False Model

This is all lies but you might as well hear it now because someone will propose it in an attempt to lead you from the truth. Actually, some of the lies are so good they may even test the faith of believers.

The philosopher

The best lies have an element of truth. The pseudo “truth” here is to acknowledge how a perceptive person can relate the creation steps to observations from nature around us. But the deception here is to suggest that it’s just man’s imagination...

There was once a philosopher who thought deeply about things and he came up with these steps or days:

1. He paints a picture of black despair and nothingness. Nothing ever happened until the morning light arrived so creation begins with light.
2. Now the old fashioned understanding was that there is water held in the sky because it rains down, and there is water below because we come to the sea and find water in wells. So the next step is for the water to be divided into the water below and the water above leaving the air in between.
3. The tide goes in and out so it is easy to imaging the next step as the waters recede or the dry ground is raised up. And once you have dry ground you can have plants growing. Every animal that does not eat another animal seems to eat plants, so you have to have plants first.
4. But plants respond to the seasons. Crops grow and are harvested by season. Trees lose their leaves in autumn and re-grow them in spring, so we now need the Sun and Moon and Stars to provide the seasons.
5. Fish seem to be the most primitive life so they are created next and birds are pretty dumb so they are created.
6. Land animals are next highest on the philosopher’s sense of priority so they are created next and finally, at the very peak, there is man.

Isn’t it amazing that this sequence has so much in common with modern scientific thinking? The lie says it’s just a coincidence that the Bible got it right.

My response is:

It is not Genesis that came out of man’s imagination, but aspects of modern scientific thinking that is pure imagination. So, if you want to hang your hat on this lie and trust your soul to an eternity of torment then don’t bother reading any more. But if you are a serious thinker and want to look into these things and find a Truth that will save you and introduce you to the Living God who created all things and knows you by name, then read on.

The devil is in the detail

The technique here is to pick some detail that you think you can discredit. Once you seed doubt about some tiny little issue you discredit everything. For example, claim that science says that invertebrate life existed in the sea before plants existed on the land so you cannot have vegetation on day 3 before fish in the sea on day 5.

I really don’t want to get into arguments attempting to defend what God has described. God says not to correct a scoffer. But I don’t want babes in the faith to be quickly misled. Perhaps these points will help...

• Keep in mind the big picture. God is giving a very brief overview.
• Recall all the models. There is more here than a simple sequence.
• The real flaw in the deception is that it presumes science is correct. Because present day science, which I will call technology, seems to be so amazing, we tend to assume that all it’s declarations about the past are accurate when they are no more than “intelligent” guesses. More on this later.
• God’s real starting point was Adam. The physical creation was just setting the scene for what is about to unfold.
• If only science would submit itself to such scrutiny. There are a significant number of fundamental inconsistencies in the Big Bang and Evolution theories. Any scientist that denies this is at best ill informed.

A tip for debates

If you find yourself debating issues with someone who rejects your biblical point of view, try and discern if they are seeking the truth revealed by scripture or just offering and excuse to carry on believing whatever they have set their heart on.

The new lie ...Evolution with a twist

Why do we need a new lie? Well, there is a ground swell amongst scientists themselves, not Christians, that the Big Bang just does not work. Then there is new data suggesting that our galaxy is close to the centre of the universe, which is bad enough in itself because it smacks too much of “God”. And there are new models in physics that successfully explain the universe based around this galacto-centric idea. Further these models explain many problems by showing that time at the centre of the universe would run more slowly than at the edges and hence our part of the universe could be much younger than other parts we observe. These things also fit in with a Bible based view.

And then there is evolution theories, which demand exceptionally long periods of time and absurd improbabilities. Well, these are under fire as well. Intelligent Design is not just for Christians. A significant number of non-believing scientists see the writing on the wall and are no longer prepared to swallow the absurd improbabilities, that are ever increasing, with still no real evidence that it works. The fundamental assumptions are being undermined by observations of the way cell biology works and in fact the only real changes being seen, and at a clearly observable rates, is the decay of DNA through degenerative mutations – losses of info – not the supposed increase in complexity that evolution proposes. (See the CMI site for more info – I just read their quarterly magazine.)

So scientists know they have problems. The trick is, most scientists feel they have to find a solution that excludes God. Now, aliens seeding life on this planet has been around for a while, but who created the aliens? So here is a storey I have made up with a twist...

