GLOBAL WARMING

Global Warming

The issue of global warming is probably settled. The issue that it is manmade is still moot.

At the same time as people in hi-vis “yellow vests” were rioting in the streets of Paris over French President Macron’s draconian “Carbon Tax”, which is due to his adherence to the “Paris Accord”, at the UN’s Climate Change Summit in Katowice, Poland (November 2018), David Attenborough was saying,

If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilsations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon… Right now we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change.[1]

            Talk about scaring the kids! While all of this was going on, there were teachers who allowed their classes to attend a protest instead of school. On Friday, 30 November, 2018, these scared kids gathered in Brisbane city. Says ABC News in an article,

Thousands of Australian students have defied calls by the Prime Minister to stay in school and instead marched on the nation’s capital cities, and some regional centre, demanding an end to political inertia on climate change. Protests were held in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Coffs Harbour, Bendigo and other cities, as students banded together to pressure the Morrison Government in the lead-up to a federal election. “The politicians aren’t listening to us when we try to act nicely for what we want and for what we need,” said Castlemaine student Harriet O’Shea Carre. “So now we have to go to extreme lengths and miss out school.”[2]

So, at the same time there was one lot protesting their President’s unwavering adherence to “The Paris Agreement”, we see another lot protesting their Prime Minister for not adhering to it enough! Who is right? Well, President Trump! The Climate Change protests are all about unfair taxes.

How can we talk about Global warming without mentioning the Prophet of Doom, Al Gore and his Inconvenient Truth propaganda movie? In 2006 Al Gore said that sea-levels would rise 20 feet. Denis T. Avery refers to this in the following,

The study, “Snowfall-driven Growth in East Antarctic Ice Sheet Mitigates Recent Sea-level Rise.” was led by Curt Davis of the University of Missouri, and reported in Science on June 24, 2005.

Thickening ice in the Antarctic, in fact, is just about offsetting the meltwater being released from the edges of the Greenland ice sheet–which has also been thickening in its center. This leaves us with a global warming sea level gain of about 1.8 millimetres per year–or 4 inches per century. The rise has remained constant during the 20th century despite the moderate 0.6 degree C warming of the planet.

In the movie, a whole Antarctic ice sheet shatters on Gore's computer screen. In the real world, that isn’t happening. It is only the Antarctic Peninsula–2 percent of the continent’s land area that sticks up toward the far-off equator–that is warming. It recently earned headlines by calving an ice flow as big as Rhode Island, not an unusual event.

But the East Antarctic ice sheet is more than 2,000 times bigger than Rhode Island, and the ice is two miles thick!   John Stone of the University of Washington, reporting in Science on January 3, 2003 says the West Antarctic ice sheet has been retreating so slowly for the past 10,000 years that it still has not fully accommodated the end of the last Ice age, and apparently still has about 7,000 years of ice to melt–and the East Antarctic ice sheet is melting even more slowly than that.

So, Al Gore says Antarctic melting will suddenly raise the sea levels by 20 feet, and the experts say 4 inches per century.”[3]

If we start with an ice-age all are agreed that the planet is warmer now than then. But, what caused the great glacial ice-sheets to recede? This is where we enter the area of speculation. Likewise, when we discuss contemporary global warming, its rate and its causes. If we begin with the Ice-Age we will quickly see two opposing views emerge, viz., the Christian (or Biblical) perspective and the Uniformitarian. Let’s call the former ‘Creationist’ and the latter ‘Evolutionist’, noting there’re variables within both these worldviews.

Though believing that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, because of global warning, like a religious zealot, the Evolutionist believes that ‘the end is nigh!’ – if we do not do something. Panic! The Creationist? Well, the Creationist looks to God and His written Word. ‘And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, ‘Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?’ Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still!’ And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, ‘Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?’ Mark 4:37-40. The Lord controls the weather. Consider Jonah fleeing from the presence of the LORD. ‘But the LORD sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.’ Jonah 1:4. Examples could be multiplied. Does what we do affect the climate? You bet, but it’s more moral than physical. We need to consider Noah’s ark and the Flood. ‘And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.’… All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights’ Genesis 6:13; 7:11b-12. As it was for the Egyptians chasing the Israelites, so it was in the global Deluge. The divided waters came together sandwiching man and beast across the earth. That is why we find millions of dead things that have been buried quickly in solidified sediment, including fossil fuels, i.e., oil and gas reserves.

