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(1Cor. 14:38) “37 If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. 38 But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.”
This means that God gives us the task to understand Bible, but of the value is solving the task not the end result revelation. It would be too easy if Bible were written in plain text. God wants us to think and to believe.
Many Christians make the following error:
They “seek the will of God” looking at external circumstances and explicit revelations and ignore their own mind and feelings. But “circumstances” inside ourselves are also a part of the plan of God. Our mind and feelings are also a “circumstance” which God sends to us. After all, Christ is in us: (Col. 1:27) “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”.
(Luk. 18:9-14) “9 And he spoke this parable to certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, extortionists, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote on his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.”
In the spiritual meaning of this proverb the pharisee and the publican are the same human. They are different aspects of our relation to God and to sin.
Everything, even sin, has positive aspects. A positive aspect of sin is that it makes people different. I think sinless angels follow the same standard but sinners don’t follow any standard. We will remain different than other people even after we will be completely saved.
So I thank God that I am different than other people. Many preachers teach that it is great to be unlike other people and we should thank God for this.
But we are more justified when we just remember that our sins require God’s mercy.
This is about us who trust in our mind that we are righteous in Christ.
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In childhood I was an atheist. I was taught evolution theory as an unquestionable truth.
Some time passed and I became a Christian. Yet I kept to believe in evolution theory. I was in a Baptist church and (with no reason, just to speak about something) said to a preacher from an other city: “It is great how evolution is described in the book of Genesis.” He said me back some standard creationists’ arguments (probably it was that “days” are literal days and that the plants could not be able to grow if they would wait yet millions years for appearance of light, as grass was created on the third day but the lights (including Sun) in expanse of the sky appeared only at the fourth day, and that death entered the world only after the sin of Adam whilst evolution is impossible without death).
After hearing these arguments I momentarily converted into a creationist. I’ve said like this: If Bible says it it is true, not matter what science teaches.
I keep to think this way: Bible is more authoritative than science for me. I believe Bible says truth and truth only not only on morality issues but on all kinds of topics, including science and history.
Thus I should be a creationist, yep? My further study of Bible has shown that in Bible there are probably more arguments pro evolution rather than counter evolution.
By and large, creationists have only one serious argument: the “days” in Genesis are literal days. But it can be for example about so to say “galactic days”: more stars near the Earth is day, less stars is night. Such days may long hundreds of millions of years and this apparently conform to the classic scientific theory. That God created the life on the Earth can be understood as the thing that God used evolution to create.
I reveal you a secret: Initially Old Testament was written without vowels. The vowels were inserted later by Jewish scholars. We can insert other vowels and get an other meaning of the text. And that other meanings may be equally credible as the usual translation of Bible. Again: The meaning of Bible was restricted by Jewish tradition, and there are more meanings of the text. You can study Old Testament without vowels at this wiki site. (Don’t only read but also add your own translations! At that site it is explained how to interpret Hebrew text without vowels and you don’t need to become an expert linguist for that. The grammar of Hebrew without vowels is quite easy to learn.)
I have explored first few chapters of Genesis. And I was surprised that it witnesses pro evolution. I’ve setup a wiki page where anyone can read others and add his own arguments pro or counter evolution.
Next it follows my current opinion on evolution from literal biblical positions.
Here are some quotes from my alternative (that is without vowels) translation of Bible, which seem to support evolution:
(Gen. 1:11) “Earth will sprout green plants producing descendant, fruit tree making fruit for its kind making progress of his offspring in it on the Earth”.
(Gen. 1:25) “God has made relatives on the Earth by their kind” (if it is translated correctly, different kind of species are called relatives by Bible).
(Gen. 1:29) “grass offspring bearing seed making progress on the surface of the entire Earth, and all trees making progress in their seed of the tree, offspring bearing seed”.
(Gen. 1:31) “God saw his deal all (time) making advance” (becoming better).
(Gen. 2:4) says about “generations” during God’s creation what may imply existence of death and thus evolution.
