Friday, April 9, 2021

ON SKEPTICISM

  Skepticism is based on doubt. Skeptics must be convinced with tangible proof that things are as they are claimed to be. Of course, science accepts inferential statistics — data that infers, or implies, hypotheses, or preconceptions. Proof of things past or things unseen is evidence, and not proof. Hence proof is unobtainable. The existence of the cosmos and life (things seen) is evidence of things unseen. [i]

  Skeptics reject that tangible evidence even though the cosmos had to originate somewhere by Someone with a most excellent plan. Hence “faith” has substance and is the evidence that satisfies the skepticism of the Christian.

  Skeptics accept inferential statistics, but all the while ignore absolute truths. Since nobody alive has seen history, then historical evidence is accepted by skeptics but only of it is secular history. They reject Judeo-Christian history outright and consider it mythology. Many skeptics even deny that Jesus ever lived, let alone that He still lives.

  A hurdle that a Christian must get over is that Christianity is by faith alone and that science is proven. “Faith is the evidence of things not seen.” [ii] Science is the evidence of things that are seen, measurable, or calculatable. Scientific tests hypotheses by rejecting the null of the hypotheses. Evidence and tests are used to reject the null.

  Although scientists claim there is no God (the hypotheses) the null (that there is a God) has never been scientifically rejected. The “evidence” is inconclusive, but naïve or biased people accept that there is no God. The exceptions to that are Albert Einstein who determined that God created, as well as Michio Kaku, who concluded the same thing.

  Christianity is based on several things; among them are (1) There is God, (2) God generated all things, (3) as such God can regenerate all things, (4) God wants that none should perish because of His Good Will toward His creatures, (5) That God made himself seen as evidence of His Existence, and (6) that God sacrificed His own Flesh to redeem His kind. God’s kind are those created and born again in His Image.

  Jesus is tangible proof that there is a God. The evidence is that He died and came back to live, and after over two-thousand years, still believe that He is alive. The evidence for that is in both history and depositions made by many credible people who were witnesses to the evidence.

  The strength of the evidence lies in the fact that none of the apostles, even Judas, recanted of their words. All the eleven apostles suffered and died rather than deny the Truth.

  God claimed to be the Alpha and Omega; the Beginning and the Ending. [iii] God laid claim to that Existence from the start, to wit: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1). Many have challenged that, but all have failed. That God created all things has never been rejected by evidence but always by hyperbole or outright deception.

  Why would anyone reject God? After all, He has shown that He Is Good, He is Love, and that He has a perfect plan for mankind. Why is that so objectionable that people both hate Him for it and His followers as well?

  The answer to that lies in the Word: “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts” (Prov 22:2). That notion is emphasized several times: Deut 12:8, Jud 17:6, and Jud 21:25. Not only those sources, but from Satanists themselves: “Do what thou wilt; that is the whole law” (Anton LeVey). Who and what stands in the way of hedonism? God and truth. Pagans reject God and Truth because both interfere with doing whatever they desire to do.

  Those who are blind to the truth reject evidence. That can even be seen today! As order in the world is sucked down the drain, this is not the first time. In Noah’s day, the order of the world — disorder — was physically sucked down the drain.

  Doubters challenged God to perform a Great Miracle, so He did! He used science, or their own philosophy, to perform miracles — those things that deviate from the known laws of nature. (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) — or the supernatural.

  The key word in that definition is “known.” Up to the time of Noah, the Earth was watered by a mist from below. [iv] That is evidence! Before the rain, rain was unknown. It rained although rain was an unnatural event. That Noah would build a ship in case it rained was scoffed at!

  Would you have scoffed? Less so because you know what rain is because you have seen it rain. That was not the case while Noah was building the Ark, but God said it would rain and it rained for forty-days. Near the end, there surely was no one left who would scoff!

  Now look into the future: The Word says that in the end, things will be as in the days of Noah: “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Luke 17:26). It shall rain again at the end-of-days. God has provided evidence that He is capable of that; He has done it before: “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven” (Gen 19:24). Sodom and Gomorrah were real cities and people lived there. Archeological evidence is that those cities were real cities.

  They, however, now lie perished in a sea of salt. The evidence is that God can and did rain fire, and that He will do it again during the apocalypse, as He says, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Pet 3:10).

  Why do people not worry about that? Because they do not believe Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed that way. What evidence is there in modern history? Hiroshima and Nagazaki were destroyed by rain from “heavy water” — hydrogen bombs. God used a natural event for that — hatred for one people for another — and He will use the same process for it in the end!

  That the world will be destroyed by raining did not perturb the wicked ones in Noah’s time and it does not today with things the same as in the time of Noah. The nature of man that God intended now tends toward the unnatural. Now, as in the days of Noah, gender has no significance in the eyes of the world. They flaunt their deviations for all to see without inhibition.

  Sin has even been legalized so that the wicked ones can do what they want to do without interference. With the unnatural becoming the “new natural” it is now the time for God to make it natural again. The rain is coming! The sky will fall.

