Answers

Lighten My Eyes

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“How long will You forget me, O LORD? For ever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; lest my enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.”  Psalm 13:1-4 (KJV)

Those who have a familiar relationship with GOD through His Son Jesus often find ourselves asking Him questions.  If you are doing that; good.  I find no fault in anyone with even their complaints to God knowing that He is their loving, merciful, and gracious Heavenly Father.  I have found quite often when I go to GOD with a question or complaint that I am usually satisfied with not getting an answer, except, the thought or the words “Trust” and “Believe”.  Trust and believe His word.

One thing I have noticed about taking my complaints to God is, that, I do not have any complaints for any one else; at least I am less likely to have any complaints for others.

David was feeling forgotten; by God and man. One of the things we can see about David’s words is that they reflect His faith.  First of He is talking to God.  Secondly, he is showing desire to honor and glorify God, by His working in David to prevent the enemy from rejoicing over David’s possible defeat.

David’s prayer to the LORD is; “Lighten my eyes…”  Maybe he had lost sight of his work and vision for God.  Maybe it was something that had separated him from his fellowship with God.  Whatever it was David needed the LORD to give him some light.  An eye opening experience.

We all need the light of Christ to shine in our hearts, minds, and lives.  It begins by knowing GOD through the cross of Jesus.

Christmas Day Ninety and Eight

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What do I want for Christmas today?

I want to always be aware, watching and knowing that the answers God gives to life’s perplexing questions are of greater value than any that men, women or their philosophies can give.

“I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.” Habakkuk 2:1 (NKJV)

Day 35 – Job Rebuked by GOD

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I would probably call it “sarcasm”.  The voice of the LORD answers Job, “Out of the whirlwind”; and asks Job a lot of questions which seem to have a lot of sarcasm in them.  “Sarcasm” is defined in the Mirriam/Webster Dictionary as “1 a cutting, contemptuous remark: 2 Ironical criticism or reproach”.  The latter one being the better understanding of God’s rebuke of Job.

My reading today was from Job 38 – Psalms 9.  We will comment on Job alone.

Chapter 37 ended all the comments by the friends of Job.  Job’s comments have ended as well.  God has been silent up until chapter 38, then He speaks with sarcastic rebuke.  I say it is sarcasm because of the way God questions Job.  For instance,

“Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” 38:2

The LORD is clearly speaking to Job.  It is not even clear if his friends; Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are still around; or their friend Elihu.  Another question God asks Job,

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.” v. 4

Of course God knows the answers to these questions and Job’s final response is found,

“Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,  ‘Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct Him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.’  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,  ‘Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.”  Job 40:1-5 (KJV)

Job had spent hours defending himself before his friends; what he would do if he were given a chance to stand before the LORD, and argue his case with Him.  Now God is speaking to him, and he clamps his hand over his mouth to silence himself.  There are many questions we all have stated that we would like to ask the LORD when we see Him face to face.  My thought on that is; especially after looking at Job’s response; is that ours will be very similar.  Just His sight and His presence will answer it all for us.

There have been, and some just recently; tornadoes and storms which have wreaked out devastation throughout the U. S. of A.  Lives have been lost.  One whole family of five lost their lives in one city.  Questions abound.  One of which in these cases is, “Where was God when all these tragedies took place?” or “Why doesn’t God put an end to all this chaos, even of evil?”  If you will notice; From where did God speak to Job? “Out of the whirlwind”.  At least twice this is said in 38:1 and 40:6.

Where was God in all these tragedies?  He speaks from out of them.  We need to listen.  Why doesn’t God put an end to all this chaos and evil?  I used to ask that question a lot, then one day in a still small voice I heard the Lord say in my heart, “If I ridded the world of evil, I would rid the world of you.”  I have not asked the question since, except of course to tell about it.  I thank Him for His wonderful grace.  His grace and mercy has allowed that more have not died, than could have.

God reminds Job of two creatures He has made.  The “behemoth”, and the “leviathan”.  Now some interpreters interpret these creatures as being a hippopotamus and a crocodile.  The description it gives is too immense to be either.  There are some scholars who put the book of Job as written earlier than the books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy).  There are some; of whom I am one; who believe these creatures are of the time of, what we call, the dinosaurs.  The behemoth could be that one large one with the long neck reaching to the tops of trees, with the large tail dragging on the ground some of the time.  The other sounds like some sort of creature which breaths fire.  These are both extinct now, as far as we know.

Some of you may laugh, but God’s word is true.  And, if God gives us evidence that men were on earth with the dinosaurs, then we better take heed to it.

In the end Job is back, right with God and with his friends.  His friends are told by God to take a sacrifice for themselves, Job would pray for them, and God would forgive them too.  We are also told that God gave Job twice what he had before.  He even had seven more sons and three more daughters.

A point is made in verse 15 of chapter 42,

“And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.”

Even Job was able to see the plan of God to make all one in Christ Jesus,

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”  Galations 3:28-29 (KJV)

Job was soundly rebuked by God, and shown the ridiculousness of his questions and charges.  Trust God, believe Him.  He sees a larger picture than you or I do.

