Prayer Requests-
- Pastor Aaron
- McIntosh's moving
- Praise Report from KSU outreach
Recap - Week 1 - How to get to Heaven
You are saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no man may boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9
Justice is when you get what you deserve, which in this case is Hell for transgressing God's laws.
Mercy is when you don't get what you deserve, which would be if God gave you a reprieve from Hell but wouldn't let you into Heaven.
Grace is when you get what you don't deserve, not only did Christ pay your fine on the cross, he gave you his righteousness so that you can go to Heaven.
We are saved entirely by Christ's gracious payment on the cross and resurrection, this gift is received through faith, so that God gets all the credit and is the one that gets to boast.
Recap - Week 2 - Why the Bible
"This book will keep me from sin,
and sin will keep me from this book."
"A Bible that is falling apart almost always belongs to a person who isn't."
There are over 200 English translations of the Bible, and almost of all of them say the same thing about how to get to Heaven. The reason there are so many is for a lot of reasons. One is translation style, ensuring that certain aspects are emphasized, others are merely for monetary gain, the Bible is the all time best seller and publishers have a lot to gain in having a version. The worst reason is to force presuppositions into the text. Lets look at some different translations.
Good
English Standard Version (ESV) - Essentially literal, maintains poetic language of KJV, a beautiful and faithful translation of the Bible. Canyon prefers this Bible.
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) - Preferred by Pastor Aaron and many others, very good Bible.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) - As literal as possible, literalness makes it blocky sometimes. Dave Snyder's preferred Bible.
New International Version (NIV) - Translated to remove ambiguity and improve readability. Is looked down upon by many but is a faithful and useful translation.
New King James Version (NKJV) - Attempted to make KJV more readable, but ran into some copyright issues. Still a good translation and easy to read.
Mediocre
King James Version (KJV) - Excellent translation of the Bible, preferred version for over 350 years, but readability is suffering and the English language has changed so much as to make the KJV very difficult to read. Impeccable translation, but not recommended due to difficulty of reading.
Today's New International Version (TNIV) - Gender inclusivity (neutrality) is teetering dangerously on modifying the Bible. Many good aspects, but with fatal flaws.
New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) and New American Bible (NAB) - Catholic Bibles, well translated in most points, but containing the Apocrypha (extra books). These Bibles will work if nothing else is available.
Bad
New World Translation (NWT) - Jehovah's Witness Bible, specifically edited to remove divinity of Christ.
Contempory English Version (CEV) - Dangerously plays down the sinfulness of sin. This Bible is becoming more and more popular amongst liberal churches.
Amplified Bible (AMP) - More of a running commentary than a translation, the authors force their presuppositions upon the reader and attempt to speak for the Bible.
The Message - A paraphrase of the Bible with damning presuppositions. Very liberal and strays far from biblical intent.
It is important to remember that the Bible is perfect in the original Greek and Hebrew, it is
Infallible - It is true yesterday, today, and forever.
Inerrant - There are no errors or contradictions. If someone shows you a contradiction, contact me or Dave Snyder or Google it, and I guarantee there will be an easy answer, no matter how difficult the "contradiction" seems to be.
Timeless - The Bible is as relevant today as it was when it was written as it will be 'till the end of time.
Most translations have minor translation errors, most of these do not change the meaning of the Bible. Reading at least two good translations will alleviate this issue. Overall the Bible can be trusted.
An example of a translation error is the King James Version, Genesis 1:21 which reads And God created great whales... The word for whales does not mean whales in any way shape or form. The word translated whales is tanniyn which means dragons. The King James Translators in 1611 had never seen a dragon and probably didn't believe they existed outside of the imagination, so they probably chose a large animal that was created on the 5th day, which is the whale. In the 1800's skeletons of dragons were discovered all over the world, their name has since been changed to dinosaur. The Bible speaks of giant reptiles in the sea in the 21st verse.
Elsewhere that dinosaurs are mentioned are Job 40:15-24, the author describes a Brontosaurus,
Behold, Behemoth,
which I made as I made you;
he eats grass like an ox.
