David Hocking Romans 6 verse1 through 5 Are you baptized ? Part 1

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From Answers in Genesis. Ken Ham

The Slippery Slope of Unbelief

by Ken Ham on April 12, 2016

A guest column recently appeared in The Washington Post titled, “Why Doubting the Bible is Good for Christians: It Lets People Ponder Their Faith Without Losing It.” The author argues that doubting God’s Word can be a good thing. His own doubting resulted in losing his faith before he came back to a belief in God, though not necessarily a belief in Christ.

The columnist writes that it fascinates him how people decide which parts of the Bible “must be understood as literal accounts of historical events and which may be interpreted as mythic, metaphorical or exaggerated.” Now some Christians do indeed just pick and choose which parts of the Bible they want to believe. This is usually because they come to the text with outside beliefs (millions of years, no miracles, and so on) and not because the text itself suggests that they shouldn’t believe something.

How to Rightly Divide The Word of Truth

Proper hermeneutics (biblical interpretation), however, demands we interpret each genre (type) of Scripture by the rules of that genre. This is no different from how we read a love letter, an instruction manual, and a newspaper in completely different ways. For example, when the Bible uses historical narrative, such as in Genesis, the Book of Judges, or the Book of Matthew, we interpret it as literal history. Or when the Bible uses poetry, such as in Psalms or Song of Solomon, we interpret it as poetry (realizing that biblical poetry conveys a literal truth but may use poetic or phenomenological language). Because Jesus spoke in parables, some people claim that perhaps Genesis is a parable! But Jesus either stated or made it obvious when He was using a parable! Usually it’s fairly easy to determine what genre is being used and to interpret the text accordingly.

There’s no need for us to arbitrarily pick and choose what we’re going to believe in the Bible. All Scripture is from God (2 Timothy 3:16), and since God does not lie (Titus 1:2), we know all of it to be true.

Opening the Door to Denying Scripture

The author goes on to mention that most Christians believe that Jesus literally rose from the dead, but that many Christians reject other biblical accounts such as Jesus’ miracles, Jonah and the fish, or others. But through his academic studies, he realized that if these accounts weren’t literally true, why would the Resurrection be true? And he rejected all of it.

Sadly we see this kind of thinking all the time. Many pastors, Christian college professors, and other Christians also reject the truth of Genesis, Old Testament history, or even some of the events in the life of Christ but say that the Resurrection actually happened. But if God lied to us in some places in the Bible, why should we believe what He says in other passages such as the account of the Resurrection? It’s a slippery slope from rejecting some parts of the Bible to rejecting all of it. And we’re now seeing the consequences of the last generation’s unbelief in the hearts and minds of this generation. 

I remember the time a young lady came up to me after I had spoken at a church. She told me that the pastor of the church she was attending taught that Genesis wasn’t literal history, and that she could addevolution and millions of years to the Bible and reinterpret Genesis accordingly. She went up to the pastor and said, “So tell me: when does God start telling the truth then?”

Hold Fast to The Word of God

As Christians, we need to stand firmly on all of God’s Word. We don’t have the option to pick and choose what we want to believe. God’s Word doesn’t give us that option: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16; emphasis added).

We provide many print, web, video, and audio resources that Christians can use to equip themselves to stand on all of God’s Word. One resource that I recommend is my Foundations DVD set. These DVDs look to God’s Word to provide a firm foundation and solid answers to the most common questions and issues in our Western cultures. Foundations and many other solid, Bible-upholding resources are available in our online store.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.

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A worthwhile watch on the truths about cancer

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Why Do Atheists Care? Biblical Worldview by Ken Ham on January 1, 2015; last featured April 10, 2016

Why Do Atheists Care?

Biblical Worldview

by Ken Ham on January 1, 2015; last featured April 10, 2016

Audio Version

Atheists get very passionate when it comes to fighting biblical Christianity. If God doesn’t exist—and life has no ultimate meaning—why do they even care?

