It's up! Check out MindFlights.com for my story, "The Vegetarian Dragon: A Tale of Spiggle" !!!!!
Party!!!!!!!!!
~Trav
Monday, July 28, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Defending the Faith Family Conference
This past week (the 15th through the 19th) our family went to Branson, MO, for a vacation/family conference on learning to defend our faith. It was amazing, to say the least. I learned a ton from the three speakers; Voddie Baucham (far right), Ken Ham(bottom left) from Answers in Genesis ,and Doug Phillips from Vision Forum (bottom right). I took fairly good notes, if I do say so myself, and I have decided that I am going to do a series of blog entries, each based on my notes from that session.Discla
imer: For those of you who attended the conference, or wish you did, or heard about it from someone else, I do not claim that my blogs are a representation of the actual lectures or sermons that Baucham, Ham or Phillips gave. These are simply condensed, clarified versions of my notes, explaining what I personally got out of any given message. I would strongly suggest that you go and buy a DVD or CD of each of the messages for yourself, as soon as they become available, because my version is sadly lacking and absolutely pales in comparison to the wonderful addresses that the speakers actually gave.That being said, here is my first blog, based on my notes from Ken Ham’s first session, entitled “Genesis and the Secularization of America”, given at 7:10 PM on July 15th, 2008.
In our society today, we have lost something that was taken largely for granted until about a hundred years ago; and that is the inerrancy of Scripture, especially the first eleven chapters of Genesis. With the rise of Darwinian evolution, more and more Christians have discarded these vital chapters as mere myth, or superstitious nonsense. But when we do this, we are falling prey to the oldest lie in history:
“Did God really say…?”
Sound familiar? Check out Genesis 3, verses 1 through 6:
“1Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?"
2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.
5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”
Notice that the serpent’s first attack is an attack on the words of God. “Did God really
tell you not to do this?” Also notice that he butchers God’s words even before he attacks
them. If you look back in chapter 2 verse 16, you find God’s actual instructions:
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree
of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for
in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."”
So Satan takes the Word of God and twists it, then attacks even the words that he
twists!
Even in the first book of the Bible, the earliest history of mankind, the enemy attacks
the authority of God’s word, and the tactic worked so well, he continues using it today.
And this is where we come upon the lies of evolution, the idea that all life and non-life as we see it today is the result of random chance and luck over a period of several billion years. This is what we are taught; this is what is preached from the television screen, the public school, and – horrifyingly – even the pulpit.
We as Christians have ignored the threat posed by this deception, and have simply tried to skirt the issue and win people to Christ anyway. “Don’t worry about whether or not Genesis is true,” we’ve pleaded “just trust in Jesus!” It’s become a mantra: “Don’t worry about all the things you’re taught night and day, from every venue of the media and every book and every school teacher and every collage professor and every museum exhibit and everything everywhere, just trust in Jesus!” Not to say that we shouldn’t trust in Christ – nothing could be further form the truth, but we have taken it to the extreme of shielding ourselves from all debate and just crying out “Trust in Jesus, trust in Jesus!” and hoping that someone, anyone will listen.
We have catered to the whims of the world, afraid of being ostracized for our “blind faith” in a “disproven” account of the beginning of the world. And here is what we are saying when we do this:
“God’s word is fallible, man’s word is infallible.”
Is this what we really believe? Maybe not. Maybe we just don’t realize what we’re saying, but this is how it works:
First, we say that maybe we can work evolution into the Bible. Maybe it can fit in there somewhere, even if we don’t say that the whole first eleven chapters are bunk. But to do this, we have to stretch and squeeze and shift God’s words around until they don’t even make sense anymore. And no matter what we do, we have to put in the “millions of years”. Evolution cannot survive without its “fact” of millions of years. Take a look around the Smithsonian Institute, or watch a few shows on the Discovery channel. You may hear “evolution” mentioned once or twice, but what you will see or hear over and over and over again is: “Millions of years…” It’s the foundation of the evolutionary idea, the cornerstone it cannot stand without.
And there is no place in the creation account that we can fit in “millions of years”. Some people try to use 2 Peter 3:8, where it says that a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and they take that back to Genesis and say, “Here, look. Day one: God made light. Day two: atmosphere. Day three: land. And if a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, then there’s plenty of room here for evolution.”
