Human Resource: Cog in a Machine

The term human resource makes man out to be a mere expendable machine. He is nothing more than a cog in a machine.  This mentality is why we immediately start asking people for something without even acknowledging their humanity (that is being made in the image of God). Instead of at least saying hello, we just rattle off a list of demands. No 'thank you' or 'you're welcome'.  After all, I don't say 'thank you' to my computer when it works, so, assuming that people are merely evolved machines, why should I acknowledge those more complex machines we call human beings?

When man abandoned the Biblical worldview, he left himself in a state of misery.  In his attempt to become liberated from God and live in autonomous indulgence, he diminished his value to nothing.  Before, he was created in the image of God; now he is but an expendable part that is worthless once it cannot produce any more. This is the end of evolution: a black hole of despair, which is the focal point of government education.

However, God does sit on the throne, and man does have value because he is made in the image God. Therefore, show respect to those around you by acknowledging their presence before giving them a laundry list of things you 'need' them to do.

In saying that, it is a reminder that our loyalty must be towards God, His Church, and our families first. All else tends to view man as a mere machine.  Truly, will your corporation or government employer be there for comfort when you are in ailing health or on your death bed?  No, so be careful where your highest loyalty and commitment lies.

Independence In Perspective

American Independence has been treasured for generations, though there is very little of it left.  Most of America was once an assembly of independent homesteads.  However, they were not totally independent because man cannot provide everything himself. 

Truthfully, rugged individualism can become idolatrous when God is not recognized as the Ultimate Provider. Though man was created to be creative and to do things for himself on a broad spectrum, only God can cause the sun to rise and the rain to fall.

In the New: Death of Christopher Hitchens

Prominent evolutionist Christopher Hitchens has died. He was an ardent anti-Christian, yet he was still a man made in the image of God.  Though we do not endorse his message, we do mourn his unrepentant heart, unless there was a recent unknown conversion to Christ.  Today is the day of salvation, and no man knows the number of his days.  Let each man take heed, for our days our numbered as well.

It is always a sad commentary to see great intellect used for the ills of an evolutionary worldview, and Hitchens had a passion for the evolutionary worldview.

Ironically, every false worldview must steal from the Christian worldview in order to argue against it.  How?   The Christian worldview is the only worldview that possesses the preconditions for intelligibility.  What is that?  Preconditions are those conditions that come beforehand and intelligibility is the ability to make something meaningful and understandable.

The Triune God is the bedrock of meaning, knowledge, logic, ethics, etc.  Apart from Him, there is no such thing as these concepts or even the concept of a concept; it would be an illusion at best, which itself is a concept.  In this, we see that the non-Christian assumes the Biblical God and all that He accounts for in order to then argue against Him.  Van Til once wrote that this is like a father who must put his child on his knee in order for the child to slap his father in the face.  This is no different.

Man is totally depraved, and his suppression of the truth in unrighteousness is magnified by his unwillingness to submit to Him who is the foundation of all things, for man would rather die in unbelief, judgement, and inconsistency than surrender to God in Christ. What foolishness!

To Him be the glory! Amen!

The Great Divorce Remarried Part 2: Geology

A lot of water over a little time or little water over a long time?  

That was the geological hot-button in the late 18th century through the beginning of the 19th. Before the advent of uniformitarian thought in the West, most geologic structures in the Western Christianity were interpreted through a Young Earth & a recent Global Flood lens.  Though the specifics were not known, this was the general way of thinking because the people, including the scientists (like Newton), took the Bible as the ultimate authority source, especially during and after the Reformation.  Now they knew that the Bible did not go into detail on such issues, but the historical reality of the Flood would leave reminders.

However, as the Scripture was being attacked by humanistic thinking on theologic and philosophic grounds, it was also being attacked on historical grounds.  When the history of the Bible in Genesis was denied, a wide range of emerging scientific philosophies took root. The predominant view popularized by Charles Lyell in the 19th century was uniformitarianism. Uniformitarianism is the scientific model that the present is the key to the past--i.e. most geologic structures are formed slowly over eons of time.  However, Lyell was no mere unbiased objector of the truth.  On the contrary, not only was he a rabid anti-Christian, he pushed his philosophy of uniformitarianism with great veracity, and many people bought into it. Alleged great eons of time was now theoretically available to then push the molecules to man evolution, and this is exactly what spearheaded Darwinian thought several decades later. Macroevolution (molecules to man) was already being propagated, but Darwin could popularize the teaching because of Lyell's time scale.  

