Posts Tagged ‘creation’
Does It Matter?
https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Does-It-Matter.mp3 by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Download Audio Text: Genesis 1 I. The teaching of evolution has made significant inroads in the beliefs of common man A. In 1999 Gallup found 1. 47% believed in a recent, special creation 2. 40% believed in a God-directed form of evolution 3. 9% believe a strictly natural-caused evolution B. In 2024 Gallup found 1. 37%…
Read MoreThe Original Recycler
by David Gibson Recycling is in vogue, but our generation can’t take credit for it. God is the Original Recycler. God uses evaporation and condensation to turn filthy water into fresh water. He created the decay process, utilizing microbes and vultures to manage the carrion. God made our bodies fully biodegradable. Some of us, I’m…
Read MoreWhat does “stretched out the Earth over the waters” mean?
Question: “To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever” (Psalms 136:6). What does “stretched out the earth above the waters” mean? Is there any connection between this verse and II Peter 3:5-7? Answer: There are several passages that indicate that the land mass of the earth rested…
Read MoreMusic
by Richard Blackford We don’t limit “Set for the Defense” (Philippians 1:7,17) to responding to arguments made against God and the Bible (often in blasphemous attacks), but also in presenting positive affirmations for believing there is a highly Intelligent Designer who is the cause of all creation. Many things in our universe argue for such…
Read MoreFearfully and Wonderfully Made
by Terry Wane Benton Text: Psalms 139 Your body consists of 37 trillion cells divided into 200 different types. 100 billion cells make up the skin, which is the largest organ in your body. 100 billion neurons in the brain allow you to process as many as 60,000 thoughts per day. You also have 127…
Read MoreGod Created
https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/God-Created.mp3 Download Audio by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Isaiah 45:9-13 I. The ancient language of Hebrew contains two words for making something: A. The word ‘asah refers to what we do with our talents. We make things from what already exists. B. But there is another word, bara, that is used in connection with God. It is…
Read MoreWas Genesis 1-3 Sufficiently Witnessed?
by Terry Wane Benton Jesus was there (John 1:1f); He said the story is factual (Mark 10:1-6) and that Satan was the liar from the beginning (John 8 ). The Spirit confirmed through Paul that death entered the world through Adam (Romans 5), and Satan’s head would be crushed (Genesis 3:15 compares to Romans 16:20).…
Read MoreHow Old Is the Earth?
by Perry Hall A recent conversation with an atheist who was honest enough to admit a point I had made was from a perspective she hadn’t heard before. May we all be as honest! The information below is more than what I discussed with the young lady: In doing campus evangelism, I asked a young…
Read MoreDoes a Christian have to believe in a young earth?
Question: Good day!I hope you are well. I have a rather strange question. I do believe the Bible literally without question where it needs to be, but I’ve never really even thought of asking this question before, even though it seems to be an obvious question. The question is this: Does a Christian have to…
Read MoreJesus, the Amen and the Beginning
by Terry Wane Benton “These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God” (Revelation 3:14). The Amen Jesus is the Amen, the One who validates us. When we say “amen” at the end of a prayer, we are validating our support for that prayer. Jesus validates us.…
Read MoreAre All Men Created Equal?
https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Are-All-Men-Created-Equal.mp3 by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Acts 17:21-31 I. Many people are familiar with the stirring words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty…
Read MoreWhat is God’s purpose in creating us?
