Category Insights on Scripture

Are We Really Akin to A Monkey?

Allen Frederick 2 Comments

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Gen 1:24-28 (KJV)

Ida the missing link primate fossil - whole skeletonAlthough evolved, a case could be made that mankind is nothing more than a advanced animal life. Scientists now believe they have found the “missing link” in “Ida” a skeleton reportedly 47 million years old. Discovered in 1983 in the Messel Pit in Germany, the fossil was made public Tuesday May 19.

Scientists say Ida is the most complete primate group of fossils found to date including lorises, lemurs, monkeys, apes and yes, Man.

Scientists also claim the fossil proves the transition from the prosimians, like lemurs, to anthropoids, like apes and humans. Those who made the discovery say it is this “link” between the early primate animals to the evolution of humans.

Some in mainstream scientific community aren’t so quick to claim this supposed long lost relative. “It’s not a missing link, it’s not even a terribly close relative to monkeys, apes and humans, which is the point they’re trying to make,” said Chris Beard, a curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in
Pittsburgh.

You decide for yourself if you think one of your great, great, great, great ancestors had a tail. I do not know how scientists make their assessment of what a dead fossil would look like as a live species, that is a science above my pay grade. So as for me and my house, I think I am going to stick with the idea that in the beginning God created each species of land, air and sea animal after their own kind and then he created man in His own image. So then all land creatures were created before man, on the sixth day of creation, so it could be said they preceded man, but God made Man to have dominion over all these lessor created animals, not to be one of them.  I just do not see God swinging from a tree by his tail. What say you?

Powered by ScribeFire.

Related articles by Zemanta

Wait and See What Develops

Allen Frederick 11 Comments

Random Ramblings from the Resident Raptor
Insight from the Journey across the Sky
By Allen Scott


As they came to Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man to Jesus. They begged Jesus to touch him. Jesus took the blind man’s hand and led him out of the village. He spit into the man’s eyes and placed his hands on him. Jesus asked him, “Can you see anything?” The man looked up and said, “I see people. They look like trees walking around.” Then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes a second time, and the man saw clearly. His sight was normal again. He could see everything clearly even at a distance. Mark 8:22-25 (GW)



The box-type camera was developed in the late 19th century and marketed under many names, but most successfully by Eastman Kodak Co. as the "Brownie". George Eastman took the simple operation of the box camera, combined it with a name and an advertising campaign that would appeal to children, sold it for a dollar and made millions.
*********************************************************************************************
**************************************************************************

These basic cameras where very simple to use and took surprisingly good pictures as can be seen in this picture taken in 1981 with a "Brownie" camera. Kodak was the leader in amateur photography for many years and basically controlled the market on film cameras.

Although film cameras were able to take excellent pictures and are still being used today one little girl who wished to see her vacation pictures sooner rather than later preyed on the mind of the girl’s father. Edwin Land pondered his daughter’s idea and started to work on a process to combine the film and the processing into one easy step.  Eventually the Polaroid One Step camera came into existence and instant photography was birthed.

Edwin Herbert Land
Image via Wikipedia

The process developed by Land required special film which contained the chemicals needed to develop the picture once it was pulled from the camera. Pinch rollers were placed in the base of the camera which would squeeze the chemicals out of its storage pouch and spread them evenly across the picture. During the development process the film could not be exposed to direct sunlight or the whole picture would turn black and become unusable.


Land’s instant picture camera became all the rage. Traditional film cameras where under heavy competition to give their users quicker results which led Kodak to introduce their own brand of instant cameras which later proved a violation of Polaroid’s patients and had to be discontinued. Later the one hour photo studios started to dot the landscape in attempts to get pictures into the hands of the consumer quicker. But nothing could compete with INSTANT.

Film cameras started to decline in use as the Digital Photography age started to advance. With the advent of digital imaging Land’s daughter’s original hope and desire to see her vacation pictures right away was finally realized. Photographers no longer had to wait and see what developed, they could see instantly what the camera saw. Instant cameras now meant just that instant pictures.

The operation of a camera can be likened to the operation of the human eye, with the camera lens resembling the eye’s lens, the shutter resembling the eyelid, and the film resembling the retina, and apertures can be likened to the iris of the eye, which controls the amount of light that transfers to the retina.