  If the threat of a rain of fire does not put fear into the hearts of people, neither does eternal punishment:

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Rev 21:8)

  The first part of that passage describes things in the end that are the same as in the days of Noah. The second part is a warning — it will rain fire! A lake that does not now exist, will, when it fills with fire and brimstone just as with Sodom and Gomorrah. Those sinful cities were a harbinger for things to come! Be sure, the evidence has been demonstrated that it can rain fire, and the forecast is for when conditions are ripe, it will rain fire!

  Now consider Noah’s day again: (KEY VERSE) “The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Gen 7:11). Few people believe that happened.

 The evidence is there but it is denied. Whale fossils (evidence) have been found on high mountains. One particular case was this one: “A Well-Preserved Whale Fossil Has Been Discovered on a California Mountain” (Dvorsky, George; Gizmodo; 9/22/15).

  A geologist, proclaiming the majesty of a mountain, told me, “It is a wonder that a high mountain was raised from the seas.” To that I replied, “Or the seas once raised above this high mountain!” He was speechless, and I assume that he had never thought of that.

  The key verse is scientific… now. The whoremongers of Noah’s time were having too much fun to consider truth. It was laughable that they should worry about water from the Earth drowning them when they were so busy a whoring. Those early “scientists” had never seen rain, nor had they experienced a tsunami before, so how could that be?

  There was no known evidence of a such an event before, so for them it would be a miracle. It was a rational, natural disaster in reality, and not a miracle, but God made it so; He Willed there to be rain and water from the deep and it was so! The miracle was not rain and water from below, but that God made it come about for His purposes. He will destroy the whole Earth again and God will Will it to rain fire.

  Perhaps hydrogen bombs (heavy water) and/or other nuclear material that is unknown today will rain fire to destroy the Earth. Perhaps even meteors will rain on the Earth and scorch the surface of all things. God will do it His Way, and nothing can intercede except if the world change. It did not in the time of Noah, and it will not in the last days.

  In those days, tsunamis were unknown and so was rain. Because the budding “scientists” had never witnessed rain, nor experienced tsunamis, they excluded them from reality? Only recently were what once were thought as “sea waves” or “seismic activity” called tsunamis. Because they were never called that or seen so horrendously before, did not make the flood in Japan unreal! Indeed, the coasts were washed clean with the unusual force and speed of “water from hell!”

  The world was going about its business when the unexpected occurred. If they had been told what was about to happen would they have prepared for it? Surely a few, but whoever realized the terrible impact that would occur? Well, it was even less obvious in Noah’s time.

  In His own Words, God promised rain and a tsunami — “The fountains of the great deep (were) broken up.” But there was no evidence of fountains beneath! How could that be? Something was about to happen that had never happened before.

  Neither scientists, nor most of you, ever believed that water deluged the Earth over high mountains. In fact, many doubted that could happen because water on the Earth is a closed system. Even Job knew that: “For He maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly” (Job 36-27-28). Just where would the water emerge? From the Earth. Many Jews believe that the abyss beneath the Foundation Stone beneath the Dome of the Rock are the source of that water and the “valve” that opened and closed.

  Rain existed since Noah’s time, but the hydrologic cycle was not discovered until the 19th century AD! Did the hydrologic cycle not exist because science never understood it? Well, the same goes with the “miracles” in the Bible. For skeptics, they could not have happened because scientists had not experienced them. As such, science must continually adjust their knowledge based on new information, which makes science lack continuity. On the other hand, God never changes. It is His Story (history) and He will never alter it because it is absolute truth!

  The new knowledge came out just a few years ago; that about 400 miles beneath the Earth there is a great ocean capable of holding three to four times more water than on the surface of the Earth. After all those years, science discovered what Noah saw. Even with the evidence, skeptics still do not believe the flood account, and although Hiroshima and Nagasaki had fire rained on them, they cannot believe that the whole Earth will someday.

  Only a few believe that God created the Earth. Credit must be given to Einstein and Kaku for accepting the truth about creation. Now, only of they will accept the truth that God came to Earth and died so that they would not. But that is “fantastical;” rational people would never accept that God walked the Earth, although thousands saw Him and the evidence is in the Bible… and even in the writings of Josephus. The centurion, Longinus, saw and believed, and letters that Pontius Pilate wrote to Caesar showed that he believed.

  Anyone that would encounter Jesus, “Would see Jesus” (John 12:21). Why would anyone want to see Jesus? Because they would see God face to Face! Jesus told Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Noah sensed the Father with his ears. Hearing the Father is witnessing the Word, Jesus. [v]

  Perhaps even the “Carpenter” not only provided the plans to the Ark [vi] but was the Master Tradesman who gave Noah the skills of a carpenter and worked with His new “apprentice.”

  Then, when the carpentry was done, God turned husbandman, [vii] as the Jack-of-all-trades; and guided the animals into the Ark. The skills of God never cease to amaze Christians! God created, regurgitated water, and floated hope, and all the while was Carpenter and Keeper!

(picture credit: Effectual; "Real Time Logging of Tsunami...")


 



[i] Heb 11:1

[ii] Heb 11:1

[iii] Rev 1:8

[iv] Gen 2:6

[v] John 1

[vi] Gen 6

[vii] John 15:1

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