Re: [asa] Fw: Fresh look at creation - article

This weird gap theory stems from Pember in c1870s and is a distortion of
Chalmers' Gap Theory. The idea of Satan's creativity goes back to the mystic
Boehme and not shared by precursors of Chalmers in the 17 and 18th century.

Also, how do you decide which animals God created and which old Satan did?
Are we right to exterminate those Satan made? A serious ethical and
environmental question

Michael
----- Original Message -----
From: "D. F. Siemens, Jr." <dfsiemensjr@juno.com>
To: <gbrown@Colorado.EDU>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 5:39 PM
Subject: Re: [asa] Fw: Fresh look at creation - article

This "new" interpretation works if some things are ignored. Microbes can
be predators, and I think there are evidences of some sort of worms
during the Precambrian. I don't know how helmiths of any sort are not
predatory. Additionally, after a postulated 600 million years of
destructive interference by Satan, how can the creation be proclaimed
"very good"? It seems that the devil is in more than the details.
Dave (ASA)

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 12:38:33 -0700 (MST) gordon brown
<gbrown@Colorado.EDU> writes:
> Why do we feel that we have to fill in the details in the Biblical
> accounts that the Lord chose to leave out? These speculations are
> never
> universally convincing, and if people get the impression that they
> are
> part of the Biblical teaching, we give them another possible cause
> for
> doubting the Bible.
>
> Gordon Brown (ASA member)
>
>
> On Tue, 13 Nov 2007, IW wrote:
>
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > I found the below article fascinating. It was sent to me sans
> sources
> > so I am not certain where this originates (book, article etc) and
> have
> > been unable to find out who to ask permission from to disseminate.
> My
> > understanding from the person who s ent it is that it is free to
> pass
> > on. I apologize in advance if wrong.
> >
> > I agree with it that Genesis describes A beginning and not THE
> > beginning. I am skeptical of some of its postulations but await
> the
> > collective and formidable brainpower on this list to respond
> first.
> >
> >
> > Missions' Greatest Enemy, Greatest Violence
> > Ralph D. Winter
> >
> > Probably few Evangelicals can easily imagine how the longstanding
> > interpretation of Genesis 1:1 by a Dallas Seminary professor (Dr.
> > Merrill Unger) could possibly lead to a momentous reinterpretation
> of
> > our conventional concepts of Christian mission in terms of enemy
> and
> > violence. However, this paper actually has three different
> purposes:
> >
> > This paper attempts to defend the trustworthiness of the Bible in
> the
> > eyes of the average well-educated secular person by showing how
> the
> > Bible does not necessarily conflict with the idea that the
> universe
> > started with a bang and is immensely old, and that the Earth
> itself is
> > very old and displays a steady progression of increasingly complex
> life
> > forms. Even if all that all were true, what would it do to the
> Bible?
> >
> > While this paper accepts what most paleontologists believe for the
> sake
> > of discussion, its conclusions do not depend on the validity of
> the
> > views of contemporary paleontologists. And, for the record, it
> does not
> > give an inch to the idea of Darwinian evolution or to a fallible
> Bible.
> > Secondly, it is a serious attempt to take the Bible literally and
> yet
> > to be capable of belief in both "the young Earth" and "the old
> Earth"
> > points of view. I feel sorry when I hear that a famous Bible
> College
> > graduate faculty believes in "the old Earth" while the
> undergraduate
> > faculty believes in "the young Earth," thinking they are
> contradictory.
> >
> > Much more important, in a way, is the proposal that our current
> > concepts of Christian mission work are good, but incomplete, and
> in
> > fact are much too narrow if we are really setting out to glorify
> God
> > who is constantly blamed for evil. The novel element here is the
> idea
> > that the full implications of the New Testament's concept of Satan
> have
> > been largely lost in Western Christianity to the extent that we
> have
> > been influenced by Augustine's neo-platonic view of a God who,
> often
> > with mysterious reasons, initiates both good and evil with Satan
> only a
> > "bystander."
