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I am a born-again Christian, who is Reformed, but also charismatic, spiritually speaking. (I do not speak in tongues, but I believe glossalalia is a bona fide gift not given to all, and not as great as prophecy, for example.) I have several years of college education but only completed a two-year degree. I was raised Lutheran and confirmed, but I didn't "find Christ" until I was in the Army and responded to a Billy Graham crusade in 1973. I was mentored or discipled by the Navigators in the army and upon discharge joined several evangelical, Bible-teaching churches. I was baptized as an infant, but believe in believer baptism, of which I was a partaker after my conversion experience. I believe in the "5 Onlys" of the reformation: sola fide (faith alone); sola Scriptura (Scripture alone); soli Christo (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). I affirm TULIP as defended in the Reformation.. I affirm most of The Westminster Confession of Faith, especially pertaining to Providence.

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Old Earth, New Earth

 Contrary to popular interpretation, the Bible doesn’t say when the earth was created. It says merely, “In the beginning…” whenever that was, possibly billions of years or eons ago.  This isn't just a way to begin a story and it doesn't say, "Once upon a time!"  There is a possible gap between verses one and two of the chapter that could have taken this long. Note that a day with the LORD is not always twenty-four hours, such as the day of the LORD and the day of judgment.  The Bible only tells us the earth was created and who did it; namely, God. It wasn’t a fluke or accident and it didn’t evolve or create itself, impossible! 

Nothing can create or cause itself according to the law of cause and effect. Something has to be eternal for anything to exist because everything cannot have a beginning or be created, or there would be nothing now (out of nothing, nothing comes). God is seen as the First Cause or who got it all started. There can be an uncaused cause but not an uncaused effect. Since God is eternal, He can have no cause since then He would have a beginning. Everything that begins to exist has a cause; the universe began and therefore has a cause; most believably God.

The Bible assures us that even time had a beginning and was created by God as a corollary of space and matter. (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9 Titus 1:2). But don’t bet your soul on science getting it right because they have been wrong and cannot answer a lot of questions of the earth’s origin; science is know-how, not know-why. Genesis is not a science lesson and the Bible is not a scientific manual but a way to show us salvation and to know God.

There have been conflicts between science and the Bible before and the Bible has proven right. The theory of an eternal universe is untenable and it had a beginning: this implies a Beginner!  Soli Deo Gloria!

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