Our Mark passage paints a picture of Jesus healing a blind man. The narrative goes into great detail describing the process Jesus used to develop the picture we later see as a miracle. He starts off by spitting in the man’s face and places his hands on him and asked him if he could see anything.

The blind man responds back that yes indeed an image was starting to develop and it appeared to him like trees walking. The image was not yet clear, the development process had not yet been complete, but the blind man was able to see a fuzzy picture. So then Jesus placed his hands on the man’s eyes a second time and the blind man was able to see things clearly this time. The development process was complete. The picture was fully developed and the image could clearly be seen.

How might this same scene play out in a digital age? How do you suppose this miracle would be viewed in our age of instant results? How do you suppose the blind man would react in today’s hurry-up world? Do you suppose the blind man would have waited for the second touch or walked away in disgust because the first process did not work? Had it taken a week or more to see the final picture developed and it came out fuzzy how do you suppose the blind man would have felt? Even if it took an hour to develop the picture and it came out fuzzy do you suppose the blind man would have rejoiced in the finished product? Prior to digital cameras a bad picture or a poorly developed one would have had to be discarded it could not be retaken because by the time the picture came back from the lab the scene which it depicted was already past.

This is what made the Polaroid camera so appealing. The fact that you could get almost instant results and if the picture turned out to be bad you had another opportunity to retake the scene and try again. Not so with the "Brownie".

The blind man was not left with a fuzzy image he could not use but rather Jesus retook the picture and developed it into a fully functional, full color, completely clear image which was gladly received by the blind man. Jesus made sure the picture was clear before he left the blind man to continue his ministry. Can you imagine  what kind of a testimony the blind man would have given Jesus if he was left with partial sight. Yes partial sight is better than no sight but how would the blind man relate the scene? Would others look at a fuzzy picture and praise the photographer? Would a developer of film win awards for fuzzy pictures coming out of his lab every day? I doubt that very much.

Jesus took his time and showed great love and compassion for the blind man by making sure that the picture he saw was the best it could be. I fear though that in today’s fast paced digital age we have lost our patience and require instantaneous results and instant gratification. We desire that all goes well and if we run into a problem we expect to get immediate answers to our problems. We do not desire to wait and see what develops.

Unfortunately that is not how things work in the kingdom of God. We read in 1 Cor 13:12 (AMP)

Continue reading “Wait and See What Develops” →

Culture Of Corruption: The Need for Prayer

Allen Frederick 2 Comments

Culture Of Corruption: The Need for Prayer
“Our greatest danger comes not from cultural forces we oppose, but from those we embrace.“[43] Tony Campolo

Most of Christians would not embrace such obviously denigrated values as abortion upon demand, unbridled pornography and violence in the media, soft laws on drug use and drug peddling, etc.

But is it possible that we, like the frog slowly boiling to death in the kettle, are unknowingly and perhaps unwittingly being seduced to embrace cultural values that violate Biblical Christianity? For example:


The night before the cross, Jesus prayed thus to the Father on behalf of His disciples: “My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.” (John 17:15-17)

Jesus knew that only through the cleansing power of His Word would the disciples survive the Enemy’s seduction of worldly forces… a bewitchment that is blithely embraced today by much of the Body of Christ.

And it is precisely because of its deadly seduction that the Christian community’s compromising embrace of contemporary cultural values is infinitely more lethal than the more obvious sins the world attempts to foist upon us.
 
Thank you R. Dwight Hill, I could not agree more. In fact as Christians who live in America we are experiencing first hand what happens when we DISENGAGE from the fight against evil and just LIVE AND LET LIVE. We are to be the agents of change in America. The fact of the matter is that with all the talk this past campaign season of HOPE AND CHANGE for some reason the church did not realize it was a CALL TO ACTION for us to EFFECT the change. So now it is our time to rise up and be the men and women of God we were saved to be.To be the salt and light we are supposed to be. It is the responsibility of the church, those who are called by His name, to humble ourselves and repent. Seek the face of God and pray for the healing of our nation. Therefore I have proposed in our church and to whomever wishes to participate an AMERICA CHAPTER 7.
 