> >
> > A larger interpretation of mission goes like this: we have
> > been recruiting people all over the world into God's eternal
> family,
> > which is an activity as basic and as significant as you can get.
> But
> > while our new "recruits" are now all dressed up in their new
> uniforms
> > they do not know they are military uniforms, and are more often
> hoping
> > to flee evil rather than fight it.
> >
> > Personal righteousness, both
> > "positional" and actual, would seem to be very thin if it does not
> turn
> > around and fight evil. Worse still-far worse-is the fact that if
> we let
> > the world fight disease, corruption and violence, God is
> generally
> > blamed for "allowing" such evils. We puzzle over evil if we think
> God
> > is "behind" all evil--instead of "in front" making good out of
> evil.
> > Such a theology requires books that help us to understand When
> God
> > Doesn't Make Sense.' However, suffering and violence in a war
> against
> > an intelligent enemy don't need to be explained, and for that
> reason
> > neither does the verse, "All that will live godly... will suffer
> > persecution."
> >
> > We are in a war! Summary Opening the AD 1611 King James
> > Bible we read "In the beginning God created. . . ." Over the next
> 400
> > years this interpretation has been cemented in the minds of
> millions of
> > people. It conveys the idea that the Bible begins by describing
> the
> > beginning of the entire universe, not merely the new beginning of
> the
> > human story. However, not even in 1611 was the universe well
> > understood. It was likely far less clear to the "holy men of God"
> > writing in the days of Genesis.' In fact, the "known world" of
> Moses
> > would not have even included the idea of a planet, of a sphere
> hanging
> > in space.
> >
> > Similarly, "The ends of the earth" in Isaiah 49:6 never
> > referred to our planet but to the ends of the earthen plain
> ending
> > abruptly where the "fertile crescent" of the Middle East is
> bounded by
> > the mountains rising in Turkey and Iran. In other words, the
> common
> > interpretation of Genesis today-that the universe began 6,000
> years
> > ago-may simply be the result of reading later understanding into
> an
> > earlier text. Such errors are called anachronisms. The error is
> > understandable.
> >
> > However, the very serious result is to force the Bible
> > (unfairly?) to say that the world is only 6,000 years old, and
> thereby
> > to create the greatest stumbling block to modern man's trust in
> the
> > Bible. Curiously, as long ago as 1958 the chair of the Old
> Testament
> > Department at Dallas Theological Seminary, Dr. Merrill Unger,
> taught
> > that "the geologic ages" preceded Genesis 1:1 and that the events
> of
> > Genesis 1 portray not THE beginning but "a relative beginning
> (Unger's
> > Bible Handbook)."3 His was not a new idea even then but today it
> is
> > uncommon.
> >
> > Our problem is that most of the world today assumes that both
> > our planet and the universe are much older than 6,000 years. The
> grim
> > result, then, is that the Bible appears wrong when in fact it may
> in
> > fact be a very accurate description of things using terms that
> were
> > understood in that day. Thus, Unger's insight is what undergirds
> the
> > tentative perspective of this paper, namely, that Satan fell long
> > before Gen. 1:1, and began distorting all of nature from the
> Cambrian
> > Period on, continuing that type of genetic distortion after
> Adam's
> > fall, and although he was decisively routed at the turning point
> of the
> > Cross, he stalks the land to this day, his works casting blame on
> "the
> > God of Creation."
> >
> > This then sets the stage for a radically expanded
> > concept of Christian mission. This presentation is both
> hypothetical
> > and conjectural. It lays out the predominant secular
> interpretation of
> > the history of the universe and more specifically the earth and
> life on
> > earth, doing so whenever the phrase is employed "many scientists
> > believe" simply describing not affirming. It does not give any
> credence
> > to Darwinian evolution at all. But it does note that there is no
> > necessary conflict with Genesis of the secular sequence and time
> spans,
> > if, that is, Genesis 1:1 does not describe the origin of the
> universe
> > but rather a new creation of the era of "image of God" humans.