Gen. 1:11 is especially strong: It says that trees are descendants of grass. It is what is commonly called macro-evolution.
It is also difficult for creationists to explain, how predators and parasites have appeared.
I maybe convinced or not convinced you that Bible teaches that there was the evolution. But you anyway should accept as I show below that Bible teaches that we should resist against the death.
What does acceptance of the evolution theory changes in the practices of Christian life? If the theory of evolution is true, then the creation is not finished yet. And this means that we should use science to fight with imperfection of the creation: cancer, death, ecological problems, etc.
Are people descendants of monkeys?
At first it could seem “NO!” for a believing reader of Bible:
(Gen. 2:7) “God Yahweh has formed Adam pulverized from soil and breath into his nose living spirit, and Adam became a living soul.”
Reading it looks like a case of direct (non-evolutionary) creation.
However I see no reason to assume that Gen. 2:7 describes a quick event. May the event described in Gen. 2:7 longs for millions years? Why not? If the evolution theory is true, humans were created from atoms of the soil breathing oxygen, exactly as described in Bible.
So, does anything in Bible contradict to the theory that people are monkeys’ descendants?
However, it is quite likely that some biotechnology of God (or an advanced civilization used by God) was used to transform monkeys into people. Why has God used a biotechnology, not direct creation? We do not know.
Bible disagrees with modern science about the time period (as investigated by radiocarbon dating) of existence of man. But this can be easily explained by the fact that before the Flood the atmosphere of the Earth was different (so producing different quantities of carbon isotopes) and thus radiocarbon dating produces wrong results when analyzing events before the Flood. (Yes, I believe in the Flood over the entire Earth. It is described in errorless Bible and can’t be false.)
You may ask: what’s about the first man, Adam? But first, why is it assumed that he was the very first man? And the second, it is necessary to consider someone from the people as the first full rights person.
(Deut. 30:19-20) “19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live: 20 That you may love the LORD your God, and that you may obey his voice, and that you may hold to him: for he is your life, and the length of your days: that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” Did God say choose death? He said: choose life.
(Heb. 2:14-15) “14 For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Who has the power of the death? The devil! We must rebel against the devil and not submit to him.
So, I myself intend to take the remedy for old age, as soon as I have the opportunity. By the way, as I understand it, you need to take it only once and it will act all your life, because it changes a person’s genetics.
And do not be afraid on this about “mark of the beast”. Obviously, the mark of the beast is a microchip, not a pill.
The devil created snakes and scorpions: (Luk. 10:18-19) “18 And he said to them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. 19 Behold, I give to you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Somebody may ask: what’s about the fact that snakes play an important role in the ecosystem? does the devil do good? This is the devil’s favorite way of work: embed your evil element into the system so that it is very difficult to extract without destroying the system.
So the devil created the death from old age, a very important mechanism of evolution. How the evolution can continue without the death? Be sure, God has other variants, such as exchange of genes on the cellular level or even evolution under human control. After all, the evolution of single-celled creatures occurred without death from old age.
The big brain arose as an evolutionary means of fighting the temptations of the devil. To simply control the body, the big brain is not very necessary, it is needed to combat temptations. Even trees have intelligence and can communicate with each other (probably, chemically):
(Judg. 9:8-15) “8 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said to the olive tree, Reign you over us. 9 But the olive tree said to them, Should I leave my fatness, with which by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, Come you, and reign over us. 11 But the fig tree said to them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? 12 Then said the trees to the vine, Come you, and reign over us. 13 And the vine said to them, Should I leave my wine, which cheers God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? 14 Then said all the trees to the bramble, Come you, and reign over us. 15 And the bramble said to the trees, If in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.”
Not with the simple ancient people communicated with the trees and asked for forgiveness when they were cut. However, this may take on perverted forms: (Jer. 3:6) “The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.”