Why do atheists get so emotional and aggressive in opposing biblical Christianity? Why does it bother them? Why does it matter at all to them?
When Answers in Genesis announced plans to build the Creation Museum, a local atheist group began attacking the ministry of Answers in Genesis and campaigning against the museum. When the museum was opened, the atheists gathered outside the museum to protest the opening of this facility. But why did they do this?
At the time of this issue’s publication, atheists are aggressively opposing a new project involving the building of a life-size Noah’s Ark, the Ark Encounter. But what is it to atheists if Christians build such a facility to proclaim the Christian message? After all, thousands of secular museums across the USA and other countries around the world are already proclaiming an atheistic evolutionary message to the public. Government schools throughout the world by and large indoctrinate hundreds of millions of the coming generations in naturalism—really atheism.
So why do atheists get so upset with a minority that stands for biblical Christianity?
During my debate with Bill Nye “the Science Guy” on February 4, 2014, Bill was asked where matter came from. In his answer he said it was a great mystery, but he loved the “joy of discovery” as he pursued such questions. In my responses to Bill’s answers, I asked him why the joy of discovery mattered to him. I explained that from Bill’s perspective, life is the result of natural processes and there is no biblical God, so when he dies, he won’t even know he ever existed or knew anything. Then, when others who knew him die, they won’t know they ever knew him, either. Eventually, from his perspective of naturalism, the whole universe will die and no one will ever know they ever existed. So what is the purpose of this “joy of discovery”? Really, the naturalistic view of life is ultimately purposeless and meaningless!
Think about the well-known atheist Richard Dawkins. Why does he spend so much time writing and speaking against Someone (God) he doesn’t believe exists? Why is he so aggressive against biblical Christianity? In an ultimately purposeless and meaningless existence, why does it matter to him if people believe in the God of the Bible and the account of creation as outlined in Genesis? Why bother fighting against such people when, from his perspective, eventually no one will even know they ever existed?
They claim that they care about people and argue that believing in creation is harmful to society. But something deeper is going on. They aren’t fighting for the truth, but suppressing it.

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These Attacks Confirm God’s Word

The fact that people like Bill Nye and Richard Dawkins and atheist groups in the USA like the ACLU, the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation are so consumed with fighting against biblical Christianity, actually confirms the truth of God’s Word.
In Romans 1 we read that God has given man the ability to know that He exists, so that if anyone rejects the God of the Bible, they are without excuse: “What may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19–20).
God’s Word also makes it clear that the reason even atheists use words like right and wrong and good and bad is because God has given man a conscience—God’s law written on our hearts: “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law . . . show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness” (Romans 2:14–15).

Our fallen nature doesn’t want to submit to the God who created us.

In Genesis 3:5 we read that the temptation given to Adam and Eve was that they could “be like God.” Because we succumbed to this temptation in Adam (in Adam we sinned), we want to be our own god! Our fallen nature doesn’t want to submit to the God who created us and owns us; we want to make our own rules! Romans 1 also explains that because of man’s rebellious heart, fallen unregenerate man will “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).
Really then, when Bill Nye, Richard Dawkins, and others so aggressively oppose biblical Christianity, what they are doing is this. They are covering their ears and closing their eyes and saying, “I refuse to submit to the God who created me. I refuse to acknowledge that God is the creator. I refuse to accept that I’m a sinner in need of salvation. I want to write my own rules! Therefore I must oppose anything that pricks my conscience and aggressively suppress the truth to justify my rebellion.”
I was once speaking with an atheist when he said to me, “If there is a God, then why doesn’t He come and show Himself to us?” I replied, “He did, and they nailed Him to a cross.” And of course I went on to talk about Jesus as the God-man, His death and Resurrection, and the gift of salvation that He offers.
In 2 Peter 3:5, we are told that those who scoff about God as creator, the historical Flood, and coming judgment by fire are “willingly ignorant.” This means it is a deliberate action on their part not to believe, because they don’t want to believe. They close their eyes and cover their ears, refusing to believe the truth and actively suppressing it.
So why do these who so aggressively oppose Christianity care? They care because they are desperately trying to justify their rebellion against the truth. They don’t want to admit that they are sinners in need of salvation and thus need to submit to the God who created them and owns them.

Ken Ham is the founder and president of Answers in Genesis–USA. He has edited and authored many books about the authority of God’s Word and the impact of evolutionary thinking on our culture, including Already Compromised and The Lie.

From David Hocking newsletter

ISLAMIC TERRORISM, THE USA, AND THE PALESTINIAN ISSUE

by retired Ambassador Yoram Ettinger

According to President Obama's worldview the Palestinian issue is a principal Muslim concern and a major source of Muslim animation and frustration, which has fueled regional violence, intensifying Islamic terrorism.

However, irrespective of Obama's far-reaching gestures to the Palestinian Authority, the number of Muslim terrorist cells in the US has increased, as have Islamic terrorist attacks on the US mainland, such as in San Bernardino (2015), Boston (2013), Times Square (2010), Ft. Hood, Texas (2009), Little Rock, Arkansas (2009), Dallas, Texas (2009), etc.