> The
> > story is cast in narrative form for efficiency and digestible
> order.
> > Credit is due to John Eldridge for the concept of "Acts" in a
> story.
> >
> > He
> > has four Acts in his superb little book, The Epic .4 I have split
> his
> > third Act into Act III, the Edenic period and Act IV, the period
> after
> > the Fall of Adam. Thus, I have five "Acts." Act I: The Creation of
> the
> > Universe Thirteen and a half, or so, billion years ago, many
> scientists
> > believe, a "Big Bang" occurred, producing the entire universe.
> (They
> > don't like the word creating.)
> > For various reasons mentioned below,
> > such a creation event does not seem to be what Genesis 1:1 is
> > describing. Four and a half billion years ago, many scientists
> believe,
> > planet Earth was formed. About four billion years ago, many
> scientists
> > believe, very small forms of life appeared on Earth. For the next
> 3.5
> > billion years life forms were still very small.
> > This astounding
> > slowness of the formation of progressively more complex forms of
> life
> > may in this case imply that God has for millions of years been
> doing
> > that work through intelligent, but finite, intermediate beings who
> have
> > been at work in an incredibly complex, and thus lengthy, learning
> > curve. Perhaps some of them have been small enough to work
> directly
> > with DNA. It took a century with thousands of intelligent
> engineers at
> > work to "evolve" the Model T Ford into a Lincoln Continental. It
> did
> > not happen without intelligent guidance at every point.
> Prokaryotes
> > were followed by Eukaryotes about two billion years ago, many
> > scientists believe.' All angels were good at this time. Then,
> about 530
> > million years ago the Ediacaron period displayed small animals
> with
> > "radial symmetry" similar to starfish, as well as "bi-polar
> > symmetry"-with a front and a back and four legs.
> > Significantly this
> > Ediacaron animal life revealed no predation or even defenses
> against
> > predation! Still only good angels 6 Act II: The Fall of Satan
> Next,
> > relatively suddenly, the "Cambrian Explosion" took place. A wide
> > variety of different types of animals now appeared, and, for the
> next
> > 500 million years, all of them can be characterized as
> horrifyingly
> > cruel predators or prey or both. Note that this lengthy record of
> > violent animal life does not seem to fit well into the first
> chapter of
> > Genesis, even if the "days" spoken of there might be considered
> very
> > long, since the animals described in Genesis are explicitly
> declared
> > (v. 29) to be noncarnivorous.
> > Here is a thought: this new and
> > radically different 500-million-year period might have begun when
> an
> > intermediate being, an archangel, in turning against his Creator
> in the
> > "Fall of Satan" carried perhaps millions of equally rebellious
> angels
> > with him, becoming what C. S. Lewis called "a hideous strength" or
> what
> > Paul called the "god of this world."
> > If the long story of the
> > earlier, progressive, creation of nonpredatory life had reflected
> God's
> > infinite wisdom and goodness, now the pervasive distortion of
> that
> > life, if not that of a Satanic foe, would seem clearly to reflect
> > negatively on God's character. This negative reputation may be
> seen
> > today in the very common attribution of tragedies not to Satan,
> but to
> > "God's mysterious will." This absence of Satan in people's minds
> is
> > what allows a book by the title of When God Doesn't Make Sense,'
> or a
> > Harvard professor logically to remark that, "If the God of the
> > Intelligent Design proponents exists, He must be a divine `sadist'
> who
> > creates parasites that blind millions of people."' How can we
> reply to
> > such thinking if we do not recognize (point out and fight) "the
> works
> > of the devil (I John 3:8)"? Also, during the next 500 million
> years,
> > many scientists believe, many asteroidal collisions blotted out
> life in
> > various parts of the globe, as if in judgment my thinking--of the
> > prevailing violence and destructive nature of gruesomely distorted
> life
> > forms.
