GOD SAID, Psalms 19:9-11:

9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

MAN SAID:  An e-mail challenge from J.P., who in spirit, mirrors nearly all challenges received at GodSaidManSaid.  They are heavy laden with half-truths, false innuendo and misinformation, plus a healthy dose of arrogance. His e-mail follows, and God’s Word rebuts. Read, listen, and decide.

This has perplexed me for decades: the science vs. religion argument. I believe that we are a spiritual creation of God. Did God who gave us a remarkable mind intend man to use it? Did or didn’t God create the laws of nature? Why would God try to fool man into believing that the universe is only 6,000 years old? The laws of nature show that our world is eons old. Has the adversary salted the dig? Did the adversary plant false evidence to confuse man and distract man from the intention of God’s plans? This is the only explanation that could account for the adherence to the myth that the universe is 6,000 years old. One camp or the other has been fooled. Who’s doing the fooling? Unless the adversary has changed all cosmological, geological, and biological facts to fool man, then the theological camp is the one that has been deceived. Has theology been deceived by God or by the adversary? I have seen too much, what I believe to be evil, propagated from behind the pulpit. I have seen hatred and bigotry endorsed by individuals who were supposed to spreading Christian principles of love and tolerance. I studied science and medicine in college. How can the rancor and hypocrisy I have witnessed from the clergy compare to the insight that my intrinsic curiosity has shown to be reasonable?

Now THE RECORD. Let’s examine J.P.’s statements, point by point. J.P. said, “This has perplexed me for decades: the science vs. religion argument.” [End of quote] We assume he means, or at least includes, science vs. the Bible. It must be made abundantly clear that true science has never contradicted the Bible. Therefore there is no argument. J.P. is referring to pseudoscience, or scientific theories of one form or another which, in some instances, challenge the tenets of the Scriptures as well as other like theories in their field. I Timothy 6:20-21:

20 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

21 Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.

Theory, for illumination purposes, is defined as “speculation; a doctrine or scheme of things, which terminates in speculation or contemplation, without a view to practice.” [End of quote] Theories go in and out of favor with men, but God’s words “are true and righteous altogether.” Theory is not science, but speculation. It must also be noted that man’s “truth” today has debunked his “truth” of yesterday and his “truth” of tomorrow will debunk his “truth” of today, and that happens because man’s “truth” is not true. Conversely, God’s truth is ever constant, because real truth never changes. Malachi 3:6:

For I am the LORD, I change not;...

True science never contradicts the Word of God.

J.P.’s next question: “Did God who gave us a remarkable mind intend man to use it?” [End of quote] God created the human brain in His own likeness. In the October 2004 issue of Discover magazine, the following statement was found: “Chapin [a neuroscientist] ranks the neural code right up there with two other great scientific mysteries: the origin of the universe and of life on earth. The neural code is arguably the most consequential of the three.” [End of quote] Again from the article, “...the brain performs at least one quadrillion operations per second, almost a thousand times more than the best supercomputers.” [End of quote] And of course it just evolved from nothing—foolishness! It’s God’s brain likeness. In many ways, the brain begins its human existence like a blank computer. Information is collected, cataloged, and considered. From this database, to a great extent, decisions are made. God certainly expects us to use our brains, and He has given us His Word—our owner’s manual—to program our computers, so that correct life-directing information would reside between our ears. The answer to J.P.’s question is yes.

J.P. asks, “Did or didn’t God create the laws of nature?” Yes, He did. But His original design was not what we see today. Paradise and eternal life were dashed when our great-grandparents, Adam and Eve, surrendered their God-given lives and their title as keepers of the earth unto Lucifer’s charge. Lucifer became the lower case “g”-od of this earth. His M.O. is to steal, kill and destroy. The Bible says the law of sin and death now presides over this earth. Science knows this, in part, as the second law of thermodynamics. Yes, God did create the laws of nature—yet because of sin, they evolved into what we observe today.

To J.P. and all others who have not surrendered unto the Word of God, you can escape the certain doom of sin and death by repenting of your sins and turning your life over to Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. You can do it now. Click on to “Further With Jesus,” on this website for easy how-to information.