We deny that the earth is billions of years old and uphold the Global Flood because of our commitment to Scripture.  Nonetheless, how has this theory of uniformitarianism stacked up in the scientific community?  Not to our surprise, many evolutionary scientists themselves deny that the earth has come to be slowly one sand grain at a time by one drop of water at at time.  Though most of them believe the earth is old, due to other philosophic assumptions they make, they do acknowledge that the geologic layers are filled with catastrophe.  Mass fossil graveyards are interpreted as occurring through catastrophic events.  

We should not be surprised when we see evidence for a global catastrophe because that is exactly what is recorded in Scripture, primarily through the Genesis Flood.  We interpret such catastrophic layering, fossil formation, mountain building, and canyon erosion through the lens of Scripture.  Much of the upper level topography that we observe today is best interpreted as being caused by the Flood or by post-Flood events like the Ice-Age and subsequent smaller local scale catastrophes.  

As for geologic structures like the Grand Canyon, we can best understand them through Biblical glasses. Only the Scriptures give us a reliable lens to interpret the world, and, though our scientific models are modified at times, the general creation model itself is sustained by Scripture.  Though it is difficult do delineate exactly what may have been formed during creation week and what has been formed after that through the Flood, we can get a general idea.  Much of the upper layers of the canyon are formed through rapid sedimentation laid down by water.  We can see this through 'bent layering', which is to say that we see many layers flowing together and then bent in one or many directions while still soft.  This must of have occurred rapidly while soft; otherwise, the layers would have been crushed upon themselves. 

As for the canyon itself, it is likely that it formed after the layers had been laid down during the Flood. Sometime before and at the end of the Flood or most probably after the Flood, giant inland lakes once existed in that area (as understood through topographical scars of such lakes).  There was a breached dam of some sort, it appears, and this could have occurred at the end of the Ice Age.  As the glaciers began to melt, large quantities of water would fill these lakes by means of rivers and such.  Eventually the lakes would have overflowed, and a water pouring out by means of a massive catastrophic breached dam would have carved out the Grand Canyon.  

The Bible had it right all along! Amen!

Worldview Clash: The Wickedness of Marxism and its Opposition to Christianity

Marxism is fundamentally flawed in two ways. One is its core belief about man and the other is how it seeks to level the field of humanity into a classless society through class warfare.

Marxism assumes the inherent goodness of man, a noble savage of sorts.  It teaches that man is inherently good; it is his surroundings that corrupt him. Furthermore, private ownership is considered inherently evil.  Everyone is to share in the wealth and none are to have more than another, so it then right to desire from those who have more than oneself.  Man needs to redistribute the wealth and thus create a great eternal utopia.  Hence comes the motto: from each according to his ability and to each according to his need. 

What does the Bible say about this?

In the Bible, man is declared a sinner and cannot save himself.  He is wicked from the heart, and, though his surroundings do affect him, his sin is from conception, so he is held accountable before a Holy God. Marxism denies this because to accept this doctrine would destroy any hopes of a Marxist utopia, so the God of the Bible is thrown out totally.

Furthermore, Marxist philosophy is the pinnacle of breaking the 10th commandment not to envy.  Marxism does not honor the one who is successful; rather, it steals from the person who is successful and gives to the one who is envious.

Therefore, it should not surprise us to see that Marxism always fails because man is inherently sinful, and any attempt to divide the spoil equally will always result in a devastated economy.  Those who work hard will be taken advantage of by those who work little, and eventually the hard worker will likewise become slow of hand.

At this point, the only way to get men to work is by the sword, and this is enforced by the ruling elite who use brutality in the name of spreading the wealth in their quest of a classless utopia. Ironically, as this elite seizes power, their sin fuels their desire for more, and they become the oppressors themselves.  What foolishness!

What does the Bible say of private ownership and work.  It encourages work and each man receives the fruit of his labor, but greed and exploitation of labor are condemned.  However, when it comes to giving, we do not have the right as Christians to use the arm of the state to compel charity.  We only have the power to proclaim the gospel and let it take root in the heart of repentant men.

The answer then is not to envy those who have more; rather, we are to encourage honest labor and encourage those with wealth to give generously as He has blessed them.  Nevertheless, we are not to envy their wealth, lest we be ensnared by greed and idolatry.

Now, let us proclaim the gospel, and let Him who is King of kings of Lord of lords change the hearts of men to His glory! Amen!