> > Forty-five of the resulting craters that have been found are
> > fifteen miles across or larger. The largest, in the Antarctic, is
> 300
> > miles in diameter. It is believed to have occurred 275 million
> years
> > ago, and is estimated to have extinguished ninety-seven percent of
> all
> > life on Earth. Another large crater, at the north end of Mexico's
> > Yucatan peninsula, is believed to have occurred 65 million years
> ago,
> > and is 100 miles across. It is the one understood to have ended
> the
> > onehundred-million-year period of the characteristically violent
> > dinosaurs.
> >
> > Many of these forty-five larger asteroids are understood to
> > have been solid rock miles in diameter moving at the speed of a
> rifle
> > bullet at the moment of impact.9 Following the extinction of the
> > dinosaurs, many scientists believe, mammals came into their own,
> > growing in size to tons of weight, existing virtually
> unchallenged
> > until intelligent pre-humans began to drive them into extinction.
> > Finally, evidence of distinctive and unprecedented intelligence
> > appeared, reasonably (in my opinion) the first true humans (but
> > Satanically distorted, carnivorous, violent, cannibals, not the
> Genesis
> > 1 type).
> >
> > The evidence in this case is not fossil bones but indications
> > of highly intelligent genetic breeding of both plants and animals,
> that
> > is, 1) the selective breeding of virtually inedible plants,
> deriving
> > corn, wheat, rice, and potatoes, etc., and 2) the selective
> breeding of
> > animal life, for example, dangerous wolves into friendly dogs.
> Both
> > types of genetic engineering, many paleo-historians and
> paleontologists
> > believe, took place about 11,000 years ago' (about five thousand
> years
> > before the Genesis new beginning).
> >
> > However, despite this early evidence
> > of sudden, unprecedented intelligence, all fossils of human life
> that
> > far back clearly reflect cannibalism and violence, in other
> words,
> > durable evidence of intentional, evil distortion" Act III: A New
> > Beginning and the Fall of Man About 6,000 years ago, at the very
> > beginning of the Jewish/Christian Bible, we find what may be a
> series
> > of events which could possibly be the aftermath of a fairly small
> > asteroidal collision in the Middle East The idea of an asteroid
> wiping
> > out all life in a local region of the earth is conjectural but
> not
> > unrealistic.
> >
> > However, the idea of Genesis describing a new beginning
> > following a major catastrophe has been fairly widely thought of
> by
> > people such as C.I. Scofield, editor of the most widely used
> reference
> > Bible of all time, the Scofield Reference Bible; by Merrill Unger,
> as
> > mentioned earlier, a Dallas Seminary professor and editor of the
> > 500,000-in-print Unger's Bible Handbook, published by Moody Press,
> and
> > perhaps even John Eldredge (Wild at Heart, and The Epic). The book
> last
> > mentioned speaks of events "prior to Genesis" on page 19. On page
> 18
> > Eldredge says, speaking of Genesis 1:1, An important passage it
> is, to
> > be sure. But to grasp this Epic, you cannot start there. That is
> way
> > into the story.
> >
> > That is Act Three. It is a beginning, but it is the
> > beginning of the human story, the story of life here on earth. As
> > Hebrew scholar Robert Alter says, a better rendering of the Hebrew
> goes
> > "When God began to create heaven and earth." When God began to
> create
> > the life we know. And before this? There are events that have
> preceded
> > this chapter, events we must know. If you want to look back into
> the
> > once upon a time before all time, well, then you have to start
> with
> > another passage, from the Gospel of John (1: 1). (Underlining
> mine)
> >
> > Genesis 1:2 is the rest of the sentence, describing what God had
> to
> > contend with in this particular new beginning. The English
> translation
> > "formless and void" is today widely understood not to be a good
> > translation of the Hebrew idiom, tohu wabohu, which more often in
> the
> > Bible means "destroyed and desolate."', The result might then
> actually
> > be "When God began to put things back together, to reclaim the
> heavens
> > and the earth, the (regional) situation appears to have been
> destroyed
> > and desolate." The subsequent verses describe the initial total
> > darkness surrounding the entire planet, but, then, with light
> peeking
> > through as the dust settled.
