Daily Devotional – February 5

History

Have you considered that the Garden of Eden was meant to be

understood as real history? Does this mean that there was a walking, talking snake? If any of this were true, we would expect people to remember some of the details and carry that memory with them when they left the Tower of Babel. We find such details in a 12 foot tall, bronze, fruit tree that was excavated in 1986 near Guanghan, China (dated about 4000 years old, secular dating).

Attached to this 12-foot bronze fruit tree were a human hand and a snake with feet. Genesis 3:6 records that Eve took forbidden fruit from the tree and ate. Genesis 3 continues with the snake being cursed by God such that it was changed to move about on its belly. This implies that previously the snake had legs and walked. The temptation of Eve was a real event in history and the Chinese recorded it in one of their artifacts.

Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

~ Genesis 3:14b

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

Daily Devotional - January 31

History

When did the concept of millions of years of earth history first creep into academic thought? For thousands of years of human history, in almost every culture around the world, it was universally acknowledged that humanity was a relatively recent creation of God. Modern textbooks imply that it was during the “rise of science” in the 1700s that geologists “discovered” that the rock layers of the earth were millions of years. In reality, this revisionist history has turned the truth completely upside down. The rejection of God’s Word came first, resulting in the misinterpretation of the earth’s rock layers.

In 1492 Columbus first crossed the Atlantic and “discovered” America. In actuality, he landed on what is now the Dominican Republic, and after exploring the area, he returned to Spain in 1493, taking with him some native North Americans. To understand the impact of this event, you need to understand the culture of that day. The church strongly influenced both governmental and social structures in all European countries and was arguably the most powerful social institution of the day. It controlled educational thought and, in the 1400s, still accepted the early parts of the Bible as true historical events. Thus, it was widely taught that the worldwide Flood of Genesis 6-9 was a real event and all people on earth were descendants of Noah’s sons – Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Furthermore, it was widely accepted that the Europeans were primarily descendants of Japheth, Africans were primarily descendants of Ham, and Asians were primarily descendants of Shem. They believed this explained the very different skin coloring and facial characteristics of different races of people. What they did not understand is that the genetic composition of all people was already created within the DNA and both Adam and later Noah. The children of Shem, Ham and Japheth would have displayed a wide variety of appearances, not just the narrow variation which came after the tower of Babel.

When Columbus arrived back in Europe, he disembarked with people who did not look like Europeans, Africans, or Asians. Since it was widely taught that all people descended from Noah’s sons, and these “creatures” did not look like any of the sons of Noah (Europeans, Africans, or Asians), the church had a huge mystery on its hands. Some church leaders argued that these Naive Americans could not even be human! Eventually the church came to a faulty conclusion – since these people did not look like the sons of Noah, they could not be descendants of Noah.

They solved the mystery by rejecting what the Word of God teaches. They arbitrarily concluded that there had never been a world-covering flood upon the earth in spite of the fact that the Bible is crystal-clear on this issue.

It took about 100 years for this general consensus to be widely accepted, but by the 1700’s, when earth scientists were studying the rock layers of the earth, many of them no longer accepted that these sedimentary rocks (and the fossils they contained) were a testimony to the worldwide Flood from the days of Noah. Therefore, the only other logical explanation for the existence of extensive layers of sedimentary rock (in some places thousands of feet deep) was enormous periods of time and slow accumulation. Thus millions, and later billions, of years of earth history became accepted as a “fact of science.” Long forgotten is that this is just a faulty interpretation of the rock layers based on the rejection of the truth (a world-covering flood created these layers).

Slow changes over enormous time became the only accepted viewpoint in the 1700’s to explain the geology of our planet (geological evolution); leading directly to the belief in slow changes over enormous periods of time to explain all of biology (biological evolution) in the 1800’s; leading directly to slow changes over enormous periods of time to explain all the matter and energy in the universe (cosmic evolution) in the 1900’s.

Today, evolutionism is the only explanation taught to students. It is so widely repeated throughout our educational, museum, and media systems that few people question its assumptions or understand how this philosophical framework for interpreting the world around us arose. It was the rejection over 500 years ago of what the Bible teaches about geology (the worldwide Flood) that ultimately led to the current situation where most of Western civilization has rejected all of God’s Word as accurate and relevant. An ever-increasing proportion of people are now rejecting the very existence of God Himself. Ideas have consequences! Ideas not based on God’s truth have dire consequences!

You have made the earth tremble; You have broken it; Heal its breaches, for it is shaking.

~ Psalm 60:2

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

~ John 15:13

“I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”

~ Hudson Taylor, Pioneering Missionary to China in 1800’s

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett