The Earth To Be Inhabited

Proof that God is is so much bigger than what we see or can analytically deduce. God’s proof is much bigger than that. Romans 8:14-16:

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Does this passage declare that we should know with certainty that we are children of God and that His Spirit certifies it?

Physical things do not precede spiritual things. All physical things have been spoken into existence out of that which is invisible, by the God of the Bible, who is a spirit. But, believing in God is not salvation. God’s Word states in James 2:19-20:

19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

Believing that there is a Creator simply means you are not a fool. But, the true everlasting life-yielding proof of God requires another critical step that is totally void of academic input, because its nature is such that it cannot be naturally understood. Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews who came to the Lord under the cover of darkness—arguably the greatest words ever spoken—in John 3:3-8:

3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

I must be born a second time. I must be supernaturally born of God’s Spirit if I am to become a child of God. I must be born of the Spirit—His Spirit—and therefore receive sonship. This true life-giving proof that God is is not formed in carnal intellect, but rather by the witness of the Spirit of God. Do you know of a certainty that you are a born-again child of God? If the answer is "No" or "I’m not sure," click on to "Further With Jesus" for instruction for entry into the Kingdom of God. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Isaiah 45:18:

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

MAN SAID:  According to atheist Quentin Smith, "The most reasonable belief is that we came from nothing, by nothing, and for nothing."

Now THE RECORD. Carnal science is maniacally driven to find a planet in outer space that they believe has the necessary attributes to spontaneously create life as their evolutionary model of billions-of-years promises. Their mad quest is an effort to justify the foolishness of atheism. Billions of dollars are spent, from sophisticated listening outposts to the exploration of Mars, and more. But all of their fanciful ruminations are doomed in the Bible’s 6,000-plus-year-old universe. There is just not enough time, as if time alone could produce the wonders of life.

In spite of the mountains of empirical evidence that says "God," the ungoded camp will continue their futile quest. The following excerpt is a response published in Discover magazine given by Robert Cassanova, Director, NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts. The question posed to him was what he considered to be the most critical development in space research in the past 25 years. He stated:

After the Viking missions of the 1970s, scientists had given up hope of finding life on Mars, which led to the near demise of the Mars program. But in the past 25 years, biologists have found tiny microbes called extremophiles virtually everywhere they’ve looked on Earth—coating rocks in the driest deserts, encased in million-year-old ice, or swimming in acid pools. The growing realization that life could take hold in truly hostile environments reenergized the Mars program and culminated in the ongoing Mars missions, including the recent robotic explorers.  [End of quote]

The anthropic principle, a scientific concept that states that all things on the earth and in the universe appear to be made for man, is clearly defined in the passage quoted earlier, Isaiah 45:18:

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

Not only did God make the earth to fit the needs of life, but man was given dominion over the entire earth. Genesis 1:26:

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

For more information about this topic, click on to "Anthropic Principle" and "Center of the Universe Discovered and What Holds It Together."

The thought of an Earth that is unique in the universe and made just for man has triggered the angst and ridicule of the ungodly, but the deeper science looks, the more strangely unique the earth becomes. In Lee Strobel’s 341-page book The Case For A Creator, an excellent section is devoted to this very principle. I have selected the following nine passages for your consideration:

1. It’s turning out that the Earth is anything but ordinary, that our sun is far from average, and that even the position of our planet in the galaxy is eerily fortuitous. The idea that the universe is a flourishing hothouse of advanced civilizations is now being undermined by surprising new scientific discoveries and fresh thinking.

In short, new findings are suggesting that we are special. More and more scientists are studying the mind-boggling convergence of scores of extraordinary "coincidences" that make intelligent life possible on Earth and concluding that this can’t possibly be an accident.

2. In fact, said one noted researcher, "new evidence which could potentially have refuted the [design] hypothesis has only ended up confirming it." Once again, we find the evidence of science pointing in the direction of a Creator.

3. As the new millennium dawned, geologist Peter D. Ward and astronomer Donald Brownlee, both professors at the University of Washington in Seattle, published a provocative and highly successful book that raised this disquieting question about Earth: "What if it is utterly unique: the only planet with animals in this galaxy or even in the visible universe . . . ?"

Their book, Rare Earth, marshals evidence from a wide range of scientific disciplines to build its case that "not only intelligent life, but even the simplest of animal life, is exceedingly rare in our galaxy and in the universe." They called the conclusion "inescapable" that "Earth is a rare place indeed."

4. Calling their book "carefully reasoned and scientifically astute," Don Johanson, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, remarked: "In spite of our wishful thinking, there just may not be other Mozarts or Monets." David Levy, of comet Shoemaker-Levy fame, added, "As we know it on Earth, complex life might be very rare, and very precious." Said the Times of London: "If they are right it could be time to reverse a process that has been going on since Copernicus."

5. "Rather than being one planet among billions, Earth now appears to be the uncommon Earth," said science educators Jimmy H. Davis and Harry L. Poe. "The data imply that Earth may be the only planet ’in the right place at the right time.’"

6. Earth’s location, its size, its composition, its structure, its atmosphere, its temperature, its internal dynamics, and its many intricate cycles that are essential to life—the carbon cycle, the oxygen cycle, the nitrogen cycle, the phosphorous cycle, the sulfur cycle, the calcium cycle, the sodium cycle, and so on—testify to the degree to which our planet is exquisitely and precariously balanced.

7. Consider the conclusion of Michael J. Denton, a senior research fellow in human molecular genetics at the University of Otago in New Zealand, in his 1998 book Nature’s Destiny:

No other theory or concept ever imagined by man can equal in boldness and audacity this great claim . . . that all the starry heavens, that every species of life, that every characteristic of reality exists [to create a livable habitat] for mankind. . . . But most remarkably, given its audacity, it is a claim which is very far from a discredited prescientific myth. In fact, no observation has ever laid the presumption to rest. And today, four centuries after the scientific revolution, the doctrine is again reemerging. In these last decades of the twentieth century, its credibility is being enhanced by discoveries in several branches of fundamental science.

8. After earning degrees from Harvard and the University of Chicago, [author John] O’Keefe went on to become a renowned astronomer and pioneer in space research. The late Eugene Shoemaker called him "the godfather of astrogeology." He was awarded many honors, including the Goddard Space Flight Center’s highest award, and is credited with numerous breakthrough discoveries in his scientific research at NASA.

It was the discoveries of astronomy that bolstered O’Keefe’s faith in God. He once ran calculations estimating the likelihood of the right conditions for life existing elsewhere. He concluded that if his assumptions were correct, then based on the mathematical probabilities, "only one planet in the universe is likely to bear intelligent life. We know of one—the Earth—but it is not certain that there are many others, and perhaps there are no others."

9. O’Keefe concludes:

"We are, by astronomical standards, a pampered, cossetted, cherished group of creatures; our Darwinian claim to have done it all ourselves is as ridiculous and as charming as a baby’s brave efforts to stand on its own feet and refuse his mother’s hand. If the universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in." [End of quotes]

I must note that there is life in outer space, but far beyond the infantile search of man. For more information click on to:

•Is There Life In Outer Space?

•Outer Darkness

•IS

GOD SAID, Isaiah 45:18:

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

MAN SAID: According to atheist Quentin Smith, "The most reasonable belief is that we came from nothing, by nothing, and for nothing."

Now you have THE RECORD.




References:

King James Bible

Cassanova, R., "Space," Discover magazine, 12/05, p70

Craig & Smith, Theism, Atheism & Big Bang Cosmology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993, p135

Strobel, L., The Case For A Creator, Zondervan, 2004, pp155-191

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