> >
> > Note well that it is typical of even the
> > smaller of these major asteroidal impacts to kick enough dust into
> the
> > atmosphere to block out all light for a time around the entire
> planet.
> > Gradually, however, as the dust settles, dim light becomes
> noticeable
> > once a day. Eventually the direct rays of the Sun penetrate the
> > remaining dust and the Sun becomes visible. Later, the Moon.
> Later, the
> > stars" These verses surely seem to be a "restoration sequence"
> rather
> > than a "creation sequence." If they are viewed as a creation
> series of
> > events many scholars have wondered how the dim light of day would
> have
> > been created before the sun appeared. The word creation is not
> even
> > used. The text simply says "Let there be light."
> > Obviously those
> > humans wiped out in this regional impact would not have been able
> to
> > report this sequence. On the other hand, surviving humans
> scattered
> > elsewhere around the globe would certainly have been actual eye
> > witnesses of the darkness and the gradual reappearance of light,
> the
> > sun, etc.. Egyptian scholars then could have retained a record of
> such
> > observations so as to be the source of information Moses employed
> in
> > Genesis.
> > Many Bible expos itors are either unaware of, or do not go
> > along with, the fairly recent search for impact craters on the
> earth's
> > surface. This search began in earnest only in 1970 after the first
> Moon
> > landing unexpectedly revealed that the hundreds of pock marks on
> the
> > Moon were not, as had been assumed, volcanic craters but were
> impact
> > craters"
> > Beginning in 1812 hundreds of thousands of fossil bones of
> > violent animals have been dug up which belong to thousands of now
> > extinct forms of life. Since these animals cannot be the ones
> described
> > in Genesis 1, where both animals and man are clearly described as
> non
> > carnivorous ,'S they must have either come before Genesis or we
> must
> > assume they were distorted into their violence and carnivorous
> nature
> > after the Fall of man.
> >
> > The latter possibility would force enormous
> > complexity into the last 6,000 years, including much extinction.
> Bones
> > have been discovered for a thousand times as many animal species
> as
> > survive today. It would seem to be easier to believe, following
> Unger,
> > that all of that violent life preceded Genesis, and that, then,
> Genesis
> > is describing a new creation of non-distorted life in the "known
> world"
> > of the writers. In fact, it may be unfair to the Bible to make it
> speak
> > of a planet since at that time people did not know of such a
> thing.
> > Indeed, most of the Old Testament is written by (KJV) "holy men of
> God
> > who spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.""' A key word
> here is
> > "men." Unlike the Qur'an and the Book of Mormon (which are said to
> have
> > been dictated by God) the Bible normally contains what these holy
> > writers, guided by God, understood and their hearers understood.
> > Reading later knowledge into earlier documents is a common
> mistake
> > called anachronism.
> >
> > Similarly, the later judgment of the flood would
> > reasonably be in "the known world." The table of nations in
> Genesis 11,
> > the children of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, are nations which Bible
> maps
> > locate in the Middle East. There are no Incas or Eskimos. This
> would
> > certainly be fair to the Bible. Some of the faculty at Wheaton
> College
> > have believed and taught a regional flood for fifty years.
> > Thus,
> > Genesis may be regional, and, if so, the Edenic events would thus
> not
> > be the first or only "new beginning." The flood is another "new
> > beginning." The selection of Abraham is another "new beginning."
> Isaac
> > instead of Ishmael is another "new beginning." The selection of
> > Jacob/Israel instead of Esau is another "new beginning." The
> Exodus is
> > another "new beginning."
> >
> > The return from Babylon is another "new
> > beginning." The coming of Christ and the breakthrough to the
> Gentiles
> > in the NT is another "new beginning." The Reformation is another
> new
> > beginning, and so on and so forth. In any case, the vast majority
> of
> > all scientists today, if we continue to tell them that the Bible
> > teaches that all forms of life are no more than 6,000 years old,
> will
> > continue to feel forced to believe that the Bible cannot be
> trusted.