Ok, first of all, look at the rest of the verse: it also says that a thousand years is like a day. If you want one part of the verse, you have to take it all. Now tell me: was Jonah in the belly of a whale for three thousand years? I don’t think so! And is Jesus still in the tomb? No Christian would claim that we still have a thousand years to wait for the Resurrection.
Secondly, why should it not mean a literal day? The only reason people ever try to say that it isn’t is to make it fit with their own ideas and theories. The word used for “day” in the original Hebrew is yom; a word used a total of 2,301 times in the Old Testament. (The word is not used in the New Testament because, duh, it wasn’t written in Hebrew.J)
And out of those 2000-plus times, the only place we question if “day” really means “day” is in Genesis 1-11. Does that strike anyone else as ridiculous? Look at some of the other usages:
Exodus 2:11 “One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.”
Lev 19:6 “It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the day after, and anything left over until the third day shall be burned up with fire.”
Deuteronomy 27:9 “Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, "Keep silence and hear, O Israel: this day you have become the people of the LORD your God.”
Joshua 6:14-15 “And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days.
On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times.”
And these are just one from each of the first few books of the Bible. Do the search yourself – there is no other place where we question whether or not it means a literal day. So why should we in Genesis? Now, if you look at the list above, you’ll notice that I left out Numbers. That’s because I like to save the best for last. J
“He who offered his offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the
tribe of Judah…
On the second day Nethanel the son of Zuar, the chief of Issachar, made an offering…
On the third day Eliab the son of Helon, the chief of the people of Zebulun…
On the fourth day Elizur the son of Shedeur, the chief of the people of Reuben…” ~Numbers 7:12, 18, 24, and 30
And you get the idea. On the first day, on the second day, on the third day…Almost the exact same words as the Creation account, but there is not a person on the planet who would suggest that these verses should be interpretated as being separated by billions of years.
So again, do we consider our words and theories superior to what has been made known to us through Scripture?
And here is something else – if you do not believe the Genesis account of Creation; you have no basis for claiming Christ.
“Now, hold on,” you say “that’s a bit harsh…”
But it’s true.
2 Timothy 3:16 says:
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (emphasis added)
If you look at the other places in Scripture where the word “breathed” is used, it’s almost always in context of someone “breathing his last”. On of the few exceptions is where it says that God “breathed” into Man the “breath” of life. In the Bible, “breath” is synonymous with “life”. So when it says that all Scripture is “breathed” out by God, it is like saying that these words are equal to the life God gives us, and how can life be a lie? Which is what you have to come to if you say that Creation as told in Genesis is false.
Because if Genesis 1-11 is made-up, but 2 Timothy says that all of Scripture is “God-breathed”, then Paul was wrong when he wrote that. And if Paul was wrong, and the writer of Genesis was wrong, who’s to say that the Gospel writers weren’t wrong? If you cannot trust everything the Bible says, then you cannot trust that Jesus was the Messiah and Savior, or that he rose from the dead.
Plus, if you cannot believe the account of the Fall in Genesis 3, Jesus was pointless anyway. Why do we need to be saved if there was never a sinless state that we fell from, and to which we must be restored to if we are to be with God?
And yet, despite all this, we still question the Genesis account; thinking “Did God really say…?” We have lost our foundation of Biblical authority, and “if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3)
“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3) We must regain the confidence our forefathers had in the inerrancy of all Scripture. Genesis is the foundation of the Bible, and therefore our faith. And if the foundation cracks and crumbles, the house will not stand.
“…but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;” (1Peter 3:15)
Learn your facts, find your answers, and be ready. There will be those with questions, there will be those who need an explanation. Stand firm on your foundations, and on the firm truth of God’s Word, and you will be able to endure any attack the enemy throws your way.
“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:13)
Until we meet again,
~Trav
“Did God really say…?”
Sound familiar? Check out Genesis 3, verses 1 through 6:
“1Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?"
2 And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"
4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die.
5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”
Notice that the serpent’s first attack is an attack on the words of God. “Did God really
tell you not to do this?” Also notice that he butchers God’s words even before he attacks
them. If you look back in chapter 2 verse 16, you find God’s actual instructions:
“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree
of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for
in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."”
