The City Of The Future

For the past week plus I've been on the road and unable to find the time to post another blog. I face yet another week of traveling before settling back in my familiar haunts. All this reminds me that life itself is a journey. That is exactly what the Bible says as well.

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. —Hebrews 13:12-15

The sacred writer reminds us that Jesus was rejected by the religious and political establishment of His day. He was murdered through the manipulation of power and greed. And all this was so that He might make us holy in the sight of God. Therefore, we are motivated to follow Him. Step away from the pettiness and emptiness of this world and focus on that to come. "We have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come."

This is not to say that we are to reject this wondrous creation. What the writer speaks about is a city. Wikipedia defines a city in this fashion:

A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law. 

Most of us live or are directly linked to the cities of this world. We travel between them, do our business in them and often find our recreation there. The temptation we face is to assume that this is where we live. But the writer reminds us that we have and can have no permanent cities. They and the humans who inhabit them are under the judgment of a righteous God. The Apostle Paul puts it this way,

. . . we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.      —2 Corinthians 4:18

I live in the suburbs of one of the world's great cities, Houston, Texas. I've lived here for over four decades. Many things have changed during that time. Many things are transient. We've suffered through three hurricanes, numerous floods and tornadoes. We've seen many accidents, much crime and suffering. The economics have changed. Whatever Houston stands for around the world—NASA, big Oil, transportation, etc. —is also changing. It's all transient.

What's permanent? The city to come. And so I'll pack up my belongings, bundle us into our car and move on. Lots of travel ahead of us in the next week. And then one day, I'll simply leave it all behind, even this old body and move ahead to the city to come. Hope to see you there.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." Rev. 21:1-5

 

Where Shall We Live?

The sainted Ray Stedman continues his ministry through the Ray Stedman website and the organization that publishes his writings and a series of daily devotions. I appreciate what Ray taught and feel very close to him because of them. Here's what Ray says about the many rooms in the Father's house (John 14:1-14): 

 We must ask, "What is the Father's house?" Most of us take this to mean heaven, for heaven is usually viewed as the place where God dwells, but "heaven" is a very vague term. If we let Scripture interpret Scripture (as good expositors should) we would perhaps refer to a passage in the last chapter of Isaiah, where God says, "Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool," (Isaiah 66:1). This implication is clear that God dwells in the entire universe; that this vast cosmos, of which we are but a tiny part, is the Father's house. "In it," Jesus declares, "are many rooms." The word in Greek for "rooms" really means 'a place to live.' This word appears but twice in the New Testament, here and in Verse 23 of this same chapter. In that verse Jesus says, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

 The question of 'a place to live' is one that has occupied my wife and me for some time. You see, by God's grace and utmost generosity, we have the privilege of two houses we may call home, one in Texas and one in Colorado. I write these words from our Colorado house where we have lived for the past month. To this time, we've not considered this house our 'home', but rather our 'vacation home' where we come for a few weeks before returning 'home' to Texas. We're rethinking where we should live. Should we continue to move back and forth between two houses or finally sell one and settle down once and for all either in Colorado or in Texas? And yes, I know, it is a rare privilege to have two houses.

Regardless of how this all works out, the words of our Lord in John 14 are a great comfort to each one of us who believe in Him—especially for those of us who may not even own one house, let alone two. In all this vast creation, our Lord has a special place reserved just for me. He who has already set up house in my heart (John 14:23), has a plan and a place where He plans for me to be. He has reserved it for me by His cross and resurrection. He has prepared that 'room', that dwelling place, that house, that mansion where He wants me to serve Him forever and ever.

In Christ I have a purpose and a destiny. When I get there I will know with certainty that I have come home! This finally will be my place to live forever. I can hardly wait to get home. As the Apostle Paul said, "My desire is to depart and be with Christ" (Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8; 2 Timothy 4:6).

Design or Chance—You Decide

Yesterday I began a series of blogs to alert  you to the ongoing debate between scientists and philosophers who believe in the process of evolution known as natural selection and those who believe in intelligent design. Before going further, it is vital that we distinguish between micro-evolution and macro-evolution. Basically micro means small and macro means large. Scientists suggest that change beyond the species level is a result of a series of small changes within the species. The idea is that birds with feathers are related to a type of dinosaurs who changed gradually over millennia.


