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God's Side
Pictures hanging crooked on a wall bug me but not nearly as much as perversions of right behavior do. Our world is becoming increasingly “out of plumb” – in fact, our morality seems to be upside down. We call good evil and evil good and we justify the grossly immoral and persecute the upright – just like in the days of Isaiah (5:20-23). God is being pushed out of our society – from the school classroom, the school assembly hall, and the football field all the way to the courthouse -- we can’t pray out loud or read the scriptures. And, it looks like, very soon, God will be removed from the pledge of allegiance to our nation. In the future – remote or near, I know not – churches that believe the Bible’s truths that homosexuality is a perverted, sexual behavior and who will not permit church, women leaders, will feel the wrath of a society totally upside down.
Currently, teachers can teach atheism, evolution, Eastern religions, The Koran and anything that is anti-God but they dare not talk about God or the Bible. They can teach situation ethics and promote immorality – that’s acceptable in our educational system. Some teachers who, more than in a subtle form, present themselves as superior intellectually to a parent or preacher openly ridicule faith in God and religion in general. But equal time and space for arguments for God’s side? – oh no, that is a violation of someone’s civil rights; that is putting religion in school.
I remember the first time I even heard about evolution – it was in a chemistry class in HS and the teacher said he had an obligation to teach it. He was very uncomfortable and apprehensive, because the classroom was composed of simple, country, Bible believing kids whose parents understood right and wrong and had a strong faith in the Bible. Oh sure, we argued about truths the Bible taught and kids didn’t always do what they knew was right – but we knew what was right and we had a strong foundation in fundamental values. Footnote here – not all teachers in our school systems are anti-God and evolutionists but even those who have a strong faith are finding it increasingly difficult to teach about faith in God and the Bible’s values.
There are only two systems of faith – faith in God; or faith in matter. The question is, “Which is the more reasonable?” Either matter is eternal or created. If matter is not eternal, then it must have created itself. And if matter is the source of intelligence, then that which is lifeless gave existence to that which is alive – dead, lifeless, inanimate stuff infused life into itself. Should we grant a billion years to evolutionists, it can never present a reasonable faith, for life cannot come from non-life.
God argues for faith in his everlasting power and divinity based on the things that are created (Romans 1:18-19). In our whole universe there is a stamp of intelligent design. The world itself is perfectly organized and balanced. The precise movement of the rotation of the earth upon its axis and revolution around the sun could not have happened by accident. The earth is exactly where it has to be in the universe and nature functions exactly as it has to in order for life to exist. The necessary cycle of water functions by design – waters run into the oceans but the oceans are never full (Ecclesiastics 1:7). The Carbon Monoxide/ Oxygen exchange is a critical balance in nature so that animals need oxygen and give off carbon monoxide and plants need carbon monoxide and give off oxygen. The human body is a marvelous design – everything has to function right for us to exist (malfunctions, disease, etc. are not a result of lack of design but are the result of death, caused by sin – cf. Genesis 3:1-19).
Man, as an intelligent being, both designs very technical things and is artistic and creative. But atheism claims that man as an intelligent being; who, himself, has designed and produced very technical, complicated things; came from non-intelligence. Design argues for a designer. A designer argues for intelligence and intelligence argues for personality – exactly as God affirms for himself as the designer and creator of the world. In the beginning God created (Genesis 1:1). It takes a lot more faith to believe in something that is untenable than it does to believe in that which is reasonable. – Jim R. Everett
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