> > Luther and Calvin interpreted Psalm 19 to mean that the Sun
> revolved
> > around the earth, as against Copernicus' view that the earth
> revolved
> > around the Sun.
> >
> > Unfortunately, people later on did not say Luther and
> > Calvin misinterpreted the Bible. They said the Bible must be
> wrong.
> > However, science in that case did not contradict the Bible.
> Science
> > contradicted a misinterpretation of the Bible!
> >
> > Thus, it is not to
> > criticize the Bible, but to defend it, if we recognize that the
> phrase
> > "to the ends of the earth" in Isaiah 49:6 only refers to the flat
> plain
> > of earth leading up to the mountains of Eastern Iran and Turkey.
> Only
> > fairly recently in European languages has the word earth (soil)
> meant
> > the Earth (a planet), and it still is not usually used that way.
> > Genesis 1 may then present the non-carnivorous type of life,
> animal and
> > human, which we see again at the end of time in Isaiah 6 and 11
> (the
> > lion lying down with a lamb).
> >
> > Once Adam and Eve are seduced by Satan
> > and turned out of Eden, the "sons of God" (the new type of humans
> > created in Eden in the image of God?) marry the "daughters of
> > men" (previously distorted and depraved humans beginning 11,000
> years
> > ago?). In that case we can understand why the life spans of the
> Edenic
> > humans gradually shorten. Further, it would seem reasonable that
> the
> > Edenic type of. noncarnivorous human and animal life, by
> interbreeding
> > with the distorted, carnivorous life outside of Eden, would
> gradually
> > revert to the life-destroying carnivorous behavior of the
> pre-Edenic,
> > preGenesis 1:1, distorted life.
> >
> > Eventually the non-carnivorous Edenic
> > version of human and animal life would have had virtually
> disappeared
> > into the genetically distorted earlier gene pools. This may be one
> way
> > of understanding original sin as something we cannot wish away
> easily,
> > it being inherited genetically-something illuminating Romans 3:23,
> "All
> > have sinned and come short of the glory of God." This also would
> enable
> > us to understand why being "born again" does not change all our
> inborn
> > wayward traits even though it allies us with our Father in Heaven
> > against hardwired genetic evil within which we still must
> fight-the
> > sort of conflict we read about in Romans 7.
> >
> > Act IV: Wartime Far more
> > important is the fact that this scenario describes a great length
> of
> > time Satan has been at work distorting God's creation, producing
> the
> > incredible vastness of his corrupting work of which we are mostly
> > unaware. As one theologian put it, "The greatest achievement of
> Satan
> > is to cover his tracks.'17 The cruc ial facts would thus be that
> 1) we
> > underestimate what Satan has done and is doing, and 2) we do not
> > consider it our mission to fight it, and for that reason 3) we
> very
> > often attribute the works of Satan to God.
> >
> > Remember the Harvard
> > professor mentioned earlier who quite logically remarked that "If
> the
> > God of the Intelligent Design proponents exists He must be a
> divine
> > `sadist' who creates parasites that blind millions of people." I
> cannot
> > forget that damaging statement, even though it is alarmingly
> > misinformed. (Why can't the Intelligent Design people admit that
> some
> > of what they see in nature is evil design, not to be blamed on a
> > supreme being?)
> >
> > If Satan exists and opposes God in every way possible,
> > we might then expect two things to happen: physical distortions
> and
> > intellectual delusions. Diabolical Distortions Obviously, if the
> time
> > of the Cambrian Explosion were to mark the point when Satan
> turned
> > against God, it would mean that Satan began distorting the larger
> forms
> > of life genetically a very long period of time before the events
> in
> > Genesis even begin. It also seems logical that he would have been
> > twisting bacteria into dangerous germs, creating destructive
> viruses,
> > and inventing extremely clever and deadly parasites like malaria.
> Are
> > we supposed to fight germs? Is that part of the verse "The Son of
> God
> > appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the
> devil
> > (1 John 3:8)"?
