How Far We've Traveled!

Astronaut John Glenn said in a newspaper interview this week that there is no conflict between Christianity and evolution. How far we've traveled eh, Mr. Glenn. He's been in orbit and back, and that's a long way, but not nearly as far as the gulf between Christianity and evolution! An even further travel is where Christianity is today and where it was:

1Corinthinans 1:10 "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."

In the time of Paul there were three competing heresies with Christianity for the most part: Gnosticism, Simonism and the Nicolatains.  Let's take a look at these three in a few short words.

Gnosticism was the major threat. Those who believed that "secret knowledge" was required to be saved, proposed a different God and a different Jesus. The Creator God was materialistic and evil, which stemmed from the philosophy of  Plato. When Paul spoke in the Aeropagus this exchange took place:

Acts 17:18 "Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. 19 And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? 20 For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean."

It is said outright, and it appears that not only philosophy was peeking it's head through, but that some degree of gnosticism was already spreading. Jesus was the talk of the day and the key word here is "resurrection" in contrast to "an unknown God" which Paul accused them of worshiping!

Why is "resurrection" so important in contrast to gnosticism? It's because they believed that material was bad, the Creator God was bad because of the material world he created and that a being made of matter could not have died for the sins of mankind because, as a material human being, Jesus would have to be "bad". They believed that instead of a physical Jesus dying on the cross, it was a mere phantasm or illusion. Paul's teachings were to them "strange things".

Gnosticism was and still is, with their illusory Christ, undermining the truth of Jesus and who he was! Since the belief was centered around Jesus, it was palatable to even many Christians. This competitive religion was temporarily minimized through strong church teachings early on, but with the discovery of the Gnostic Gospels, it's again alive, well and thriving. The popular movie The Di Vinci Code recently revived gnostic thinking.

The second most prevalent teaching contemporary with Paul was Simonism. He was the magician who believed, but misunderstood:

Acts 8:9  "But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one:
10 To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.
13 Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.
18 And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money,
19 Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.
20 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.
21 Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God."

Before he believed Simon was already regarded as a great one and a disciple of God because of his sorcery which was used to bewitch the people. Jesus had followers because of his miracles. Simon was just like Pharoah's magicians. He did things which misled the people and he was in essence, a false Christ!

Simon believed and was baptized. Like most people today who claim Christianity, Simon did one of two things: 1) He either had an insincere belief and baptism, or else he went quickly into apostasy! If the former, then Simonism is "an insincere born-again experience" because even the demons believe. If the latter, it exemplifies that the devil still can attack and draw Christians away from the faith.

Later on early church writings tell of Simon traveling just as did Paul, but disputing the word of God, whereas Paul was teaching it. I truly believe that Paul's "thorn in the side" was Simon!

2 Corinthians 12:7-10: "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

(For more on this see my blog Paul's Thorn in the Flesh )

Regardless, Simonism was in direct conflict with Christianity and many people followed and believed in Simon, even as a disciple of Jesus Christ!

The last conflicting belief, of which I will comment, is the Nicolaitanes:.

Revelation 2:15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.

These were folks who believed the lies of the disciple Nicolas.  He brought the sins of Balaam into the early church. Simply put; fornication, adultery, deviate sex, orgies and their pimps were overlooked and allowed to be practiced freely among early Christians, victims of Roman morals. The Roman proverb,  "When in Rome do as the Romans do!" would be their mantra. As gnosticism has regained a foothold in the modern church the practice of the Nocolaitanes is again prominent in the modern church. God hates that doctrine!

Paul wanted them to all come back to the doctrine of Christ! "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" to be joined together without division. We are to put away conflicting and sinful doctrines!

Within the modern church the main heresy is "science". It started with The Enlightenment, and honestly speaking, the church had been too harsh on truth. However, that was the period when science began to take precedence over church doctrine! When that era came, many fallacies were corrected. The earth is round, the earth does revolve around the son, and many more truths became manifest when the curtain was lowered in the church.

However, over time, science has been taken to the extreme. The ruminations of dreaming scientists have been written into texts as truths and what is God's Law has been removed for no other than it contradicts popular thought. Scientists who disagree with popular scientific theory are censored and even ostracized. Science leaves little room for disagreement, and it's sad to say that scientists are more cohesive than are Christians, in their opposing belief system! Satan smiles as he organizes his grand army of his republic!  Science today is the same as the Inquisition was for the church in the dark ages!

This brings me back to John Glenn. This man is a Presbyterian and should know better. Beginning with the Reformation until recently that denomination was a bastion of Christian truth (albeit they're Calvinistic), but now today we see them quickly "biting the dust" of truth and spinning new doctrines. Evolution has two theories: within species and between species.

We accept the truth that plants and animals do change over time. We know that animals which live in dark places gradually acclimate to the use of different senses. Their color may even change due to lack of sunlight. However, with all these changes a transformed fish is still a fish!

On the other hand, evolutionists propose that one species changes into another. This is the faith that all life evolved from primordial soup, becoming amoeba, then multi-celled, on to birds, monkeys and us! I know it's hard to accept, based on what some people resemble, but mankind did not evolve from monkeys! It takes a leap of faith to believe that even though some monkeys appear to be smarter than the scientists who claim them as ancestors, monkeys are not our antecedents! However, the evidence is not that. It's anecdotal. Science cannot "prove" anything about our origins. They can only maintain it. It's a faith and a very powerful belief system at that. Even John Glenn believes himself to have monkey DNA!!!!

"We've come a long way, baby!" is more than a slogan. We've came along way since Paul preached against these divisions. God clearly states:

Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Why is this so hard to understand? Why do even Christians deny this claim. God said that he created it all, but clever Christians, such as John Glenn, have the audacity to call God a liar!  "How Far We've Traveled". If this was contended just a few years ago, Mr. Glenn would have been dismissed from fellowship. Nowadays even the preachers in these once faithful congregations teach humanistic "crap" (No offense to you intended, John Crapper)!

Matthew 12:30a  "He that is not with me is against me..."

John Glenn seems to be "against" God since he insinuates that God is a liar. Those against God are antichrists. There are many. My esteem for John Glenn lessened considerably when it became known that he is a Democrat, a party who stands for this "crap" (again, Mr. Crapper. I apologize).  Now he declares that his faith is in science; that although God says he is the Creator, Mr. Glenn credits "Chance", his new God with whom Christians cannot join together because "Chance" is not only irrational, but an "Unknown God". Yes, Mr. Glenn, "How Far We've Traveled"!