belief in the Scriptures, and in God's way of salvation, than any other single book." What a coup for Satan that was! - mass delusion on a world-wide scale - yet, in the wisdom of God, permitted, so that His sovereign purposes might be fulfilled.

Vernon
www.otherbiblecode.com
 
----- Original Message -----
  From: D. F. Siemens, Jr.
  To: vernon.jenkins@virgin.net
  Cc: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 4:15 AM
  Subject: Re: Cobb County

  Vernon,
  You speak out of ignorance. I've produced no end of gluteal agony among those I have felt to be wrong. On the other hand, you see only ONE problem which results from eisegesis. I made note of several controversial areas which you ignored. I did not mention your hobby, and you tax me with it. I have to conclude that you cannot see reality because your obsession blinds you to all else.

  You speak of "healthy criticism of an unproven (and unprovable) theory." Technically, you are right, for no scientific theory can be strictly proved. But we do observe and fit our observations into logically consistent structures. When they have a reasonable amount of support, they are known as theories. N.B., in the context of science, "theory" does not mean "guess". For example, astronomers observe the heavens. They note that some things they observe have displaced spectral patterns. For some, they have a measure of distance based on cepheids, novae, and other things that they observe. The more distant galaxies have spectra displaced more toward the red. The rational explanation is that this spectral displacement is a matter of Doppler shift. No absorption produces a shift, only reduced intensity, similar to the effect of distance. Extrapolating from the galaxies whose distance can be reasonably determined as described to dimmer galaxies and their greater red shift, they calculate that 13.7 x 10^9 years ago, all the matter they see was collected at one central point. That is, the universe we observe is about 13,700,000,000 years old. If the Creator produced this universe about 6000 years ago so that any rational observer thinks it is billions of years old, he is deliberately deceitful. Bluntly, your deity is a liar. I once believed as you do (without numerology). It was only by the grace of God that I did not chuck my faith when I discovered that what I had been told the Bible taught was false. Six-day creationists have been responsible for many shipwrecks.

  I could pile up additional evidences that your position makes God a liar many times over. I shan't. I choose my battles so as to defend truth. I do vigorously oppose scientism, materialism, dogmatic naturalism, all positions which deny the God who is Truth.
  Dave

  On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 23:07:31 -0000 "Vernon Jenkins" <vernon.jenkins@virgin.net> writes:
    Dave,

    It interests me that you TEs invariably remain silent when these educational controversies arise. Clearly, by so doing you provide tacit support for those who have no knowledge of the Spirit of truth (John 16:13). Shouldn't all Christians be actively involved in encouraging healthy criticism of an unproven (and unprovable) theory that has, manifestly, borne so much evil fruit?

    Vernon
    www.otherbiblecode.com

      ----- Original Message -----
      From: D. F. Siemens, Jr.
      To: vernon.jenkins@virgin.net
      Cc: asa@calvin.edu
      Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 11:54 PM
      Subject: Re: Cobb County

      Let's see. I have recently come across controversy about the origin of AIDS, about the use of polio vaccine (and the consequent spread of polio to several African countries where it has been controlled), about cell phones and high tension lines, infant vaccines and autism, and probably others.
      Dave
Received on Tue Jan 18 19:31:17 2005