> >
> > Is this what Jesus meant when He taught us to pray "Thy
> > Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven"?
> Augustine
> > and Calvin were unaware of germs, yet even our theologians or TV
> > preachers today do not speak of deadly germs being the work of
> Satan,
> > to be destroyed as an intentional mission of Christ and of those
> who
> > follow Him-not wanting to blame disease on God. But if you
> identify and
> > recognize the enormous global impact of disease-induced suffering
> as a
> > sphere of diabolical distortion, then both the great violence
> > introduced by the fall of Satan and the fall of Adam become a
> major
> > reality.
> >
> > In that case, Satan becomes the enemy and the Christian life
> > and mission must be seen as part of an all-out war, a war to be
> fought
> > not "in addition to winning souls to Christ" but as a means of
> > glorifying God and thus empowering our evangelism. Disassociating
> God
> > from the works of the Devil becomes then both the means and the
> end of
> > winning souls to Christ.
> >
> > Diabolical Delusions A second dimension of
> > Satanic evil to become aware of and to be fought as a Christian
> mission
> > is what could be called diabolic delusions. Millions of people
> suffer
> > horribly and die prematurely not only because of disease, but
> because
> > of misunderstandings about the origins of disease. The whole
> history of
> > medicine has been, in one sense, the mysteriously delayed
> understanding
> > of the real causes of disease. Just three of actually hundreds of
> > examples of this mysterious delay are the fact that the common
> cold,
> > tuberculosis, and duodenal ulcers were thought for many centuries
> not
> > to be the direct result of destructive germs but rather to be the
> > result of, respectively, 1) getting cold, 2) sleeping in damp,
> cold
> > places and 3) being subject to stress. There are many other types
> of
> > diabolical delusions.
> >
> > Here are merely four of them:
> > Down through
> > history in India thousands and thousands of widows have been
> burned on
> > their husbands funeral pyres because of the delusion that they
> would
> > thereby be reincarnated at a higher level.
> > Thousands of young women
> > have contracted AIDS in South Africa due to the widespread
> delusion
> > that a man with AIDS can be cured by having intercourse with a
> virgin.
> > We are deluded if we think that the world's largest
> business-the
> > American medical/pharmaceutical industry--is tracking down the
> primary
> > sources of disease. Why are we deluded? Because all of its money
> comes
> > from people who are already sick and are paying to be healed.
> However,
> > treating the sick and eradicating pathogenic sources of illnesses
> are
> > usually very different activities. For the latter the available
> money
> > is microscopic.
> > In Africa, due to mistaken delusions, 140 million
> > women have undergone "female genitalmutilation," which often leads
> to
> > ruptured bladders (at the time of childbirth) and a resulting life
> of
> > being social outcasts. These are some of the destructive
> delusions
> > which need to be fought in the Name of Christ. Evangelical
> Fatalism?
> > However, Evangelicals, instead of fighting to destroy the "works
> of the
> > devil" have gotten accustomed to a plainly fatalistic
> understanding of
> > them as "the mysterious will of God." This is the relentless
> message of
> > the book already mentioned, When God Doesn't Make Sense (by no
> less
> > than James Dobson).
> >
> > In other words, if there is no Satan, much of life
> > really "does not make sense," and our concept of the Christian
> life and
> > mission becomes diabolically reduced What to Do? Many may think,
> "What
> > can I as an individual do? What should I do differently? Isn't it
> still
> > important to win people to the Lordship of Christ even if I can't
> > explain to them how their lives can make a difference in the
> > identification and destruction of the works of Satan?" Yes,
> winning
> > people to Christ is still bedrock.
> >
> > But two other things are also true.
> > 1. More and more people can't even be won to Christ because they
> are
> > deeply confused by the "good news" of a loving God who would seem
> to
> > have created a world of suffering, or to have at least been
> unwilling
> > or unable, in general, to rescue us from earthly horrors of evil
> and
> > pain until the next world.