In the outer parts of the universe, where time had been running faster, a pond scum evolved that was very simple but whose fibres started to act as a neural network. It became a self aware brain that learned how to direct the growth of its fibres to become sensors. It filled a whole lake and was fed by underground thermal springs but its own make-up was unsuitable to generate arms and legs to make it mobile, so this Super Pond Scum (SPS), hit on the idea of designing other organisms to be its arms and legs. Of course these organisms needed energy and it created an entire food-chain to supply the higher level creatures that would do its will. The SPS embedded a special telepathy capability into the brains of these higher level creatures in order to control them.

Once the SPS figured out that there were other parts of the universe it set-out to replicate itself on different planets to ensure its continued existence. It could communicate telepathically with these other parts of itself and, being a very simple organism, it was easy to load a bath-tub size chunk into a space craft that would be sent out to other galaxies. Of course it sent one craft towards our galaxy, being the youngest, since that afforded the most chance of a finding suitable long term planet. Provided the planet was even vaguely suitable the SPS could use its skills to manipulate the atmosphere and surface to suit it.

The earth was just such a suitable planet. It was well positioned outside the cluttered galactic centre and spiral arms to view the rest of the universe. It was covered in water and dense clouds. The SPS created bacteria which it seeded into the clouds and so reduced carbon-dioxide and cooled the planet, allowing light to reach the surface. This light fuelled other organisms in the water that accelerated the process until there was a dry atmosphere. Further cooling and the seas contracted to the poles and dry land formed. The SPS could now establish vegetation on the earth and create more living creatures. (This sounds a bit like the World Model, doesn’t it. The closer you can get to the Bible and still deny God, the better the lie.)

The SPS was getting quite good at this and the earth was turning out to be very suitable, so its artistic nature experimented with exceptionally beautiful and diverse life forms while it waited for temperature and climatic conditions to stabilise. By trial and error, it refined many of its designs to better fit the ever changing environment, which itself continued to throw up some random variations. (A form of “guided” evolution.)

Finally the SPS created man to serve it. The SPS had left orbit around the earth and found a suitable location on earth that seemed just right. There was a stable underground spring to sustain the SPS, which also provided a well watered region with fruit trees to sustain the special man creature that served the SPS. (The Garden of Eden.) It imparted technical knowledge of how to do metal work and build ships and farm so that these men could establish technology. The SPS would use this to send more space craft to other planets and further replicate the SPS.

But alas something went wrong. It lost control of the men – through some unexpected “evolutionary” change these men became independent. (Genesis 3 – man rebels. This lie has all the biblical ingredients re-worked.) Then, with no men to help it, some terrible catastrophe wiped out the SPS on earth. (Springs dried up, flood, super-volcano, meteorite – make up your own story.)

The SPS on other planets or galaxies still had weak telepathic links to a few of these men that still held the old DNA makeup in their brains and it created God scenarios to try and bring them back under control. SPS on nearby planets or galaxies sent out craft to check things out and see if they could not recover the situation. (Wow, even aliens probing mankind is explained.)

Did you see all the important points...

• Evolution still created the first life, and natural intelligence did the rest. But I get extra points because in my lie, evolution only has to get to the pond scum level.
• God is explained away and observations that affirm the Bible are accounted for without a need for God.
• People who hear and believe in God are simply evolutionary throw-backs, still subservient to the SPS. Implying that those who don’t believe are somehow superior, free and independent.

But it’s a fantasy! Recall reality...

• God does not seek to enslave us. Rather through Jesus, we are set free to be His children.
• It’s the people who reject God that are actually enslaved by sin and serve Satan. (P.S. serving Satan does not mean you do apparently bad things – it just means you reject the truth about God.) 
• God created the whole universe, not just life on this planet.
• It’s not a genetic thing – as if only some people’s minds are wired up to hear God. It’s for all who believe in Jesus.
• God’s power, not just some presumed telepathy, is here right now at work amongst believers, healing, delivering. He’s not just all talk.
• The wonders performed by Moses, Jesus, the prophets and still today are real and tangible.

Man’s explanations are increasingly failing. All the evidence is increasingly confirming God, not that He needs man’s evidence to validate Himself. But if you cannot accept God then this will probably be the lie you do accept.

Can you see the funny side? We have been sold evolution as a demonstrated fact. Suddenly the lie changes and life was designed by an unknown, unobserved being that is known by faith to have evolved. Boys and girls, the facts no longer matter; it is just about denying that God exists.