Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday (Update LXIX--Strong Delusion & Reprobate Minds)

We become God’s namesake when we are born into His house.  In my teenaged years, I played pony league baseball; in those days, my coach was Mr. Bogovich.  As an adult, I met my old coach once again.  I recognized him, but, due to the passage of time, he didn’t recognize me, so I introduced myself.  In the years since my pony league baseball days, I had surrendered my useless life unto Jesus Christ.  As is typical to the BORN AGAIN, I regularly looked for opportunities to evangelize in His name.  Sensing such an opportunity, I asked my former coach if he knew the meaning behind his surname (family name).  He didn’t, so I explained that -ovich in Russian and Slavic languages translates to “son of.”  Thus, Bogovich means “the son of Bog.” Now, the word “Bog” translates to God.  Therefore, Bogovich translates to “son of God.”  Coach Bogovich was pleasantly surprised, and remarked, “I guess I have a lot of living up to do.”

 Jesus reveals what Romans 16:25 calls “…the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,” to a ruler of the Jews, a man named Nicodemus, in John 3:3:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

At this place, which Jesus aptly calls BORN AGAIN, an individual is born a literal second time, this time of the Spirit of God, this time as a child of God.  In the Slavic tongue, child of God is called Bogovich.

Dear visitor, have you yet to be BORN AGAIN?  In just a few moments, I will invite you to follow me in a simple prompt, and if you do, today, you will become a child of God, and you will be called by His name. Today, all your sins and your shame will be washed away by Christ’s cleansing blood.  You will become a new creature.  Today, all of Satan’s bondages in your life will be broken.  You will be free. Today, your new birth certificate will be registered in the Lamb’s Book of Life. It all happens NOW—TODAY!  

Here is the prompt I promised: Click onto Further with Jesus for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. Click now!  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Genesis 1:1:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

GOD SAID, Exodus 20:11:

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

GOD SAID, Romans 1:28:

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

MAN SAID: Isn’t evolution awesome?! All of my questions are answered—and the answer is NOTHING!  I came from nothing, I’m going to do nothing with my life, and when I’m done with all my nothing on earth, I’ll go on to even more nothing when I’m dead!  Awesome, right?!

Now THE RECORD: Welcome to GodSaidManSaid feature 1189 that will once again contend for the marvels of the faith.  All of these Word-centric features are archived here in text and streaming audio for your edification and to be used as bait for the fishers of men.  Every Thursday evening, God willing, they grow by one.

Thank you for visiting.  Psalm 118:24:

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

All of this human experience began in Paradise, a place known as the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve, the father and mother of us all, quickly came to a crossroad: In the beginning, the only law they knew was given to them by God.  The Bible records these instructions in Genesis 2:16-17:

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Eve was the first to arrive at the crossroad.  Satan, in the form of the serpent, engaged Grandmother Eve in conversation in Genesis 3:1-6:

1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

In an act of unbelief and disobedience, Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and Adam followed her pernicious ways.  Immediately, the law of sin and death began its reign on the earth. 

The crossroad amounted to two ways, two choices of who to believe: 

1. Faith in and obedience to God’s Word—as a result, immortality, joy, and peace in Paradise.

2. Unbelief and disobedience—the results of which have been incalculable suffering, mortal death, and finally eternal, cognizant damnation. 

Since that time, the situation has not changed.  This spirit of unbelief is quite obviously displayed in the god of the academic world, which is the theory of evolution.

A foundational principle of evolution is the doctrine of uniformitarianism, which states that the present is the key to the past.  According to this teaching, the geology of the earth moves along at a steady, predictable, and uniform rate. Therefore, uniformitarians claim, if we look at the history we know and extrapolate backwards, we can estimate the age of the earth with relative accuracy.  …Right?

The believer and the unbeliever reviewing the same facts will come to opposite conclusions. 

The Bible records two very real geological events that nobody, not even a uniformitarian, would call “uniform.”  These two Biblically-recorded events can be proven to be accurate beyond any reasonable doubt, even to the finest detail.

UNIFORMITARIAN PROBLEM #1: If a uniformitarian had come across the earth just 15 minutes after the end of the sixth day of creation, that person would look around and assume age.  As a result of his ignorance of, and unbelief in, Holy Scripture, the uniformitarian most certainly assumes age.  That assumption leads to the creation of a mechanism, some concoction of unbelief necessary to assuage the mind and to escape the God alternative.  Yet, throughout all of the mental gymnastics the uniformitarian is performing, the earth, its lifeforms, its universe, all remain, at most, six days and fifteen minutes old. 