So Satan takes the Word of God and twists it, then attacks even the words that he
twists!
Even in the first book of the Bible, the earliest history of mankind, the enemy attacks
the authority of God’s word, and the tactic worked so well, he continues using it today.
And this is where we come upon the lies of evolution, the idea that all life and non-life as we see it today is the result of random chance and luck over a period of several billion years. This is what we are taught; this is what is preached from the television screen, the public school, and – horrifyingly – even the pulpit.
We as Christians have ignored the threat posed by this deception, and have simply tried to skirt the issue and win people to Christ anyway. “Don’t worry about whether or not Genesis is true,” we’ve pleaded “just trust in Jesus!” It’s become a mantra: “Don’t worry about all the things you’re taught night and day, from every venue of the media and every book and every school teacher and every collage professor and every museum exhibit and everything everywhere, just trust in Jesus!” Not to say that we shouldn’t trust in Christ – nothing could be further form the truth, but we have taken it to the extreme of shielding ourselves from all debate and just crying out “Trust in Jesus, trust in Jesus!” and hoping that someone, anyone will listen.
We have catered to the whims of the world, afraid of being ostracized for our “blind faith” in a “disproven” account of the beginning of the world. And here is what we are saying when we do this:
“God’s word is fallible, man’s word is infallible.”
Is this what we really believe? Maybe not. Maybe we just don’t realize what we’re saying, but this is how it works:
First, we say that maybe we can work evolution into the Bible. Maybe it can fit in there somewhere, even if we don’t say that the whole first eleven chapters are bunk. But to do this, we have to stretch and squeeze and shift God’s words around until they don’t even make sense anymore. And no matter what we do, we have to put in the “millions of years”. Evolution cannot survive without its “fact” of millions of years. Take a look around the Smithsonian Institute, or watch a few shows on the Discovery channel. You may hear “evolution” mentioned once or twice, but what you will see or hear over and over and over again is: “Millions of years…” It’s the foundation of the evolutionary idea, the cornerstone it cannot stand without.
And there is no place in the creation account that we can fit in “millions of years”. Some people try to use 2 Peter 3:8, where it says that a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and they take that back to Genesis and say, “Here, look. Day one: God made light. Day two: atmosphere. Day three: land. And if a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, then there’s plenty of room here for evolution.”
Ok, first of all, look at the rest of the verse: it also says that a thousand years is like a day. If you want one part of the verse, you have to take it all. Now tell me: was Jonah in the belly of a whale for three thousand years? I don’t think so! And is Jesus still in the tomb? No Christian would claim that we still have a thousand years to wait for the Resurrection.
Secondly, why should it not mean a literal day? The only reason people ever try to say that it isn’t is to make it fit with their own ideas and theories. The word used for “day” in the original Hebrew is yom; a word used a total of 2,301 times in the Old Testament. (The word is not used in the New Testament because, duh, it wasn’t written in Hebrew.J)
And out of those 2000-plus times, the only place we question if “day” really means “day” is in Genesis 1-11. Does that strike anyone else as ridiculous? Look at some of the other usages:
Exodus 2:11 “One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.”
Lev 19:6 “It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the day after, and anything left over until the third day shall be burned up with fire.”
Deuteronomy 27:9 “Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, "Keep silence and hear, O Israel: this day you have become the people of the LORD your God.”
Joshua 6:14-15 “And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days.
On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times.”
And these are just one from each of the first few books of the Bible. Do the search yourself – there is no other place where we question whether or not it means a literal day. So why should we in Genesis? Now, if you look at the list above, you’ll notice that I left out Numbers. That’s because I like to save the best for last. J
“He who offered his offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the
tribe of Judah…
On the second day Nethanel the son of Zuar, the chief of Issachar, made an offering…
On the third day Eliab the son of Helon, the chief of the people of Zebulun…
On the fourth day Elizur the son of Shedeur, the chief of the people of Reuben…” ~Numbers 7:12, 18, 24, and 30
And you get the idea. On the first day, on the second day, on the third day…Almost the exact same words as the Creation account, but there is not a person on the planet who would suggest that these verses should be interpretated as being separated by billions of years.