Post-Flood, primarily due to the ensuing soaring global humidity, centuries of heavy snowfalls caused the polar regions to greatly expand. Therefore, unlike the Uniformitarian/Evolutionist, who works off a timescale of billions of years, the Creationist looks to the ensuing effects of the global Flood some 4,300 years ago. The Ice-Age lasted for a few hundred years. Job, who lived before the time of Abraham, when speaking of snow and ice (not normal for his region), may be referring to the Ice-Age. ‘The waters harden like stone, and the surface of the deep is frozen’ Job 38:30. (E.g., see also Job 6:16; 9:30; 24:19; 37:6; 38:22,29.) That, in a nutshell, is the Creationist take on global warming.

Is the planet warming? Yes! Should we panic? No! Are fossil fuels the primary cause? If Western nations stopped using fossil fuels it would have minimal effect on the climate. Does God want us to be good stewards of His earth? Yes! ‘Therefore, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.’ 1 Corinthians 10:31. 

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[1] Evening Standard (on-line), 04 December, 2018.

[2] ABC News (on-line), Friday 30 Nov 2018.

[3] Denis T Avery, Will Sea Levels Rise as Gore Predicts? Canada Free Press, Tuesday, July 11, 2006. https://canadafreepress.com/2006/avery071106.htm

WEDDINGS FIRST & LAST

Weddings First & Last

I had the privilege of walking my eldest daughter down the aisle and presenting her to her husband to be. I also had the privilege of marrying her to her husband. I don’t know which wedding number this was on the long list of weddings that have taken place since the beginning. The very first wedding took place on day six of ‘Creation Week.’ Of course, like every other wedding, this wedding was special. But unlike every other wedding since then, this wedding was even more special. For God had first to build the woman He was going to give to the man!

It was no problem for the eternal God to bring into being the whole of creation out of nothing. He simply spoke and things that were not became things that are. He formed Adam from the dust of the ground, and showed Adam all the birds and animals. Adam named them all. Thus Adam could see that not even a chimpanzee was comparable to him. As Scripture says, ‘But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.’ Genesis 2:20b. Chimps, cats, dogs, and budgies might be good company, but who wants to marry one? Each according to its kind! The very first wedding is prefaced with the following: ‘And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”’ Genesis 2:18. Marriage is very good because God instituted it because it was ‘not good that man should be alone,’ and also because at the end of that very first wedding-day we read these words, ‘Then God saw everything He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.’ Genesis 1:31.

‘And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.’ Genesis 2:21. Back in the 60s and 70s cloning was the stuff of science fiction. Then in the 90s some son of Adam named a Scottish sheep ‘Dolly.’ This sheep was special. It was the first cloned animal to survive – for a wee while. Why then should anyone think it strange that the first woman was ‘built’ from a man’s rib? ‘Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made [lit. built] into a woman, and He brought her to the man.’ Genesis 2:22. Then the LORD God – as her heavenly Father – walked Eve down the aisle and presented her to Adam. Then He married the two. And just as there are wedding speeches today, so the very first wedding speech was uttered by Adam who waxed poetic and said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Genesis 2:24. Adam knew exactly what the woman was. And they both knew that they could now lawfully also reproduce themselves, for Scripture says, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ Genesis 2:24. ‘Leave and cleave’ is how we put it nowadays. And so we see that marriage was instituted in the beginning by the LORD God Himself.

It is interesting to note that Jesus performed His very first miracle – attesting to the fact that He was the Son of God in the flesh – at a wedding. As the LORD God transformed the dust of the ground into a man, and the rib of the man into a woman, so Jesus transformed into wine the water in six large water-pots  (of over twenty gallons each) filled to the brim (John 2:6-10). Why so much wine, especially since the wedding guests had polished off whatever wine there was till that point? That great Reformer, John Calvin, offers the following answer: ‘But it is wonderful that a large quantity of wine, and of the very best wine, is supplied by Christ, who is a teacher of sobriety. I reply, when God daily gives us a large supply of wine, it is our own fault if His kindness is an excitement to luxury; but, on the other hand, it is an undoubted trial of our sobriety, if we are sparing and moderate in the midst of abundance; as Paul boasts that he had learned to know both how to be full and to be hungry, Philippians 4:12.’

Nothing to everything, the dust of the ground to man, a man’s rib to a woman, and water to wine, nothing is too hard for God. He can even transform a multitude innumerable, dead in its trespasses and sins, into the living Bride of Christ ‘that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.’ Ephesians 5:27.