Next question: “Why would God try to fool man into believing that the universe is only 6,000 years old?...Has the adversary salted the dig?” [End of quote] God has not attempted to fool man, but to the contrary. He clearly states the origin and age of the 6,000+ year-old earth through the written eyewitness testimony of the Godhead (Father, Son, Holy Ghost), through genealogical age dating. It is confirmed by various other methods including, but not limited to, history, archaeology, paleontology, science, and chronological techniques.  Of course, someone has salted the dig, and the culprit is Satan and his willing accomplice, unregenerated man. Satan’s primary weapon is the rebellious spirit of unbelief. As in the Garden of Eden, he continues to whisper and shout into the hearts of the sons and daughters of Eve and Adam. Genesis 3:1: “Yea, hath God said,...” Satan’s salt comes in all flavors of rebellious unbelief. J.P., if you’re looking for the salter, consider this short excerpt from “Neanderthal Man,” a feature on this website:

Let’s take a look at some of the so-called evolutionary stages of man.

Ramapithecus, who is purported to be a hominid, which means a manlike ape, has been based on a few teeth and a few fossil fragments of the jaw. Recent additional fossil material discovered reveals Ramapithecus was not an intermediate between ape and man, but was the same as a modern orangutan. I assume those who originally published this misinformation must have sent you a retraction notice.

Australopithecines, supposed cousins of Ramapithecus, were discovered in 1924 and hailed as more proof of the missing link, proving the evolution of man. The Ramapithecines, reportedly, had ape-like features and teeth like modern man. Australopithecines and Ramapithecus entered the textbooks as facts of evolution. After many years of careful investigation, two leading evolutionary anatomists, Dr. Sally Zuckerman and Dr. Charles Oxnard concluded that Australopithecines did not walk upright, and were not intermediate between ape and man—contrary to what was widely accepted. Dr. Henry Morris of The Institute for Creation Research weighed in with the following statement:

However, Ramapithecus has now been relegated to the role of nothing but an extinct ape, and so has his somewhat more manlike cousin Australopithecus.

Ever hear of the Java Man? Doctor Dubois was the discoverer of Java Man. His evidence consisted of a large leg bone, a skull cap and three molar teeth. All the fossil evidence was found over a one year period and within a 50 foot wide area. For 30 years, Dr. Dubois had concealed the fact that at the same level he had found human skulls, which simply means that Java Man was not an intermediate link between the ape and man. Just before his death, Dr. Dubois, who had convinced most of the skeptics of Java Man’s credentials, changed his position, and decided that Java Man was probably a giant gibbon and not manlike at all.

Cro-Magnon Man, according to evolutionists, is the last evolutionary step to man, but the fact of the matter is that he simply is man. Dr. Guish said if he was walking down the street in a business suit, nobody would recognize anything out of place.

Here’s another fossil or group of fossils that fooled the world’s greatest authorities. In 1912, a man by the name of Dawson found a piece of a jaw, two molar teeth and a piece of a skull. He dubbed his find the "Piltdown Man," and claimed he was an ape-man that lived a half million years ago. It wasn’t until 1953 that Dawson and his find were proven frauds. The teeth had been filed down and the bones had been artificially colored.

Have you ever heard of William Jennings Bryan? He was the much-ridiculed Christian attorney who fought against the evolutionists in the famous Scopes Evolution Trial in Dayton, Tennessee. Academia laughed and scoffed at Bryan’s ignorance because he protested the scanty evidence of their proffered proof that evolution had finally found the missing link. Their evidence was a single tooth. After a "healthy" dose of twenty-four dollar word bologna, the tooth became the Nebraska Man. According to the enlightened ones, Nebraska Man lived and thrived one million years ago. Pseudo-science touted Nebraska Man with great pride and jubilation. Unfortunately for pseudo-science, years later, more fossils were unearthed and the famous tooth was discovered to be the tooth of just a lowly pig.

Satan supplies, “Yea, hath God said,...?” Carnal men mine and distribute the salt.

J.P. continues, “The laws of nature show that our world is eons old.” [End of quote] The laws of nature declare no such thing. But the laws of nature salted with a “healthy” dose of assumption, speculation, and unproven theories do. When facts free of assumptions stand alone, evolution and its counterparts collapse. The laws of nature testify of a young earth, as seen in the following issues:

∙ Weathering and erosion of the continents;

∙ Meteoric dust from space;

∙ Salt in the ocean;

∙ Helium in the atmosphere;

∙ Earth’s magnetic field;

∙ The young moon;

∙ The shrinking sun;

∙ And more.

Again, it’s J.P. who says, “...the myth that the universe is 6,000 years old.” [End of quote] It’s true; someone has built his life upon a myth. How about this excerpt from “Their Imaginations Became Vain,” a feature on this website?

Evolutionary paleontologists were eating crow, or should I say dinosaur, because of the debacle concerning the new-found fossil that was supposed to be the missing link, connecting dinosaurs to birds. It was the birdlike fossil with a meat-eater’s tail that came out of northeastern China, touted worldwide as the missing link, proving evolution. The November, 1999, issue of National Geographic trumpeted the discovery. Unfortunately for the wizened world of paleontology, it turned out to be a fraudulent doctored-up chicken.

J.P. says, “Unless the adversary has changed all cosmological, geological, and biological facts to fool man, then the theological camp is the one that has been deceived.” [End of quote] The core of the problem resides in the dating of the universe. If the universe is not billions of years old, a concept needed to hide the myth of evolution under the cloak of time and chance, and if, in fact, it is very young, then special design would be the only acceptable alternative—meaning God created it. The dating of billions of years is built upon assumptions, speculations, and theories of its theorists. It is not scientific fact that challenges the Word of God, but unproven theories.

Most of the dating techniques responsible for touting these enormous ages are built upon two assumptions. The following quote is from “Carbon Dating and 2+2=5:”

Many scientists claim to have nearly infallible methods for determining the age of the earth and its various formations. But all of these methods are built upon two basic and unprovable assumptions: (1) the assumption of starting point or original condition and (2) the assumption of a uniform rate of change from that starting point to the present.

According to the fully-provable Scriptures, God created Adam and the universe slightly over 6,000 years ago in six literal days out of the invisible. Adam and the universe appeared to have history, but in fact they had none. Secondly, the doctrine of uniformitarianism is a dating assumption that theorizes that all things since the beginning, since the purported billions of years ago, have continued on in a very gradual and predictable way. These theorists have totally discounted from their calculations the absolutely devastating flood of Noah that destroyed everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils (except the passengers on Noah’s Ark), changing the face of the entire earth and its atmosphere. Unfortunately for the long-age cosmologists, geologists, and biologists, their two assumptions are theories and not science. God’s Word declares them to be false. Click on to “Noah’s Ark — Fact or Fiction?” and “Noah II” on this website.

In addition, J.P., in each of the fields of science you’ve mentioned, as in all fields of science, there are many credentialed scientists that soundly believe the earth to be very young. Scientists number into the thousands who boldly declare that God created the heavens and the earth. No matter how scholarly the presentation, if your computer is programmed to believe that 2+2=5, then all your computations will be incorrect.

J.P., your lamentation concerning bad information emanating from pulpits, I cannot dispute, but don’t confuse Jesus Christ and the Scriptures with the doctrines of men. II Corinthians 10:12:

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

Jesus Christ did not start a denomination, which by definition means division, but He did start the body of Christ—our entrance into the family of God.

Finally J.P. says, “I have seen hatred and bigotry endorsed by individuals who were supposed to be spreading Christian principles of love and tolerance.” [End of quote] The first part of J.P.’s statement has already been discussed. The final issues of love and tolerance need to be addressed. Many embrace concepts of love and tolerance that are fabrications of the doctrines of men and not of God. The Word of God teaches that God is love. John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Through Christ, God’s love extends to all who humble themselves, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word, repent of their sins, and depart from evil. Conversely, God’s judgment is eternal damnation to those who reject His Christ. John 3:18:

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Today’s popular concept of God’s love is that it is unconditional—but be assured conditions exist. His love is unconditional in that it is His will that all men should be saved and that none should perish. But unfortunately, the vast majority of mankind has a contrary will of their own, and God will not close His eyes to unrepented sin. II Timothy 2:19:

Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

Concerning tolerance and access to God’s eternal life, it must be noted that God’s tolerance level is zero. Jesus said in John 14:6:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Acts 4:10-12:

10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.

11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Jesus said in John 3:3:

...Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ are born-again. They are saved and their names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. But to all others, it is written in Revelation 20:15:

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

The religions and philosophies of this world that reject Jesus Christ have no access to redemption. Neither does God tolerate men’s opinions. We are required to put off our own carnal thoughts and put on the mind of Christ. II Corinthians 10:3-5:

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

J.P., apply your intrinsic curiosity to the beautiful Word of God, and you will surely find answers to your life’s questions.




References:

King James Bible

Horgan, J., “The Myth of Mind Control,” Discover magazine, 10/04, p.42

“Neanderthal Man,” www.GodSaidManSaid.com

Webster, N., American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828