It’s written, that the creation felt into bondage of corruption: (Rom. 8:16-23) “16 The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope, 21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” And this means that the creation (animals, trees, etc.) not always were submit to corruption that is missing sense and mind. When there is no temptations, even animals with smaller brain would be able to be very smart. They wait when their mind will be free from corruption and they will become free again.
Obviously, I am against the attempts of transhumanists to interbreed the human and animals, for example to give us infrared vision from the snakes, because the Bible says (Lev. 19:19) “You shall not let your cattle engender with a diverse kind: you shall not sow your field with mingled seed.” I don’t know why this is disallowed by the Bible; maybe not to upset the balance of the ecosystem.
If people will succeed to build an artificial intelligence comparable at least with our fallen human mind, how may this end? Most likely, it also will fall into temptation and become stupid like as people and animals became stupid. Hackers call this DoS attack, when they are seeking that a computer would be overloaded and become so to say “stupid”. The devil wants that everybody could be stupid.
Who has more troubles: righteous or sinner?
Righteous should have less problems, because God helps him, right? Or do righteous have more troubles because they are attacked more by the devil?
(Psalms 34:19) “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivers him out of them all.”
There are more troubles with the righteous, but they are overcome.
Note that this also applies first to the Jesus himself.
Proverbs 18:22 “Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of the LORD.”
This means that the Kingdom of Heavens provides “family capital”, blessing a couple when it’s married just like as some countiries on the Earth pay money to a mother when she gives birth to a child.
Some theological thoughts. Not sure if I am quite right about this.
Bible demonstrates the following two similar concepts:
How can we be both on the Earth and on the heaven? My proposed answer is the following: There is some one-to-one correspondence (a mathematician would say “bijection”) between us on the Earth and heavenly creatures. That is every detail of our human body corresponds to some part of a heavenly creature and vice versa.
I think, this “correspondence” appeared as a result of the following: Heavenly createtures seeking a way to save us from sin (see also this my sermon), think how to do it. The one who thinks about a human is a giant smart heavenly creature. I think Bible calls such a creature “spirit of a man”. Spirit is much more smart than our brain. But the behaviour of such a heaveny spirit is fully determined by behaviour of its man. That is the spirit of a man is the human body “translated” to the heaven.
The same applies to Christ. Christ in the heaven is an image of His human body, as said in (Col. 2:9) “For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily”. Everything of God is an image of his human body.
(1Cor. 6:9) “Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither … nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind”. So at first, it may seem that homosexuals go to the hell. But we know more important principle that salvation is by faith, not by deeds. I suppose that people with broken hormones are to be considered rather “people of third sex” rather as these who are called “unrighteous” here by the Bible. It seems to go to the hell a regular man who decides to experiment and have sex partners of same sex because it is his conscious decision. It seems that Paul writing this did not know about hormones (but this does not make God’s word false.)
Homosexuals are an error of the nature (but the way, see my views about evolution).
I was going to write “I do not approve same sex marriage, but…”, but unexpectedly for myself I thought: It may be better if they as they say “marry” and have a persistent partners than to change partners and distribute HIV.
It is not about selecting the best alternative, but about selecting one of the bad alternatives.
Also, for example, I was a maniacal killer before conversion to Christ. I am sure God can heal a homosexual, too. Probably, no more wonder of healing a homosexual than of healing a maniacal killer.
(Matthew 5:20) “For I say to you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
I am a “scribe”. This mean that I write (Christian and other) books. The modern word for “scribe” may be “book author”.
The words of Christ mean that if one writes correct theological books (even speaking correctly on the topic of salvation), this does not warrant his salvation. The faith needs to be manifested by the life.
It is confirmed by
(James 2) “19 You believe that there is one God; you do well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20 But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 See you how faith worked with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23 And the scripture was fulfilled which said, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24 You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”
The salvation depends on faith only not on deeds (and who say otherwise has no right to be called a Protestant), but the faith is true only when it is manifested by deeds. In the example of Abraham, he was justified by the fact that he did a certain deed (agreeing to sacrifice his son) accordingly the faith he had that God may resurrect him even if he got killed.