O to have our heavenly Father walk us down that aisle on the last day and present us to His Son! I love weddings! Such joyous occasions!

AUTHORS, POETS, & ARTISTS

Authors, Poets, & Artists

In eternity-past God the Author had in mind the finished book of eternity-future. Then, the Father plucked a feather from the Holy Spirit and, dipping the holy quill into an inkwell filled with His Son’s blood, the Ancient of days began to write the history of the world.

By skilful use of repetitive redemptive themes, the Author bound the pages of His Book together. By pregnant promise He attracts and keeps His readerships’ attention from beginning to end. Word by word, sentence by sentence, line by line, chapter by chapter, His Spirit guides them through all the twists and turns of His inspired Word. Whether describing calmness in a garden or panic in a wilderness He uses every jot and tittle to maximum and dramatic effect. His Word is living, and His Spirit works with it in the diligent reader’s heart, in all those who will attend His Book signing.

In eternity-past God the Poet had in mind the full-blossomed anthology of eternity-future. Beginning with His eternal Word, by His Spirit, the Poet then brought together every letter of His alphabet, from the first to the last. The buzzing bees of thesaurus collected the pollen of prose from poppy petals to make the honey of His written rhythmic Word.
By use of couplets of contrast, such as light and darkness, good and evil, night and day, Heaven and Hell, and pairs of paradox, such as God as a human, Gospel Law, to live, you must die, He painted poetic word-pictures and hung them in the air like lark-song.
In accordance with His story the dim flame on the melted candlewax of hope would all but sputter and die before He set the Light of the World a pedestal. With His Breath and with His Word He began to breath hope into the hearts of those who sat in darkness, those who walked in the shadow of death. Then the Morning Star arrived, first by bursting forth from the womb and then from the tomb. The Word rose with healing in His wings. The Spirit is now drawing all the nations to His recitals.

In eternity-past God the Artist had in mind the full picture of eternity-future. Donning His coat of many colours and crimson beret, with palate in hand, the Artist began to dip the brush of His Providence into the three primary colours of space, time, and matter. His rainbow covenant was in the sky as His arcing paintbrush flashed back and forth from eternity to time, and from time to eternity. Daubing the canvass of His creation with His covenant colours the picture of eternity future began to emerge from the seeming chaos. By clever use of light and shade He began to give His painting depth and meaning. With the adoring crowds gathering in His gallery we await His masterpiece’s future and unveiling.

As encouragement to all authors, poets, and artists: ‘The Teacher searched to find delightful sayings and to record accurate words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and the anthologies of the masters are like firmly embedded nails driven by a single Shepherd’ Ecclesiastes 12:10-11 (Berean Study Bible). ‘I have filled [Bazalel] with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs…’ Exodus 31:3-4a. Says Francis Schaeffer, ‘A Christian should use these arts to the glory of God, not just as tracts, mind you, but as things of beauty to the praise of God. An art work can be a doxology in itself.’

WAR & PEACE

War & Peace

What is wrong with everyone? Why can’t we all just get along with each other? Why do people argue with others? Why are there wars? Well, the Bible says it’s all to do with enmity. My dictionary says enmity is deep-seated unfriendliness, hostility.

“Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war among your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.” James 4:1&2. Thus enmity comes from deep within, and it has to do with coveting. 

To covet is to break the 10^th Commandment. That Commandment slew the Christ-hating and Christian-hating Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:1; Rom. 7:7-11) who, by God’s grace alone, became Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ. The Pharisees kept up an outward appearance of keeping the 10 Commandments. But how does one keep “You shall not covet…” outwardly? God’s Moral Law is spiritual. Therefore it goes straight to the heart and shows you that you are a sinner! The covetous lusts deep within us prove that we are not content with our lot. Wars are the extension of our inner wars.

The war began with the rebellion in a garden some six thousand years ago. It was then that mankind sided with Satan against God the Creator. Satan used a serpent to deceive Eve into eating the fruit God had forbidden her and her husband Adam. Listening to the befriending Devil, Eve began to covet that fruit. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:6.

Enter the LORD God into His garden to deal with the rebellion. In the course of His address to Adam, Eve, and the serpent, He made a wonderful promise. Speaking directly to the serpent He said: “…And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Man brought enmity into God’s creation by listening to the Devil and thereby declaring war on God.  But God, by His gracious promise, as it were, beat Adam’s pruning hook into a spear to be used against that serpent, the Devil. There was to be enmity between those who love God and His Moral Law, and those who don’t.