So again, do we consider our words and theories superior to what has been made known to us through Scripture?
And here is something else – if you do not believe the Genesis account of Creation; you have no basis for claiming Christ.
“Now, hold on,” you say “that’s a bit harsh…”
But it’s true.
2 Timothy 3:16 says:
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (emphasis added)
If you look at the other places in Scripture where the word “breathed” is used, it’s almost always in context of someone “breathing his last”. On of the few exceptions is where it says that God “breathed” into Man the “breath” of life. In the Bible, “breath” is synonymous with “life”. So when it says that all Scripture is “breathed” out by God, it is like saying that these words are equal to the life God gives us, and how can life be a lie? Which is what you have to come to if you say that Creation as told in Genesis is false.
Because if Genesis 1-11 is made-up, but 2 Timothy says that all of Scripture is “God-breathed”, then Paul was wrong when he wrote that. And if Paul was wrong, and the writer of Genesis was wrong, who’s to say that the Gospel writers weren’t wrong? If you cannot trust everything the Bible says, then you cannot trust that Jesus was the Messiah and Savior, or that he rose from the dead.
Plus, if you cannot believe the account of the Fall in Genesis 3, Jesus was pointless anyway. Why do we need to be saved if there was never a sinless state that we fell from, and to which we must be restored to if we are to be with God?
And yet, despite all this, we still question the Genesis account; thinking “Did God really say…?” We have lost our foundation of Biblical authority, and “if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3)
“But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3) We must regain the confidence our forefathers had in the inerrancy of all Scripture. Genesis is the foundation of the Bible, and therefore our faith. And if the foundation cracks and crumbles, the house will not stand.
“…but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;” (1Peter 3:15)
Learn your facts, find your answers, and be ready. There will be those with questions, there will be those who need an explanation. Stand firm on your foundations, and on the firm truth of God’s Word, and you will be able to endure any attack the enemy throws your way.
“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:13)
Until we meet again,
~Trav
Monday, July 7, 2008
Superfantasticandtotallyawesome News!!!
I've been published!
Not the Vegetarian Dragon story yet, but I also sent in a poem that MindFlights accepted. Remember the "Fey Stranger" poem I posted a while back? I had to take it off the blog, but if you go here, you can read it, official and pristine!
I am so excited - I think the whole library can hear me hyperventilating...LOL
So what are you still here for? Go check it out!
~Trav
Not the Vegetarian Dragon story yet, but I also sent in a poem that MindFlights accepted. Remember the "Fey Stranger" poem I posted a while back? I had to take it off the blog, but if you go here, you can read it, official and pristine!
I am so excited - I think the whole library can hear me hyperventilating...LOL
So what are you still here for? Go check it out!
~Trav
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Some Art
Ok, first, a word of explanation:
I love to go the the forums at http://www.bindingoftheblade.com/ and post there. And on one of the forums, several of us posters have been collectively writing a story about a boy named Ander. Ander lives in the country of Seletar, and has adventured including (but not limited to): A bratty princess, a dry-humered dragon, the dragon's smarty-pants sister, a young ogre, a queen with a bent for murder and usurpment (is that a word?) and a missing uncle.
Anyway, I was bored earlier this week, so instead of cleaning my room or washing dishes like a good girl, I instead created these two pictures that you see below.
The first is a picture of Thraluic the Strong, the dry-humered dragon I mentioned a moment before.
The second, a crude map of Alkeman, at least until I can make a better one.
Oh, and here's a better one:
I love to go the the forums at http://www.bindingoftheblade.com/ and post there. And on one of the forums, several of us posters have been collectively writing a story about a boy named Ander. Ander lives in the country of Seletar, and has adventured including (but not limited to): A bratty princess, a dry-humered dragon, the dragon's smarty-pants sister, a young ogre, a queen with a bent for murder and usurpment (is that a word?) and a missing uncle.
Anyway, I was bored earlier this week, so instead of cleaning my room or washing dishes like a good girl, I instead created these two pictures that you see below.
The first is a picture of Thraluic the Strong, the dry-humered dragon I mentioned a moment before.
The second, a crude map of Alkeman, at least until I can make a better one.
Oh, and here's a better one:
So, anyway, enjoy.
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