May 7th is the National Day of Prayer and we will be holding 7 days of prayer  May 7th through the 14th. We will pause for 14 mins each day at 7:14 AM or 7:14 PM and will be praying for the healing of our nation and for the spiritual condition of the church and our land. We are hoping for a CHAPTER 7 bailout of our current state and a restoration of the values we once held dear. Care to join us?
PrayerVigilPoster.JPG (518x800 pixels)
 

Is America A Christian Nation? by Alan Allegra

Allen Frederick 3 Comments

Today I hope you enjoy this guest post from Alan Allegra. If you enjoyed it or find it offensive or have any other comment be sure to let Alan know how you feel. From time to time I like to post articles from fellow authors at Faithwriters.com. We can learn a great deal if we take the time to read what others have to say. So without further delay on with this weeks quest article.

Is America a Christian Nation?

b3bc5301-6edd-48b0-a208-8a504e527944.Large Religion and politics are the two most incendiary topics of conversation imaginable. Everything we think, say, and do is influenced by our view of God and government. President Obama’s observation that we are not a nation beholden to any particular religion has struck the match of ardor and ignited the debate over whether America is a Christian nation.

Let me clarify that there is no such thing as a Christian nation. A Christian, by definition, is an individual follower of Christ. No nation can be "a" Christian, although we understand that those who debate the question mean our law is based on Christian (or "Judeo-Christian") principles. Without floundering in a sea of theology, let’s just say that the principles in discussion predate Christianity and Judaism. They were incarnated in the very womb of Creation.

Some tell us we need to "embrace universal principles that emphasize our common humanity and promote greater understanding and appreciation of different cultures." This sounds well and good and politically correct, but is it practical or possible?

The Book of Judges is a horror story right out of a Gothic novel, except it’s all true. It honestly and almost matter-of-factly documents scenes of rape, murder, dismemberment, unbridled lust, idolatry, robbery, economies of truth, betrayal, assassination, warfare, torture, suicide, filicide, and other best-seller fodder. The key verse and epilogue are identical summaries of the culture of the time: "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6, 21:25). In other words, every person followed the dictates of their common humanity, unfettered by government standards.

If we are to appreciate different cultures, then we need to embrace them uncritically lest we offend. We were wrong to interfere with Nazis, and must appreciate Holocaust deniers. Beheading and terror are innate to some cultures, and we need their cooperation to make this a better global village. Forced abortion is practiced by a country with over 20% of the world’s population. Genocide rules in many countries, and a caste system in others wears a heavy boot that keeps the people crushed and oppressed. So we wonder: Whose principles of common humanity should we embrace and cooperate with?

A cursory consideration verifies God’s view of common humanity: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). Jeremiah reminds us, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (17:9). God ordained human government, based on His righteous character, to rein in man’s evil: "For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil" (Romans 13:4).

Are there "good" common principles of humanity and culture that we can embrace? There are values that are shared by humans that manifest themselves in almost every culture, such as private property and the right to life. But these are not beliefs that evolved or sprang up from the fertile soil of man’s own heart. "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them" (Romans 2:14, 15). God has written His standards in every heart, and we either live by them or make excuses to go our own way.

Founding Fathers [VHS],

The Federalist Papers

Founding Faith: How Our Founding Fathers Forged a Radical New Approach to Religious Liberty

It is historical fact that the founding fathers based the nation’s laws on the Bible. They were not all Christians or Jews but recognized the wisdom of having a righteous standard of law, a law that respects life and encourages true freedom.

Alan Allegra, Executive Administrative Assistant of Faith Church in Allentown, Pa. More devotionals at http://www.faithefc.com/includes/Alan-Devotionals.htm. More articles at Lifestyles Over 50: http://www.lifestylesover50.com/ and the Morning Call: www.mcall.com. Available for writing.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com <a href="http://www.faithwriters.com">CHRISTIAN WRITERS</a>

Related articles by Zemanta

You Can’t keep a God Man Down!

Allen Frederick Leave a comment


Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered
unto the chief priests and the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death,
and shall deliver him unto the Gentiles:
and they shall mock him, and shall spit upon him,
and shall scourge him, and shall kill him; and after three days he shall rise again.
Mark 10:33-34 (ASV)

NOW THAT IS GOOD NEWS! FOR IT’S A TRUTH, YOU CAN NOT KEEP A GOD MAN DOWN!

Posted by Picasa