-Tim A. Blankenship

Science Needs God

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The most recent email update from Answers In Genesis was an interesting one; they all are to me.   Dr. Greg Bahnsen has written some articles concerning the matter of science and their need for God.  There would be no science [knowledge] apart from God’s creating it.

The following is from the AiG email update in its entirety:

Q: Why does science need God?

A: 

It is one of those embarrassing historical ironies that modern science could not have arisen except in the atmosphere of a Christian world-and-life view. Nevertheless, the scientific community today persists in playing the prodigal by assuming an antagonistic stance against the Christianity of divine revelation. Hypnotized by Darwin’s evolutionary scheme and enchanted with the products of scientific technology, modern man has granted science a secularized godship and bows before it in fetish idolatry.

The pitting of science against revelation is certainly odd. For, a certain state of affairs is needed for the scientific endeavor to be meaningful or fruitful. The scientist must believe that the state of affairs is conducive to science, or he would not venture into the scientific enterprise. He must believe that there is a world of things and processes that can be known and that he himself sustains a relationship to this world that allows him to know these objects and events. But then, what reason can the scientist give for his belief that the state of affairs is actually conducive to science? Why is the world such as it is and not otherwise? 

Here the scientist, who depends on the self-sufficiency of his logico-empirical procedures, is in a predicament. His response is usually to make various hypotheses about the world and then point to the beneficial results that flow from such hypotheses; he gives, can give, no reason for those hypotheses—they just are, because they work. If pressed, or if he is philosophically inclined, he may even go so far as to say that his “working hypotheses” have no reason unless it be “chance.”

In other words, the consistent naturalistic scientist seems to hold to an irrational set of beliefs about the state of affairs simply in order that his “rational” scientific endeavor may get off the ground. It is rather obvious that prior to any scientific endeavor we must begin either from speculation (about “chance” hypotheses) or from revelation. The Scriptures (of the one Person who knows) reveal how it is that this world, and man in it, are such as to make scientific endeavor meaningful. The state of affairs that exists is due to the creation and providence of the sovereign God. If science (so-called) could actually refute the truths of Scripture, then there would be no actual basis for science at all. The desire of the scientific community to pit its enterprise and conclusions against Christian revelation is ultimately suicidal.

Revelation, Speculation, and Science, the first of our articles by Dr. Greg Bahnsen.

If the link above does not work then maybe this one will.  Thanks to Ken Ham and all at Answers In Genesis.

-T.A.

Women and Intelligence

/ Tim A. / 8 Comments

It seems that there has been for many years a debate over the origins of the human race.  I have never made any secret of my personal belief that we are created in the image of God, both male and female.  I have also never made it a secret that I believe what the Bible says concerning the order, means, and days of creation.

When the Bible tells us God created the stars, planets, moons, the plants, the animals, then the man and woman in six days, then I believe that is what God meant.  I know some view me as being of lesser intelligence because of that, but the non-theist who holds to the theory of evolution seems to be of lesser intelligence in my mind.

I have written on the matter of Creation in previous articles on this blog.  If you desire to read them you may go to Fire and Hammer and click on the category Creation, or click on either of these links to find days 1-4 of Creation.

The reason I am writing this article is because I received the weekly email from Answers in Gensis (AiG), and they had read an article from “Answers” magazine dealing with the book by Darwin, “Origin of the Species”.  In the book he gives reference to the “Inferiority of women”.  Darwin, as many of you know supported the view of “Survival of the fittest” and women are not the fittest according to Darwin.  They have apparently survived because the men have always protected them.  From what I have read, that seems to be his implication. 

According to the article:

“According to Charles Darwin, the central mechanism of evolution is survival of the fittest. In this concept, inferior animals are more likely to become extinct while the superior ones are more likely to thrive.1 The racism that this idea has produced has now been both well-documented and widely publicized.2 Less widely known is the fact that many evolutionists, including Darwin, taught that women were both biologically and intellectually inferior to men.”

And the reason “women are inferior to men”?

“women were less evolved than men, and because of their smaller brains, they were “eternally primitive,” childlike, less spiritual, more materialistic, and “a real danger to contemporary civilization.”3“

Why do many women support the idea of evolution when the “father of their faith” believed women to be inferior.  The Bible begins by putting the woman [Eve] on equal par with the man [Adam].  Both made in the image of God.  Adam was the head of the woman because he was created first, and that is what God ordained.  It in no way makes man superior, and the woman inferior no more than, as a man, the General is superior to the private.  Only in order of rank is the General superior.

Like men, there are many women who are very intelligent; and there are some men and women who need much help when it comes to intelligence.  When it comes to God and Creation, anyone who believes all we see, touch, hear, feel, smell and taste “just happened”, needs help.  Anyone who believes that those things which cannot be seen, touched, heard, felt, smelled and tasted, such as the atom, “just happened” needs help in the area of intelligence as well.

I am not the most intelligent man, but I have enough to know that anything that has order, design, and purpose had a designer.  I also know that Designer to be God when it comes to the Creation.  I also know that there are many women, most of them as a matter of fact, who can survive quite well without a man.  However, where would the world be without the two loving and caring for each other?  Especially as God has designed it.

-Tim A. Blankenship