In his book Evolution, Mark Ridley defines the terms thus:

Macroevolution means evolution on the grand scale, and it is mainly studied in the fossil record. It is contrasted with microevolution, the study of evolution over short time periods, such as that of a human lifetime or less. Microevolution therefore refers to changes in gene frequency within a population .... Macroevolutionary events are much more likely to take millions of years. Macroevolution refers to things like the trends in horse evolution ... or the origin of major groups, or mass extinctions, or the Cambrian explosion .... Speciation is the traditional dividing line between micro- and macroevolution. (2004: 227)

It is not my intent to explain in detail why Christians have difficulty with macroevolution, especially when talking about the origin of humans. I simply point to two books, one that says we Christians have no problem with evolution and another that says Christianity and evolution are incompatible, because they represent two conflicting world views.

We've all seen charts in textbooks and museums like the following. The operating assumption is that the line of descent between ape and man is a proven scientific fact.

This is what Francisco J. Ayala, an ordained Roman Catholic priest and professor of biology, states in his book Am I A Monkey - Six Big Questions About Evolution,

The "missing link" is no longer missing. The fossil from Java was the first one, but hundreds of fossil remains belonging to hundreds of individual hominids have been discovered in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in Africa, Asia, and Europe and continue to be discovered at an accelerated rate. (Kindle location 92)

...a large amount of genetic material—about 3 percent, or some 90 million DNA letters—has been inserted or deleted since humans and chimps initiated their separate evolutionary ways, 6 to 7 million years ago. (Kindle location 152)

For Ayala there is no conflict between evolution and the Christian faith. He quotes Pope John Paul II in an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Oct. 22, 1996: "New scientific knowledge has led us to realize that the theory of evolution is no longer a mere hypothesis" (Kindle location 655-62). Evolutionary science explains how things happened. Religion leads us to praise the Creator who has put the process of evolution into place. The two operate in distinct fields of knowledge. They do not conflict with one another. Read his book for a more complete statement of his beliefs.

Now back to William Demski and Jonathan Witt in Intelligent Design Uncensored. I referred to them in my blog just prior to this one. They demonstrate that macroevolution simply cannot and does not happen. For humans to evolve from monkeys, genes must have mutated to build significant amounts of new functional information. As Ayala says, "some 90 million DNA letters have been inserted or deleted since humans and chimps" went their separate evolutionary ways—or did they? Demski and Witt point out that this kind of thing does not happen on the cellular level. They point to recent studies of the common bacterium E. coli, found in human stomachs. These experiments indicate that it is "easier for evolution to break things than make things" (Kindle location 707). Mutations generally do not work. The new information needed to make a new species (monkeys become man) cannot come from mutated genes. Mutations bring changes, but add no new needed information.

Their point: if the creation of new DNA information does not happen at the micro level of the cell, it certainly cannot happen on the macro level so that one species becomes an entirely new species, even allowing for millions of years to pass. For the development of new DNA information on the cellular level there had to be an Intelligent Designer at work. Therefore monkeys did not turn into humans, regardless of how many millions of years you give them and their DNA randomly to change. That 3 percent difference says it all.

Think about the implications. The science is not there. Macroevolution faces some huge difficulties. The old assumptions do not work, in spite of what Professor Ayala, Pope John Paul II and many others say. It's time to take another look at Intelligent Design. It's time to realize that our Creator is intimately at work in everything that is. The Apostle John puts it this way as he speaks about Christ,

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17). 

 

Must We Choose Either Darwin Or God?

In an article from Scientific American about a geneticist ordained as a Dominican priest, Francisco J. Ayala, we read,

"But Ayala thinks that scientists who attack religion and ridicule the faithful—most notably, Richard Dawkins of the University of Oxford—are making a mistake. It is destructive and gives fodder to the preachers who insist followers must choose either Darwin or God. Often students in Ayala’s introductory biology class tell him that they will answer test questions as he wishes, but in truth they reject evolution because of their Christian beliefs. Then, a couple of years later, when they have learned more science, they decide to abandon their religion. The two, students seem to think, are incompatible."

This question troubles me greatly. I've spoken to many students and scientists who struggle with the issue as well. Is Darwinian evolution compatible with the Christian faith? William Demski, writing in Intelligent Design Uncensored, thinks it is not. I summarize what he writes in a chapter titled "The Poison of Materialism."


Darwinian evolution operates under the principle that the material world is all there is. The so-called process of "natural selection" working by random selection has produced all the species there are on this planet. All that was needed (note: "all") were millions and millions of tiny steps over millions of generations. Natural selection plus random variation does the work of designing every plant, bug or animal there is on Earth. There is no need for God or a Grand Intelligent Designer.


