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The Old Heavens Perished

Creation / /

Scientists are confident that this earth is billions of years old. Many Bible scholars assure us that Scriptures indicate earth and heaven and all that is in them were created by God only a few thousand years ago.  If God’s word is incorrect regarding this, it is incorrect from the very first verses of the Bible. The words of God tell us: “Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.” It would be totally unacceptable that the words of God could be incorrect about the age of the earth.

So how do we explain this apparent discrepancy? Bible scholars argue in several ways. (1) Scientists are dishonest, they are clearly not to be trusted if they contradict the true and righteous God. (2) Scientists are basing their arguments upon scientific evidence that cannot mean what they think it means. For example, dating methods they use to measure the time of events in the past are unreliable because of the necessarily unproven assumption that clocks we use to date recent events ran at unchanged rates in the far past.  (3) Some scholars argue that since God specifically told us the date of the universe, He was free to make the universe with an apparent age older than its actual age as a way to test who would believe Him and who will not.

But Scripture also tells us: “For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.” The works of the Lord surely include creation. So creation must manifest the truth of God. Scripture claims that “The heavens declare the glory of God….” It is hardly possible that God purposefully created the heavens deceptively. Furthermore, God declares that the heavens themselves manifest enough truth about God that men who do not believe in Him are without excuse. They would hardly be without excuse if the heavens are deceptive in what they say about God.

Scientific evidence of an old earth does not depend only upon dating methods and incorrect assumptions about the past. There is evidence that is very hard to refute that the earth is older than a few thousand years. With a little study we can see that the words of God are entirely consistent with His works as they should be. Whereas the Noahic flood neither made new heavens nor new earth, an old earth destroyed by water allows us to explain the physical evidences on earth without denying the words of God. The PowerPoint Slides The Old Heavens Perished is a study to demonstrate consistency between the evident works of God and the available words of God.

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Salvation in the Church Age

Salvation / /

Salvation is a highly important doctrine. According to God’s words, each person will go on to the next life to one of two places: to heaven with God or to the lake of fire and brimstone with the devil and his angels. By one man, Adam, sin came into the world and death passed upon all men. So every man has sin as defined by God. A man with any amount of sin will not get into heaven with God. God cleanses a person from sin only through Jesus Christ in His death on the cross whereby Jesus accepted the judgment of God against sin for all men.  Through His resurrection Jesus Christ provides life free from sin for any person.

Thus apart from Jesus Christ there is no salvation. Since there are a multitude of people on this planet who are not trusting Jesus Christ for salvation, there are a multitude of people who need salvation. Furthermore, God’s word declares that most people who think they have salvation in Jesus Christ are not saved. God Himself, in the words He has written to us, is the only one to trust about how to be saved. The Theology Slides, Salvation in the Church Age, carefully explore the what God says about salvation and how every person in this age can get the life God intended for them.

Because God wants each person to know how they stand with Him, He deals with each person individually concerning how sincere they are about seeking truth about Him. Depending upon that sincerity, God will show anyone and everyone the truth. Ultimately knowledge of that truth is only to be found in God’s words to us. Salvation can only come through believing those words — words quoted in these slides.

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Show us a Sign from Heaven

Doctrine / /

When Pharisees and Sadducees asked Jesus to show them a sign from heaven, He mentioned signs that He had already put in the heavens. But he accused them of being too hypocritical to recognize those signs already given as signs from God.

It is evident from Scripture that God put the red sunset and red sunrise as signs in the heavens pointing to Jesus Christ. Physically we see these as signs for the weather. We say: Red at night, sailors delight; red in the morning, sailors take warning. If we would see them as signs from God, we would say: Red at night, sinners delight; red in the morning, sinners take warning. The slides, Signs in the Sky, document this from verses throughout the Bible and establish how the Pharisees and Sadducees should have been able to recognize this.

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Identify God’s Infallible Words

Doctrine / /

God promised us that He will teach us doctrine Himself if we believe His words above all others. So His words surely are worth having. But this would be an empty promise if He did not preserve His words for us. Indeed, He has promised that they will be available forever. With God’s help we can surely identify those words.

Scholars deny such words exist.

Scholars have denied that God’s infallible words are available. By defining inspiration in such a way that it can only apply to original autographs of Scripture, they affirm that will be no Scripture, written words of God, available to man until those original autographs can be found and/or reproduced. Although there are multitudes of manuscripts of Scripture available, they do not fully agree with each other. So the scholars argue we can only approximately know God’s infallible words. Which means we must believe the words of scholars to tell us what words we can believe, and which are uncertain. Words derived in this way are certainly not what God has promised us.

God has purified His Words.

There is nothing in the manuscripts we have that indicates that piecing together original autographs is the appropriate way to identify God’s infallible words. In fact, God has promised He will preserve His words through purification. God has moved on from original autographs. He now uses words He has purified as silver in a furnace of earth. We will not be able to identify those refined words from original manuscripts, which are not available anyhow. Jesus Christ, who is called the Word of God Himself, told those demanding to know who He was that according to their Scriptures the truth of a matter could be determined by two or three witnesses. So in these slides, Identifying the Words of God, we will use two witnesses to identify the true words of God. Then we will trust God to teach us doctrine through those words.

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Where is Heaven?

Doctrine / /

I had been taught that there was a vapor canopy over the earth before the Noahic Flood. But the words of Genesis Chapter One do not describe a vapor canopy. The creation details in Genesis unmistakably indicate that there is water above the stars.

We will accept the Genesis 1 creation story at face value to understand that there is a great sea above the universe.. Recognition of this will clarify Scriptures that commentators have found obscure (or “poetic”) from one end of the Bible to the other.  This includes the statement that there will be no more sea in the new heavens and earth to come. Also we understand that God crosses this sea when He comes down from heaven and that we must quite literally (not only figuratively) cross a sea to go up to heaven . Then Scripture tells us the direction through the universe toward God’s heaven. It is situated above the celestial sea, which is frozen on the top (a crystal sea). See the theology slides Where is Heaven?

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Identifying the True Words of God

Doctrine / /

God promised us that He will teach us doctrine Himself if we believe His words above all others. So His words surely are worth having. But this would be an empty promise if He did not preserve His words for us. Indeed, He has promised that they will be available forever. With God’s help we can surely identify those words.

Scholars deny that there are infallible words.

Scholars have denied that God’s infallible words are available. By defining inspiration in such a way that it can only apply to original autographs of Scripture, they affirm that will be no Scripture, written words of God, available to man until those original autographs can be found and/or reproduced. Although there are multitudes of manuscripts of Scripture available, they do not fully agree with each other. So the scholars argue we can only approximately know God’s infallible words. Which means we must believe the words of scholars to tell us what words we can believe, and which are uncertain. Words derived in this way are certainly not what God has promised us.

Witnesses to God’s words

There is nothing in the manuscripts we have that indicates that piecing together original autographs is the appropriate way to identify God’s infallible words. Jesus Christ, who is called the Word of God Himself, told those demanding to know who He was that according to their Scriptures the truth of a matter could be determined by two or three witnesses. So in these slides, Identifying the Words of God, we will use two witnesses to identify the true words of God. Then we will trust God to teach us doctrine through those words.

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