Behold, his strength in his loins,
and his power in the muscles of his belly.
He makes his tail stiff like a cedar;
the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
His bones are tubes of bronze,
his limbs like bars of iron.
"He is the first of the works of God;
let him who made him bring near his sword!
For the mountains yield food for him
where all the wild beasts play.
Under the lotus plants he lies,
in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh.
For his shade the lotus trees cover him;
the willows of the brook surround him.
Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened;
he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.
Can one take him by his eyes,
or pierce his nose with a snare?
And while we don't know what killed the dinosaurs, Isaiah tells us in his 27th chapter, verse 1, In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. God killed the dinosaurs, probably to demonstrate his power over these massive animals which men had a hard time killing.
Evolution is a religion with the end goal of saying there is no God, that men are evolving to become gods or as close as they feel is possible. They probably will try to teach you this in school, and we want you to be ready.
Below is a comparison chart:
| Creation Proven Man caused death Evidence points to design - Genesis 1:1 Purpose Getting Worse Chicken 6,600-10,000 years old Admit we know very little Life begits life | Evolution Disproven Death caused man Evidence forced to fit model 2 Peter 2:5-6 Accident Getting Better Egg 16 Billion years old Think they know a lot Abiogenesis disproved |
1 big problem for both Creation and Evolution, there are stars at least 78 billion light years away according to the Hubble Telescope. Neither belief is old enough to account for this distance, however Einstein's Theory of Relativity says that speed is not as constant as we think it is, and therefore we don't have to worry about this since it is a problem for both beliefs, neither side can claim it.
It is estimated that there are enough stars for each person on Earth (7 Billion people) to own 11 Trillion stars personally. God knows all of the names of all of the stars (Psalm 147:4) and measures the width of the universe with the span of his hand. (Isaiah 40:12)
Evidence of Creation -
Complexity - Your eye contains 137 million light sensitive cells in the size of a postage stamp. It takes in a crystal clear image, focuses faster than you can think, determines distance automatically, has built in moisturizers and windshield wipers. Its complexity and perfection in design warrants a Creator in the same way a camera proves a camera maker.
Laws - The Laws of Gravity, ThermoDynamics, and Sin and Death (Romans 8:2), among many others, are so reliable that scientists never fear that gravity might change and ruin their experiments. These laws point to a Law-Giver.
7 Day Week - The year is based on rotation around the sun, the day is based on rotation on an axis, the lunar calendar is based on the moon's rotation, seasons are based on the tilt of the earth, but the 7-day week has no natural purpose. God created the Universe in 6 days and rested on the 7th, and now ~10,000 years later we still recognize a 7-day week.
Irreducible Complexity - Your heart is one of the most incredible pumps ever created, it pumps 2,000 gallons of blood a day continuously for decades with no external maintenance. But without blood it is useless, and blood without lungs to put oxygen in is useless, and oxegenated pumped blood is useless without arteries and arteries are worthless without veins. All of these are worthless without a body, and a body is worthless without a brain. Each of these must be in place to have a working circulatory system, and therefore could not have evolved, but must have been created whole.
Wall in History - History is fairly clear until ~2200 BC when everything gets fuzzy. The Bible tells us that just before this there was a great flood. We see evidence of this flood in rock layers, oil deposits, fossils, and a panoply of flood stories from all over the world.
Conclusion
Both Creation and Evolution are religions. One comes from God, the other comes from men. There is no doubt from a scientific basis that a world-wide flood occured, and that dinosaurs are in the Bible and other places in history.
Follow-up
Dinosaur Cave Paintings and Pottery
Creation Science Evangelism
Answers in Genesis
The Dying Religion of Evolution, by Canyon Shearer
If you run into a teacher who believes in Evolution, please consider standing up to him or her and simply tell them that your Bible Study Teacher says that evolution is a dying religion. Feel free to have them call me.
Don't forget to invite a friend to class next week, 8/31!
Canyon
928-606-6906
