Shalom Dear Friends,
No Place to Hide!
This month’s newsletter is going to be a little different. Recently, I have been thoroughly amazed at the constant attempts the World makes to “hide” from God. Lately, I feel bombarded with atheism from our newest idol, modern science. Now don’t get me wrong, I love modern science and believe with all my heart that, in the end, science and the Bible are absolutely compatible. However, when science becomes a tool to deny God, it has become an idol. So, let me share some thoughts with you.
The first “hiding place” is the theory of evolution. I get so sick of evolution being presented as fact. However, the simultaneous complexity needed for biological life to occur simply rules out evolution through chemistry and chance-plus-time. For example, the eye. For an eye to function, everything has to be in place at the same time: the photoreceptive cells, the nerves, the lens, the cornea, the iris, etc. If these items were not in place, then the mutation would be useless for the survival of the species. The eye, slowly evolving over decades and centuries, would actually be a hindrance for the survival of the fittest. Simultaneous presence speaks of intelligent design and therefore of an “Intelligent Designer.” You cannot hide from God in evolution, although many so-called “objective” scientists deny the existence of the Designer. Their position is simply rejection cloaked in intellectualism. My experience is that most atheists are upset and bitter at God for some reason. Atheism is an emotional issue.
The next “hiding place” that I have observed recently is “longevity.” I have read a number of articles touting the idea that science will eventually allow us to live 1,000 years (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4003063.stm). Ah yes, the quest for the “Fountain of Youth” still continues. By the way, living 1,000 years is not exceptional from a biblical perspective. Just read Genesis 5. My question is this: “What happens after 1,000 years or 100,000 years? The end result is always the same, you die! You can’t hide from God in longevity. Eventually, you must face Him.
Recently, some asteroids blew by our planet raising the specter of life being wiped out by a large impact. Notables like Stephen Hawking have predicted the end of the human race in 1,000 years (another estimates 7.8 million years) unless “something” is done. That “something” is interplanetary colonies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization#The_argument_of_need). However, our sun is estimated to only last another 800 million years. Without the sun you die. So humankind can’t hide from God through interplanetary colonies.
The next “hiding place’ is intergalactic colonies. Given 800 million years, we should be able to move to some other solar system in the Milky Way before the sun burns out. Sorry, there is no hiding place there either. Why? Because Andromeda Galaxy has us in her sights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_collision#The_fate_of_the_Solar_System). NASA predicts that Andromeda Galaxy will collide with our Milky Way in 4 billion years. That collision will totally disrupt all life sustaining parameters in the Milky Way and you die. There is no hiding place in intergalactic travel.
OK, given enough time and chance we will learn to survive in deep space, independent of any planet, star, galaxy or God. Oh yeah? Don’t you know that the foundation of the Universe, the Higgs Boson, is unstable? Scientists estimate that “… many tens of billions of years from now, there’ll be a catastrophe,”… “A little bubble of what you might think of as an ‘alternative’ universe will appear somewhere and then it will expand out and destroy us, …” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/19/universe-lifespan-finite-unstable-higgs-boson_n_2713053.html). Sounds like 2 Peter 3:10 to me. So, no matter how you slice it, we can’t hide from God. We will all have to stand before Him whether it be in 20 years, 200 years, 2,000 years or 200 billion years, etc.
However, there is hope. God, through His marvelous grace, has promised those who trust in Him the gift of eternal life. Notice the gift is eternal life. He has not promised us temporary life, whether that life be 60 years or 600 billion years. I’m placing my bets on God and His promises. Eternity! What a concept!!
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Thanks for your partnership with us!
Seventy-five years ago, momentous changes were occurring in Central Europe. Few understood the historic significance of the times, and fewer still saw these events as precursors to what would become one of humanity’s darkest hours.
By 1938 the Nazis had been in power for five years, during which they systematically removed Jews from public life in Germany, stripping them of their rights as citizens and severely limiting their employment opportunities. In that pivotal year, the year before Germany invaded Poland and ignited World War II, the treatment of Jews took a dramatic turn for the worse.
Many were desperate to flee, but no country would take them. Then on November 9–10, 1938, came Kristallnacht, a wave of violence unleashed by the Nazis that resulted in the death of at least 91 Jews, the destruction of hundreds of synagogues and many more Jewish-owned businesses, and the arrest of some 30,000 Jewish men, most of whom were transferred from local prisons to the Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. The Holocaust had begun, eventually resulting in the deaths of six million Jewish people.
Unfortunately, the Bible teaches us that one more extremely short but extremely intense Holocaust waits the Jewish people: The Tribulation Holocaust. In the middle of the Tribulation the Antichrist will desecrate the Temple in Jerusalem and attempt to put an end to the “Jewish Question” once and for all (Dan. 9:27; Matt. 24:15-28; 2 Thess. 2:3-4; Rev. 12:13). The result of the Tribulation Holocaust will be the death of two-thirds of the worldwide Jewish community (Zech. 13:8-9) during the remaining 3-1/2 years of the Tribulation. At the very end of the Tribulation, every living Jewish man, woman, and child will place their faith in Yeshua, resulting in the national regeneration of Israel. We will then call upon Him to return. This is why Jewish evangelism is so important. Until then we must work for the salvation of Israel by going into all the world, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Matt. 28:19-20, Rom. 1:16).
Yom Ha’atzmaut: Israel’s Independence Day
Yom Ha’atzmaut commemorates the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel by the Jewish leadership led by future Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, on 14 May 1948, eight hours before the end of the British Mandate of Palestine. This year it is celebrated on April 16, 2013 (Gregorian calendar). This year is the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel.
Yom Ha’atzmaut is a religious and national holiday in Israel.