> > 2. People who are won to Christ rarely understand that they have
> been
> > recruited to become soldiers in an all-out war. Of course we know
> that
> > individuals on their own can't "win a war." To win a war you need
> a
> > whole lot of things. The United States during the Second World
> War
> > would be an example. Swarms of "servicemen" (including women)
> swirled
> > about on planes, trains, and buses, heading off to ports of
> departure
> > for the various "theaters of war" around the world. Eleven million
> were
> > sprayed out across the globe in the Army, Air Corps, and the Navy.
> But
> > 200 million "civilians" staying behind were equally occupied by
> the
> > war. As millions of men disappeared from their jobs women took
> their
> > places.
> >
> > A largely women's workforce ("Rosie the Riveter") built entire
> > ships one every fourteen days, medium bombers one every hour.
> Nylon was
> > needed for parachute cords no more stockings. No more coffee,
> incoming
> > ships had no room for such trivialities because more crucial goods
> took
> > their place. Any idle moments or unused material were instantly
> > challenged by "Don't you know there is a war on?" You could get a
> huge
> > fine for unnecessary drivingdriving unrelated to the war, like,
> yes, a
> > family outing on Sunday!
> >
> > Gasoline had other more crucial uses. Today,
> > when Evangelical believers get together they don't compare notes
> on how
> > to win the war against the "works of the devil." They compare
> prices on
> > home furnishings, vacations, adult toys. Truly, they don't know
> there
> > is a war on! We act like we don't live in a wartime economy but in
> a
> > time of peace. Organize, Organize, Organize Obviously, individuals
> need
> > to organize. Do we need dozens of new specialized mission
> agencies?
> > Note that there is not one Christian institution in the world
> dedicated
> > to eradication of disease pathogens. Our entire, mammoth
> > medical/pharmaceutical industry is ninety-nine percent focused on
> the
> > needs of people who are already sick, rather than on ways of
> > eradicating the disease origins.
> >
> > Our pastors tend to define "Christian
> > service" as activity in and for and through the local church, not
> the
> > labors of the forty-hour week. If, as Rick Warren says, he wants
> to
> > transform his "audience into an army," and other pastors by the
> > thousands would follow him, a veritable revolution might occur.
> But his
> > Purpose Driven Life book contains not a single line about the
> > forty-hour week, much less does it recognize that the forty-hour
> week
> > is exactly where, in a major way, we can best actually fight
> evil,
> > corruption and disease, efforts crucial to restoring glory to God
> and
> > credibility to our evangelism. (In a conversation about this he
> told me
> > he is going to write another book.)
> >
> > This sphere is nowadays being
> > called "Public Theology." However, although we hear of pastors
> around
> > the world losing their lives because of their faith, it is not
> often we
> > hear of laymen in the USA even losing their jobs because of, say,
> being
> > honest or opposing deception. Basically, the incredible violence
> we
> > must fight against in the Name of Christ constitutes an all-out
> war.
> > Neither laity nor clergy are well aware of that war. Thus, all
> true
> > believers, not just "full time workers," must be willing to
> organize
> > against evil, to be creative, and to measure every vocation not by
> its
> > pay scale, but by its contribution to that war. It seems very
> clear
> > that we must recruit people for this war as well as for heaven. If
> we
> > can't do both we will ultimately fail at both.
> >
> > This is why the
> > Christian mission is far more complex and demanding than we
> thought. I
> > would hope existing mission agencies could lead the way in the
> > discovery and the defeat of both 1) Satanic indirectly-inspired
> human
> > evil such as war, and such as the corruption that guts almost
> every
> > secular type of humanitarian aid, and 2) direct Satanic evil such
> as
> > genetic distortions of man and animal, the creation of disease
> germs
> > and diabolical delusions. This means seeing mission in very much
> larger
> > terms. It also gives a much larger role to laymen than check-book
> > missions or "after hours Christianity" centering on work in and
> for the
> > church.
> >
> >
> >
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> >
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Received on Wed Nov 14 14:22:14 2007