Moreover, in 1983, while President Reagan brutally pressured Israel to end its offensive against the PLO in Lebanon and withdraw to the international border, Islamic car bombs blew up the US embassy and the Marines' headquarters in Beirut, murdering 300 US Marines.

In 1998 and 2000, while President Clinton pressured Israel to make dramatic concessions to the Palestinians, and made Arafat a frequent foreign visitor to the White House, Islamic car bombs hit the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, murdering 300 persons, and Islamic terrorists hit the "USS Cole" at the port of Aden, murdering 17 US sailors. Furthermore, "September 11" was planned while President Clinton pressured Israel to repartition Jerusalem, retreat to the pre-1967 lines and accept a limited version of the Palestinian "claim of return" to the pre-1967 area of Israel.

President Obama was right when declaring in June, 2009, at Cairo University: "Islam has always been part of America's story." Indeed, Islamic (Barbary) terrorism targeted US ships between 1776 and the beginning of the 19th century. John Quincy Adams, the sixth US president (1825-1929), researched the causes of anti-US Islamic terrorism, concluding that the core cause was Islam's endemic hostility toward the "infidel" as expressed in the Quran.

The US is the role-model of democracy and civil liberties, and therefore, it is perceived as a lethal threat by repressive, rogue, anti-democratic Muslim regimes, which have terrorized their own people and other Muslim communities since the 7th century. They, also, consider the US to be the most effective hurdle on their way to regional and global domination. US prominence has made America the chief scapegoat, blamed by rogue Muslim regimes for their own social, economic and moral failures.

Islamic terrorists believe that their victory over the USSR, in Afghanistan, caused the disintegration of the Soviet Union. They are convinced that defeating the USA would be easier, in view of recent US retreats from Vietnam (1973), Iran (1979), Lebanon (1983), Somalia (1993) and Libya (2012), and the expected evacuation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Islamic terrorists assume that the US policy-makers and public tend to cave under intensified terrorism - increasingly on the US mainland - which will, therefore, trigger further US retreats.

Islamic terrorists have been emboldened by President Obama's and CIA Director John Brennan's claims - in defiance of 1,400 year old Islamic terrorism, Islamic tyranny and the absence of intra-Muslim peaceful coexistence - that there is no Islamic terrorism, since Islam promotes peace; that there is no Jihadist terrorism, since Jihad purifies the soul; that the US should engage rogue regimes diplomatically rather than militarily; that the Muslim Brotherhood (the largest transnational Islamic terrorist organization) is not a terrorist organization; that there is no military solution to terrorism; that terrorism should be contained rather than defeated; and that terrorist acts may be defined as "workplace violence," etc. Thus, wrong US assumptions have produced wrong US policies and failed battle tactics.

According to the late Prof. Fuad Ajami one of the leading Middle East scientists in recent years: "The sad truth is that the terror will continue - and continue to test the patience of an America that insists on its innocence and its distance from the feuds and passions of the Middle East....

A terrible wind was now blowing throughout the realm of Islam. Americans were caught there at a time when a large fight was breaking out - a fight for the soul and historic direction of that society.... Caught between the frightened privilege, on the one side, and the militant wrath, on the other. And, America was inevitably on the side of the privilege.... The distant superpower was turned into a demon.... Decades of oil wealth and promise in the Moslem world was ending in failure and defeat.

When the inevitable scapegoating came, America was the best kind of scapegoat....This amorphous world took America on the only way it could - with terror.... In reality, to talk of a peace process that would end this wave of terror is naïve. If Americans can be sure of anything, they can be sure of this: Nothing would inflame the passions of extremists more than a major American diplomatic initiative....

No US diplomatic scheme would spare America the fury of those bent upon eradicating its presence in the Middle East. It is a false reading of Islam to say that terror springs from the impasse between Israelis and Palestinians.... It does not advance Israeli-Palestinian peace to pretend that it would solve a problem larger than their conflict...."

Is it realistic to assume that rogue Muslim regimes, which have employed terrorism - systematically and deliberately - since the 7th century, in order to settle intra-Muslim conflicts with fellow "believers," would not employ terrorism in order to settle their conflicts with the USA, "the big, arrogant, infidel Satan"?!

Islamic terrorism constitutes a clear and present danger to the USA and the Free World, irrespective of the Arab-Israeli conflict, independent of the Palestinian issue and regardless of Israel's policies or the very existence of the Jewish State, which is only "the little Satan" as far as Muslim rogue regimes and terrorists are concerned.

David Hocking

HFT Connect