The summary of God’s Moral Law is the Ten Commandments. These are summed up again in the words, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” Mark 12:30&31. The Son of God, Jesus Christ was nailed to a tree on account of His perfect love for God and His neighbour. It turns out that He is the promised ‘Seed of the woman’ (Gal. 3:16). His cross was a mortal blow to Satan’s head.

It is through His life, death, resurrection and ascension into Heaven that all wars begin to cease. He is the Prince of Peace. “Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end…” Isaiah 9:7a. And “He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Isaiah 2:4.

He reconciles with God all who trust in Him alone for salvation. In Him we have peace with God – the peace that transcends all understanding (Phil. 1:7).

BUTTERFLIES & BELIEVERS

Butterflies & Believers

God likes bright colours. He made the rainbow. He made the flowers. In summer brightness petals wing the gentle breeze in the form of butterflies. Technicoloured shingles cover each of their fragile wings.

Write your name quickly on a dark sky with a glowing ember from a fire and you’ll be near to describing the butterfly of the Gaels – dealan-de. These tiny flashes of lightning brighten the day as they arc from flower to flower like nerve-impulses arcing synapse gaps. Yes, think God’s thoughts after Him. Appreciate!

A preacher illustrated a point by mentioning a caterpillar who said to another caterpillar, while looking at a butterfly mid-flutter, “You’ll never see me up in one of those things!” A great transformation has to occur before a creepy-crawly caterpillar can become a beautiful butterfly. Metamorphosis, however, is not the reserved domain of caterpillars. God affects a similar inner transformation in all true believers. “…Be transformed by the renewing of your minds…” Romans 12:2.

By God’s grace those who undergo this inner metamorphosis become Christians. It is a transformation of thinking – a mind renewal. Like a flower emerging from a bud, or a butterfly from a cocoon, conversion is the opening of a once closed mind. Everlasting life begins to pump through the new Christian’s veins and he begins to soar in heavenly places when God shines His face upon him in Christ. The earthbound caterpillar becomes a butterfly with a God’s-eye view of things. What were once shades of grey can now be seen in vivid colour. From above, the rainbow looks like a well-lit landing strip – the path of righteousness!

While fluttering in the sun a butterfly might choose which flower to land on by sight or scent. But it did not choose to be a butterfly. Neither do Christians choose to be what they are. God alone makes Christians! Christ says to His disciples, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” John 15:16a. Christians are brands plucked from the fire, (Zech. 3:3b; Jude 1:23). As we flit around we may be, as it were, writing our names in the sky, but we do not write our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life, (Rev. 21:27).

Dear reader, there is a way for you to see if your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Check by keeping on repenting of your sins and keeping on believing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the Word become flesh, the glory of the Father, (John 1:14). He is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, (John 1:29). He is the Light of the World, (John 1:9). He, who called Himself a worm as He hung on the cross, is the Sun of Righteousness who has risen with healing in His wings, (Psa. 22:6; Mal. 4:2).

Will we ever see you up in one of those things? Or are you content with a worm’s eye view of reality? Colour your world. Call on the name of the Lord – today!

GENERATIONS

Generations

I remember an uncle remarking at my father’s funeral that he was the last of his generation of our family. I never realised how sad that must have been for him until I heard that he had passed away! I am now part of the older generation of my family that is next in line to disappear. Generations come, and generations go. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could trace you and your family’s genealogy all the way back through the generations to the first human beings, Adam and Eve?

The first use of the word ‘generations’ is found in Genesis 2:4, ‘These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.’ (KJV). Depending on context the word (Heb. toledaw) may be translated as ‘descent, family, history, birth’ etc. The next mention is Genesis 5:1-2, ‘This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created’ (KJV). Thus, Christianity is firmly grounded in history, for the lineage of Jesus is traced through the generations all the way back to Adam. (See e.g., 1 Chron. 1-2; Luke 3:23-38.) Thus, Jesus believed that He was descended from Adam, who was created by God on the sixth day of creation.