In his book Annals of the World, Bishop Ussher, writing in the 1600s, pegs the Beginning as being September 21, 4004 BC, using the Gregorian calendar still used today.  And it all starts on the evening of the first day, called Sunday.  The chronologies of Bishop Ussher are highly respected, and he is still considered one of the greatest scholars and theologians of his time.

Of course, no uniformitarian would call creation “uniform.”

UNIFORMITARIAN PROBLEM #2: Genesis declares a devastating global flood that destroyed all inhabitants of the dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils.  The only exceptions were those onboard Noah’s Ark.  The destruction extended to the earth’s trees and foliage, and it also came with a total remake of the earth’s topography. 

Of course, no uniformitarian would call an utterly world-destroying global flood “uniform.” 

The Bible declares a very clear YES on these two events—very real, very provable events—and nobody would call them “uniform.”

Did Noah and the flood happen?  Over 100 features on this site certify ABSOLUTELY.  Remember, there are fish and marine life fossils at the peak of every mountain and flood strata covers three-quarters of the earth’s surface.  Over 500 ancient, nonbiblical societal records all say yes to the Gensis account.  Here’s a just few headlines from major news outlets talking about the beginning of Chinese history:

📌 New York Times, August 4, 2016, under the heading “Scientific Evidence of Flood May Give Credence to Legend of China’s First Dynasty”

📌 NewScientist.com, under the title “First Evidence of Legendary Flood Reveals China’s Origin Story”

📌 UK Telegraph, August 5, 2016 headline, “First Evidence of Legendary Chinese Flood May Rewrite History”

📌 August 4, 2016, Washington Post headline, “Legends Say China Began in a Great Flood.  Scientists Just Found Evidence that the Flood was Real”

📌 Headline, February 8, 2016, AncientPatriarchs.WordPress.comreads, “Chinese Mythology Clarified by Miao Legend Confirms Noah’s Flood History!” 

As a result of ignorance of, and unbelief in, the Word of God, we start with a whole lot of nothing, toss in a Big Bang (which also came from nothing), and all that nothing (with time and chance, of course) turned into everything you see around you.  Your first cousin is a mushroom, by the way, and your father is a monkey—but look how far you’ve come! Romans 1:28:

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

According to the Bible, the global flood began 1656 years after Adam first opened his eyes.  Bishop Ussher’s chronology puts Noah and his family boarding the ark on Sunday, December 7, 2349 BC (using the Julian calendar). 

Uniformitarianism is simply unbelief dressed up in scientific-sounding jargon.

One of two major signs that will precede the great “taking up” of the church to meet Jesus Christ in the clouds and the then soon-to-follow end of the world as we know it is written in II Thessalonians 2:7-12:

7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Because they receive not the love of the truth, which is solely found in Christ Jesus, God shall send them a spirit of strong delusion that they should believe a lie.  We have certainly arrived at this place.

Dr. John Ashton, PhD CChem FRACI, is Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Victoria University, Melbourne, and Adjunct Professor of Applied Sciences at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, the largest Australian tertiary institution.  He holds a BSc (Honors) with prize in chemistry and PhD in epistemology (a branch of philosophy dealing with the limits of knowledge), also with prize, from the University of Newcastle and an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Tasmania.  Dr. Ashton is a Chartered Chemist and a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.  His career includes 14 years in tertiary science education and 25 years in industry mainly involved with food chemistry and related biomedical science research.  Dr. Ashton has served as the industry partner investigator for Australian Government co-funded research at seven Australian universities. He also served as editor of three books related to science and faith issues, including the much-cited In Six Days: Why 50 Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation.

In the book Evolution Impossible, Dr. Ashton lays out an impressive array of research that demonstrates the absurdity of evolution.  In this book, Ashton addresses, among other topics, a fiction evolutionists have dubbed “abiogenesis.”  Abiogenesis is the hypothesis that living organisms evolved by chance from nonliving matter. This hallucination—living organisms from nonliving matter—has long ago been proven impossible by the legendary scientist Louis Pasteur.  Without abiogenesis, there is no evolution.  From Evolution Impossible:

Also, we have not attempted to calculate the probability of a gene that can comprise thousands to millions of nucleobases encoded with information, forming by chance.  From studies of single-celled organisms, scientists have estimated that the simplest possible living organism would require a genome containing a minimum of 250 to 400 genes.  Thus the improbability of life occurring in the simplest cells with the corresponding molecular complexity vastly exceeds 1 chance in 10¹⁵⁰ [Note: this is the number 1 followed by 150 zeroes; it is a very big number.]  In other words, abiogenesis is absolutely impossible.  That is, a living organism cannot arise by chance from nonliving matter. 