Question: Good evening, I, lately, have been struggling with the whole idea of creation. I feel terrible for saying this, as I’m a Christian, but wouldn’t God be selfish for creating us? I just don’t see the purpose. I was never asked to be born or be created. Honestly, if I had the option and…
Read MoreCreation and Resurrection
by Matthew W. Bassford The primary objection to the resurrection accounts of the Bible is philosophical. It is based on the theory of naturalism. This theory holds that all events have causes rooted in the natural laws of the universe. In the universe, dead people don’t naturally come back to life, so Jesus, if dead,…
Read MoreHow Fundamental Is Faith to Christianity
by Afolabi Akinyemi (Nigeria) “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). No other Bible passage describes the importance of faith to Christianity than the one quoted above. The…
Read MoreGod Revealed
https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/God-Revealed.mp3 by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Revelation 15:1-6 I. In the beginning, Adam and Eve had fellowship with God A. God directly interacted with His creation – Genesis 2:15-22 B. He walked in the garden – Genesis 3:8 C. But they had sinned and that sin – separated them from God – Genesis 3:22-24 D. That has remained true…
Read MoreMore Purposes Found for So-Called Junk DNA
Source: “Caltech Finds Amazing Role for Noncoding DNA,” Evolutionary News, 3 December 2021. “Scientists at Caltech may have sounded the final death knell for the “junk DNA” myth.” For years evolutionists have pointed to sections of the DNA and RNA strands that are not directly involved in the encoding of proteins as leftovers produced as…
Read MoreThere seem to be reasons to believe the earth is older than 6,000 years
Question: I have been considering the question of the age of the Earth and universe for many years. For a long time, I believe the Earth was only a few thousand years old based on the Bible. However, I have come to consider many other factors that don’t seem to make sense with that belief.…
Read MoreWhen are people’s spirits created?
Question: Some people believe, which was also me until now, that God made man’s spirit and not his physical body. Only in Genesis 2:7 had God put man’s spirit in a body. Is this wrong? Also, when God created man on the sixth day, did God just create Adam and Eve? As some also believe…
Read MoreMitochondrial DNA Differences Indicate a 6,000 Year Old Human Race
Source: Nathaniel T. Jeanson, “On the Origin of Human Mitochondrial DNA Differences, New Generation Time Data Both Suggest a Unified Young-Earth Creation Model and Challenge the Evolutionary Out-of-Africa Model,” Answers Research Journal, September 2016. “Previously, I predicted that a constant rate of mutation over 6000 years would result in 20 to 79 mitochondrial genome-wide nucleotide differences.…
Read MoreScience Confirms Flood Timeline
Source: Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Ph.D., “Y-Chromosome Study Confirms Genesis Flood Timeline,” ICR.org, 17 December 2019. “In this current study, the authors note that if humans have actually been around for several hundred thousand years or more, they should have accumulated 8 to 59 times the amount of mutations that we currently observe in Y-chromosome DNA…
Read MoreYour Belief about Origins and Your Children’s Behavior
by Alan Smith PBS film critic and columnist Michael Medved shared this anecdote out of his Jewish heritage: “A few years ago, Rabbi Jacob Karmenetky made a trip to Israel accompanied by his teenage grandson. Ironically, these two deeply religious people were seated In the airplane next to a prominent Israeli socialist leader and outspoken…
Read MoreGenuine Faith
by Jefferson David Tant The topic of “faith” is often discussed and often misunderstood. Skeptics accuse Christians of having “blind faith,” or taking a “leap of faith,” meaning that there is no basis for what we believe. Thus our faith in God’s existence is no different than what I have encountered in South Africa, i.e.…
Read MoreEvidence of God: Information
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton When you look at some object, how do you know it is natural or man-made? What if you were walking through the woods and you saw a mark on a tree? It is dark from moss, like the other patches on the trunk, but you immediately say that it is man-made.…
Read MoreThe Meaning of Life: Where Did You Come From?