It goes without saying that there are some who don’t believe this account of history. Some even believe, (if you can believe it!) that they are descended from ape-like creatures. Though the ancient Greeks had a version of it, this idea was popularised by Charles Darwin (1809-82) and his generation. Being greatly influenced by Darwin and his Darwinism, Karl Marx (1818-83) in turn, invented his ‘Marxism’, and Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) put these beliefs into practice with his ‘Social-Darwinism’ from which we are still battling to recover today! All of this, of course, had a major influence on Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), and his National Socialist Party (Nazi) and all the ominous business of a ‘master race’ and its attendant eugenics and gas-chambers. ‘Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.’ Ecclesiastes 1:4. Keep in mind that each generation will have an influence on the next. Hopefully ours, unlike previous ones, will have an influence for good. How can our generation have a positive influence on the next? Clearly, getting back to and developing the solid teaching of the Bible will greatly help.

In my own generation I have witnessed the world’s philosophy (i.e., non-Christian belief) move from the slightly positive Modernist’s (‘the truth is out there!’) to the pessimistic Post-modernist’s contradictory (‘there is no such thing as absolute truth!’). Although Herman Dooyeweerd (1894-1977) has a positive influence on Christians today, the title of his book ‘In the Twilight of Western Thought’ sums up his generation’s influence on where we’re at today. However, be encouraged, for, ‘All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.’ Isaiah 40:6b-8. May our generation have a positive influence on the next. Steep yourselves in His enduring Word and be diligent doers of it!

ALL IN THE MIND

All in the Mind

In a clash of confluence, the battle-cries of the Picton River were drowned out by the greater roar of the Huon River in spate. My friend and I could hear the watery commotion in the background as we walked through the peaceful rain-soaked undergrowth of the Tasmanian wilderness. It was as we forded a swollen Huon tributary that my eye initially saw it: ‘A beaver in Tasmania? Surely not!’ The curiosity slowly swam down the surface of the creek toward us: a duckbilled platypus!

              Platypuses have webbed-feet with claws; the female lays eggs; the male has a poisonous spur on his hind legs; and they both have an electronic-receptor in their bills. When a (dead) specimen was taken to England in 1799 it was thought by some to be a hoax!

Dear reader, where does the platypus fit into your worldview? Do you hear the great commotion in the world today as Darwinism and Creationism clash? To suggest that these two opposing worldviews can be reconciled is like saying a duck can marry a beaver and produce a platypus!

Theories come and theories go, but the Word of our God stands forever. On the sixth day of creation God created man in His own image. ‘Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all the cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.’ Genesis 2:20. Adam studied and catalogued the animals.

              We chuckle when we consider the platypus because it reminds us of a duck. We chuckle at gorillas and chimpanzees because they remind us of ourselves. My wife and I chuckle when we hear the word ‘primate’ used to refer to a Roman Catholic or an Anglican bishop (it brings a strange picture to our mind!) However none of this affects our worldview which has been build upon the infallible Word of God.

God made each creature according to its kind (Genesis 1:25). That’s why not even an ape is comparable to man. A dog might very well be man’s best friend, a budgie might be good for company, but only a woman is comparable to a man. In marriage a man and a woman complement each other. Marriage doesn’t produce apes, dogs, budgies, or duck-billed platypuses for offspring Why? because God created each creature according to its kind.

When the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven opened up and the waters above collided with the waters beneath, Noah and his family, with all the air-breathing animals God had put on the ark, could hear the watery commotion in the background. They were on God’s life-raft, safe in the ark from the global flood of God’s judgment upon people who hated Him. There is evidence of the great Flood in many of the fossils and bones that keep being dug up. The Church on earth was caught napping when Evolutionists started dragging in bones of dead animals, such as their alleged ‘Dawn Horse’ (eohippus). But as with the platypus, one’s understanding of it is determined beforehand by one’s worldview: human speculation or Divine revelation? Did rock ‘rabbits’ breed horses into existence? And is a lizard able to sprout wings full of feathers and take to the sky? Can unthinking matter become thinking matter? Your answer to these questions will be influenced by your personal worldview. It’s all in the mind!

In some ways Darwin did Christians a favour. The Darwinist’s war-cries are being used by God to awaken us. And now their battle-cries are being drowned out by the greater roar of the outpoured Spirit speaking in the Scriptures! Do you hear the commotion in the background as you walk through life? Have you given any thought to what you believe? Have you considered the claims of Jesus Christ?

Christ believes in the fixity of kinds. He also believes He is God, the Middle Person in the Trinity, who is the Word become also flesh. Stand on Christ our ‘Rock,’ our firm foundation. Develop a worldview based on His Word. ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ Romans 12:2a.