What follows in this materialistic worldview touches us humans as well. We are not made in the image of God. We are not embodied spirits. We are nothing more than highly advanced animals who have evolved from lower forms of life. To quote Demski,

"By undermining belief in God, materialism undercut our view of humans as well. According to materialism, humans aren't made in the image of God. At bottom, humans are just a collection of atoms, a messy bundle of instincts and urges without higher purpose or significance. Ideas like free will, personal responsibility and even the intrinsic value of human life have no place in a materialistic worldview." (Kindle edition location 848-850)

There is a direct link between materialism and the eugenics movement, especially the Nazi worldview. Since we are nothing more than the result of a random selection we have no responsibility to any Creator. All our decisions are ultimately the product of natural forces. The most important thing is the survival of our species. The strong are the master race that must make such decisions. That is the ultimate good. The strongest must decide for the weakest. The flawed, the lower races, the sick, the imperfect, the old and the useless must be eliminated for the good of the master race. This is, after all, the survival of the fittest. There is no God. There is no need for God. Humans are their own god. They define what is good and right, not God.


Professor Ayala, quoted above, thinks that it is possible to reconcile these two worldviews. It is possible to be both a Christian and a materialistic evolutionist. He has written a book recently, Am I A Monkey? - Six Big Questions About Evolution. It is available also in the Kindle edition. I'm reading to see how he answers these questions.


Check back with you later. 

Even The Flowers Proclaim God's Word

As planned, we made it to Yankee Boy Basin, outside of Ouray, Colorado in the great San Juan mountains. The flowers are a little late this year, but they have certainly begun to bloom in their glory. Below are a few of the snaps I took after our Jeep reached the basin. I cannot begin to describe the vistas around us. Today, however, I'll simply share a few images of the flowers that grow up there in abundance and add a couple comments. If I've mis-identified, I welcome corrections. 

Yellow Monkey Flower

Mountain Bluebells

 Buttercups

Columbine

Here are a few passages from God's Word to meditate upon as we consider the wondrous beauty of the mountain flowers. 

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you,even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? - Matthew 6:28-30

As a lily among brambles,
   so is my love among the young women. . .
for behold, the winter is past;
    the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
   the time of singing has come - Song of Solomon 2:2,11-12

As for man, his days are like grass;
   he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
   and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him - Psalm 103:15-17 

Yankee Boy Basin And All The Mountains

David Carriere created this photographic image of Yankee Boy Basin. You can order it from him. That's where we're heading today—to the top of the San Juan Mountains, outside Ouray, Colorado. What a privilege. I can only wish for you that you were with us. This image will give you some idea of why we love the mountains of Colorado.

Mountains play an important part in the stories of the Bible. I found a site listing major Bible Mountains. For instance, Moses met the Lord and received the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai.

 Join us and the thousands who made their way to Mt. Zion and the Temple to sing the Song of Ascents, Psalm 121—

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help [cometh] from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD [is] thy keeper: the LORD [is] thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

We Are Indeed One Nation Under God

Today is big here in Pagosa Springs, Colorado where Sylvia and I are spending our summer. On Friday we ate lunch with a bunch of senior citizens at the Archuleta County Grey Wolves Center. Before lunch we stood to face the flag and pledge our allegiance. Today we'll watch a parade through downtown and later fireworks near the high school's playing field. We'll all feel patriotic and on our lips will be a prayer for God to bless America.


You possibly know that the Pledge of Allegiance was written back in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister. He read it at the Boston public schools' celebration of Columbus Day. His original pledge read,

'I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.'

In 1954, as our nation struggled with atheistic communism and the 'cold' war, Congress added the words "under God" in a bill that was signed into law. In 2002  Michael Newdow,  a physician with a law degree, made an attempt to eliminate the phrase. It remains in the official pledge, however, due to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling overturning a decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. On March 12, 2010, in a 2-1 ruling, the same 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said no federal law requires students to recite the pledge or the religious reference in it.Thus the phrase does not violate a citizen's right to be free of a state-mandated religion.


Anyone is thus free to include the words 'under God' in his/her pledge. The law of our land does not demand it, however. I sense that most of us here in Pagosa Springs will speak the words regardless of the recent controversy. 

As a Christian, I ask, what the phrase "one nation under God" means to me. I turn to one of several Bible verses. The Apostle Paul writes,

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. (Romans 13:1-7 - ESV)

 The apostle thus reminds us that we have this great land and its government because God put it in place for our well being. His hand has guided and directed us to where we are this day. The government of this nation derives its authority from our Creator and God. As Paul says, every ruler is "God's servant for your good" and "minister of God." So my conscience is bound to obey my rulers and the laws they pass unless they clearly disobey the commands of God. In that event, I must obey God rather than man (Acts 5:17-42). Thus I believe in the phrase "one nation under God" and will pray for my nation. 


If you are a believer in God's mercy in Jesus Christ, I humbly invite you to join me on this and any other day to speak the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and include the phrase, "one nation under God."