https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Meaning-of-Life-Where-Did-You-Come-From.mp3 by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Romans 11:25-36 I. The age-old question: Why are we here? A. To answer the question well, we first need to consider how did we get to “here.” B. To do so begins to answer why we are “here.” II. The prevalent answer today is to claim that it just happened A. Life is…
Read MoreThe Heavens Declare the Glory of God (Psalms 19)
by Mike Johnson Psalm 19 is beautifully written and has been revered by many people over the years. From it, many conclude that there is a God who created the universe, and He has revealed Himself to mankind through the Scriptures. From Psalms 19:12-14, the awesomeness of these concepts should cause introspection on the part…
Read MoreThe Wonder of Touch
by Whit Sasser God’s design of the sense of touch is truly a most wondrous thing. Pain can save us from danger. Caressing can make us feel love and convey love to another. Determining the feelings of various things can be so helpful. Is it smooth or rough? Is it cold or hot? Is it…
Read MoreThe Wonder of Smell
by Whit Sasser God’s design of the sense of smell is a wonder to experience and ponder. Who hasn’t experienced the sheer joy of smelling honeysuckle, freshly cut grass, brewing coffee, and hundreds of others similar? Some folks like the smell of gasoline, a new car interior, cigarettes (if a smoker), and such like. And…
Read MoreThe Wonder of Hearing
by Whit Sasser God’s design of hearing is such a wonder of the human body and our ears in particular. “The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both” (Proverbs 20:12). Our world is full of sound—sirens, traffic, thunder…songbirds, music, voices, etc. Thank God, we can hear! I have read that…
Read MoreThe Wonder of Sight
by Whit Sasser God’s design of sight is such a wonder of the human body and our eyes in particular. The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both (Proverbs 20:12). Charles Darwin struggled with the problem of an organ so complex as the eye evolving via naturalistic processes. In The…
Read MoreEvidence of a Creator
https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Evidence-of-a-Creator.mp3 by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Romans 1:18-22 I. There are so many hints present in this world that it is surprising that they are often overlooked. A. But people have this tendency to only see what they expect to see B. And we have a school system that pushes agendas instead of teaching students to analyze…
Read MoreNested Coding in DNA is Evidence of Design
Source: “BioEssays Editor: “‘Junk’ DNA… Full of Information!” Including Genome-Sized “Genomic Code”,” Evolution News & Science Today, 18 November 2019. “The paper finds that our DNA contains overlapping layered “’dual-function’ pieces of information,” including a “genomic code” that spans virtually the entire genome in order to “defin[e] the shape and compaction of DNA into the highly-condensed…
Read MoreWho created God?
Question: If God created the universe, then who created God? And who created that person who created God? Answer: There is a law that says for every effect there is a cause. Thus, there is a chain of causes leads up to a particular effect. But what most people don’t consider is that this same…
Read MoreFoundations of Apologetics
by Doy Moyer I have tried, for better or worse, to dedicate myself over the years to the foundations of what it means to defend the reason for our hope (I Peter 3:15). While the study of apologetics (the defense of the faith) has many layers and even more topics, here is, in my experience,…
Read MoreWas Satan Created?
by Doy Moyer Years ago I was asked to teach a class on I Timothy 6 for a congregation that I was visiting. We read of Jesus Christ, “the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see” (I…
Read MoreHow did Adam find Eve?
Question: I hope you can answer these for me: When Adam worked in the Garden, did he have to work and show he was worthy Eve for God to present her to him? I understand the help meet part, but did God make Adam for Eve or Eve for Adam? I know it was a…
Read More“Mite” God Be Our Creator?
by Larry Hafley Leucania Moth (False Wainscot Moth) Tiny mites infect and inhabit the ear of the Leucania moth. Yes, I said, “the ear,” singular. In whichever ear the mites first locate, the other is left free. Hence, if the left ear of the moth is infested by mites, the right ear will remain clear…
Read MoreCan you speak something into existence?
Question: I heard someone use the figure of speech that negative thinking “speaks it into existence.” In other words, when you verbalize negativity that person’s reality becomes negative. The Bible tells us God spoke the worlds into existence. Man has the ability to speak something. For example, at some point man said I’m going to…
Read MoreWas the world made from nothing?
Question: Hello! I was reading through your outline entitled “What is faith?” and I want to thank you for posting that. It is helping me to further understand Hebrews 11:1-3. However, I wanted to point out something you stated that I don’t believe adds up with Scripture. You said that “We have confidence that the…
Read MoreEvidence that 90% of Earth’s Species Developed at the Same Time
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton An analysis of the mitochondrial DNA in 100,000 species showed that there were fewer neutral mutations (variations that have no impact) than expected and that the number of neutral mutations in the various species is basically the same, indicating that these species all began at roughly the same time. The authors’…
Read MoreIn the Beginning God …
by Terry Wayne Benton Genesis 1:1. The first verse in the Bible is either true or false. If false, then the truth would have to be: Something accidentally came from nothing. Something eternal accidentally brought life and order. But something has never come from nothing, so we have to admit that something is eternal in…
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