When the evolution literature is examined closely, we find that there is still no known mechanical or naturalistic explanation as to how life started.  The proponents of chemical evolution are choosing to stick with and teach a simplistic 80-year-old model against a tidal wave of evidence that abiogenesis is impossible.  [End of quote]

Where did all this self-replicating genetic information—so impossibly detailed, so ingeniously precise—come from?  Who wrote the code of life?  Dr. Ashton continues:

For a multi-celled organism to have evolved requires an even greater amount of new genetic information to be created.   The information encoded in a roundworm is contained on 97 million DNA base pairs spread over about 19,000 genes.  For a yeast to evolve into a roundworm requires the creation of 13,000 extra genes of new genetic information by random mutations.  And the roundworm genes are made up of thousands more base pairs of encoded information compared to yeast genes.   That is, they are far more complex in terms of their information content.  And we are still near the bottom of the evolutionary tree—we are still only up to worms! Yet the amount of totally new genetic information to make these low organisms in the evolutionary tree is enormous.  According to the theory of evolution, all this new genetic information arose by chance as a result of successive random mutations over time.

I would like to emphasize that totally “new” genetic information is required for the theory of evolution to work.   That is, genetic information that has not existed previously is required to evolve a bacterium into a yeast like Saccharomyces cerevisiae.  The yeast (as a single-celled organism) has a very different structure, with the DNA concentrated in the nucleus.  Also, this particular yeast comes as two types (A and B), and cells of Type A only mate with cells of Type B.  So the introduction by random mutations of thousands of highly complex new genetic codes of new genetic information is required for a bacteria to evolve into a yeast.  However, this evolution has never been observed even though millions of genetic cycles have occurred in bacteria colonies in laboratories around the world over the past four decades.  Also, on the basis of the levels of mutations observed by Dr. Lenski’s [Michigan State University, studying mutations in 12 identical bacteria populations over 3 decades] team and the probability calculations we have previously discussed, the probability of all this new genetic information arising by chance is so close to zero as to be impossible.   And we have discussed but one small step near the bottom of the evolutionary tree relating to organisms that turn over new generations very rapidly.

Organisms higher up the evolutionary tree not only have enormously larger genetic complexity but also take much longer to reach the age of reproduction. Most bacteria double in one to three hours, and in the laboratory E. coli can produce a new generation every half an hour.  For many mammals and reptiles, a new generation may take many months or even longer to mature to the age when they can mate and reproduce.  This means it takes thousands of times longer for mutations to accumulate in the gamete (reproduction cells), compared with lab bacteria.  Also, the random non-directed mutations have to produce sufficient new genetic information to code unique individual genetic information, which has characterized the DNA of the teeming millions of different species that have ever lived.  This includes all the extinct species that we know about as well as all the intermediate species, whose supposed fossils  we have not yet discovered.  Also, these higher animals have even more complex DNA.  Mouse DNA has around 2,600 base pairs and 25,000 genes, which an average size of 100,000 bases, which means that a mouse gene is 20 times more complex in its code compared to a roundworm.  In addition, the mouse also has 30 percent more genes than the worm.

The mouse is just one of 5,487 mammals, each of which has different genetic information.  That is, a rhinoceros has different genes in its DNA, a cow has different genes in its DNA, a bear has different genes in its DNA, and each type of bear has different DNA with different new genes.  Each of all these different genes contains tens of thousands of pieces of unique code, which the theory of evolution indicates must come into existence as a result of chance random mutations.  And we have not considered the totally new genes in each of 9,900 species of birds, or the totally new genes in each of 8,734 species of reptiles, or the totally new genes in each of 31,153 species of fish.  Neither have we considered the totally new genes that characterize each of the 100,000 species of insects, nor the billions of different genes, each made up of thousands of pieces of DNA base code that characterize each of the 1,700,000 or so other species on this planet.  And this is not to mention all of the billions of different genes that existed in the past that have been lost due to extinction.

Not only have scientists not observed any of this new genetic information being generated, but on the basis of probability there is simply not enough time in the supposed four billion years of evolution for all of the genetic information required in the genomes of all the millions of different species of bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals to evolve as a result of random mutations.  If the evolution of a simple cell is statistically impossible, as we saw already, the evolution of these higher organisms is even more impossible. Examples of these probability calculations have been set out and explained in detail by Dr. Lee Spetner, who for many years taught information theory at Johns Hopkins University.  Spetner shows that not only is the random generation of new genetic information to produce a new species statistically impossible, but on the basis of probability theory and information theory, most random mutations are going to produce changes that affect the DNA code in a way that makes sections of the code less useable, with resultant deleterious effects on the organism.  This is exactly what we observe happening in the laboratory. As University of Rochester biology professor H. Allen Orr points out, “The overwhelming majority of random mutations are harmful—that is, they reduce fitness, only a tiny minority are beneficial, increasing fitness.”

It has been estimated, based on the diversity of species in the fossil record, that somewhere between 98 and 99 percent of all the species that have ever existed are now extinct.  In other words, the genes that have made up the unique and different DNA of 100 to 200 million different species of life have somehow been created in the past.  According to the proponents of evolution, most of these lifeforms have evolved over the past 600 million years.  That means that new species would have evolved on average every three to five years.  Given the millions of species that now exist in the world, the potential to observe new genetic information being created over the past 50 years of scientific research should be quite high.  But not a single example of some new intermediate arm or leg system or some intermediate new superior eye, or some new intermediate “anything” with totally new genetic information evolving, has been reported in the literature.

Further shortcomings of the theory of evolution were pointed out by the Rutgers University philosopher Dr. Jerry Fodor, who in an extraordinary article titled “Why Pigs Don’t Have Wings" presented very strong arguments as to why Darwinian-type “natural selection” cannot be an effective basis for species evolution.  Dr. Fodor’s piece attracted a lot of comment from other scientists, and he went on to develop his arguments further in a recent book co-authored by Dr. Masimo Piattelli-Palmarini, professor of cognitive science at the University of Arizona, titled What Darwin Got Wrong.

Since “natural selection” comprises the essential core of Darwin’s theory, Fodor’s paper presented a serious challenge to the scientific integrity of evolution.   As a result, in July 2008, 16 of the world’s leading evolutionary scientists met at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research at Altenberg, Austria, to discuss these serious threats to evolutionary science. Details of the conference were written up by science journalist Suzan Mazur.  She reports interviews and comments from attendees and other thought leaders in the area of evolution.  They highlight the growing realization by these scientists that if natural selection is now rejected or marginalized as the underpinning evolutionary process, then Darwin’s theory is dead.  Dr. Jerry Fodor is quoted as saying, “Basically, I don’t think anybody knows how evolution works.”

This statement is a far cry from the confident assertions found in biology textbooks and museum displays.  Furthermore, nobody knows how evolution works because nobody has ever observed evolution—it has never been observed in the past and it has not been observed in the laboratory.  [End of quote]

The god of the world’s academics is called evolution.  It is the spirit of unbelief, the deceivableness of unrighteousness.  The academics—the “show me the proof” people themselves—have chosen a god that, ironically, nobody has ever seen in action.  They have “followed the science” and now they are hopelessly lost. 

These are the last days, and God said a spirit of strong delusion would prevail and men would readily believe foolishness.  They will believe a lie. 

These are the last days, and God said that because men have refused to retain Him in their knowledge, they would be given over to a reprobate mind, which is a worthless one. 

These are the last days.  If you have yet to be BORN AGAIN, then you are at this moment at the very ultimate crossroad, a place described by the prophet Joel (3:14) as:

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

Choose life and live.  Your days are numbered and this opportunity will pass you by.  Do not wait.  Click on to “Further with Jesus” now while you still have time.

GOD SAID, Genesis 1:1:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

GOD SAID, Exodus 20:11:

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

GOD SAID, Romans 1:28:

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

MAN SAID: Isn’t evolution awesome?! All of my questions are answered—and the answer is NOTHING!  I came from nothing, I’m going to do nothing with my life, and when I’m done with all my nothing on earth, I’ll go on to even more nothing when I’m dead!  Awesome, right?!

 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Ashton, J., Evolution Impossible, MasterBooks, 2012

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