304-856-2909

how does Evolution happen

                                                         HOW DOES EVOLUTION HAPPEN

It has long been believed that evolution from one kind of creature to another takes place very slowly over millions, if not billions, of years.  Each creature mutates into another type of creature; like monkey to man.  Each step of this mutating experience is supposed to happen so slowly that it is not discernable for many generations.  All the steps needed to progress upwards into a better creature, according to evolutionists, all are directed by accidental duplications or mutations in the genes.  There is no guided direction in any of this.  It is all pure chance.  Mutations in the genes was supposed to be the reason all things evolve.  It has long been held by those who believe in evolution that habitat change, food supplies, and other outside forces are the only guide to change.  Nature indiscriminately selects the healthier of the species to survive and allows all others to die off.   If you have followed my articles in the past, you know that genetics is now proving all the above to be wrong.  I have long believed that the discovery of DNA would one day be the nail-in-the-coffin for the Theory of Evolution.  One of the things that science has discovered is that mutations in the genes are almost always detrimental to all creatures, including man.  Genetics has now proven that there seems to be a time when all things were genetically pure…no mutations at all.  In other words, we started out perfect in our genes and have slowly gained one hundred or more mutations in each generation.  Evolution has always had us believe that we are constantly getting better and better.  However, science has now proven that we are getting worse and worse.  The evolutionary doctrine of ‘natural selection’ creating all things to get better has fallen apart.  Science now estimates that mankind will gain so many mutations in the next 10,000 years that we will become extinct.  Evolution has long held that mutations in the genes are what creates new features in creatures.  What science has discovered is that mutations can only modify existing features and that mutations cannot create new features at all.  In other words, we can get different features in a dog, but it will always remain a dog, even with modified features. The same is true for man.  He never evolved from a monkey to a man.  Monkeys are a whole different kind of creature.  It has also just been found that all males on this planet have one chromosome that is identical. This chromosome is passed down from father to son and has been doing so since man was created. We would and should expect that all monkeys would also then have this same chromosome. Research has now shown that they do not. There are multiple choices of chromosomes in the spot where a male human chromosome is. This is pretty stiff evidence that man did not evolve from monkeys.  Mutations did not create anything. They are mostly destructive or else useless. This means if mutations do not work as once supposed, then no new creature can be created from mutations.  This runs completely contrary to what evolutionary scientists have believed since the day of Darwin. The fact that genetic researchers can now calculate how many mutations mankind has added since we were originally genetically pure means we can count backwards to know when man was genetically pure.  It appears that it was less than eight thousand years ago, per the research.  This information can be found in the Genetic Entropy Program; an offshoot of the massive Human Genome Project that took ten years to complete. This would mean that, if man has existed millions of years on this earth, then more than ninety nine percent of that time he’d have been genetically pure, which is impossible.  This finding of man once being genetically pure just happens to correlate quite nicely with what the Bible says about when the heavens, earth, and all things were created.  These are daunting obstacles for evolutionists to overcome, and have been brought to our attention not by Bible believers but by science, itself.  There are numerous genetic research programs taking place in labs all over the world, and many seem to nullify evolutionary beliefs while verifying the Bible creation story.  My money has been on the Bible nearly since I abandoned atheism for Christianity, and I see no reason to change that belief now.  Look for us at evidenceforthehope.org  

138 MOSES DID WRITE THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS

                                                138 MOSES DID WRITE THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS

Julius Wellhausen wrote the ‘Documentary Hypothesis’ in the 1870’s.  Reading the first five books of the Bible, he came to the conclusion that none of them (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) could have been written by Moses.  Moses had long been held by Christians and Jews to have written those books.  If he didn’t then he couldn’t be the author of any book in the Bible.  Wellhausen pushed his ideas about who actually did write the first five books of the Bible; four different people supposedly did separated by hundreds of years.  Wellhausen believed there had been no written language in the days of Moses. No evidence for a written language around 1450 B.C. had ever been found, he said.  How could Moses write the first five books of the Bible if there’d been no written language to use, he argued.  This flew in the face of all Christian beliefs.  Jesus Himself said, “If you cannot believe the ‘writings’ of Moses, how then shall you believe my words?”  Was Jesus wrong!?  If Jesus was the Son of God, then he surely should have known whether Moses wrote the first five books.  If Wellhausen was right, this meant that Jesus mistakenly believed Moses wrote the first five books.  His apostles would have also been wrong, since they also attributed to the writing of Moses.  Many authors of books of the Bible had to be wrong since they too, mentioned Moses writings.  It would mean that Jesus couldn’t possibly be God in the flesh.  Wow!  This would indicate that Christian beliefs were unprovable and incorrect!  Eventually, nearly every college and university began to teach Wellhausen’s theories as fact.  Millions of students learned about the ‘Documentary Hypothesis’ and ended up losing their faith.  Hang in there, I’m about to share a new archaeological find proving Wellhausen very wrong.  Numerous written languages have since been found pre-dating the Birth of Moses.  However, these were not discovered until the last twenty years or so.  This meant the ‘Documentary Hypothesis’ was taught in schools of higher learning for nearly 125 years.  The Ebla tablets are now being said to be the oldest language ever found, predating Moses by many hundreds of years.  There are other written tablets discovered in many other countries near Egypt (where Moses was a Prince).  The newest discovery is rather shocking.  It has long been held that the Egyptians only had hieroglyphic writing.  In the recent ‘Archaeology’ magazine, it describes how Egyptologist Ben Haring, of the University of Leiden, found a tablet in Egypt that shows that the Egyptians not only wrote in hieroglyphs, but had an alphabetic type of writing, too.  This is a written language that can be spoken as well as read.  One can only transcribe hieroglyphs into what they mean, not speak it as a language.  This puts an alphabetic type of writing in Egypt just about six hundred years before Moses was born.  Julius Wellhausen’s theory has just been shot all to pieces by this and other discoveries.  All those millions of students who lost their faith because of his theory did so based on him being absolutely wrong.  This kind of antagonistic rhetoric has been going on in colleges and universities for 150 years.  Before that, the Bible was widely accepted as historically accurate. What changed? Men like Darwin were led by their “daddy” (Satan) to attack the Bible. When our Bible is attacked, students lose their faith and leave the church. Too late, we later find the antagonists were wrong on those things they had attacked.  This atheistic theorizing has cost countless millions of Christians their faith.  Thousands of things have been attacked in the Bible, only to be proven right by nearly 6,500 archaeological discoveries proving our Bible to be absolutely correct and provable.  Please tell your children and grandchildren this before sending them off to schools of higher learning.  I just received pre-copies of my new book ‘LEARNING THE A,B,C’S…APOLOGETICS, THE BIBLE AND CREATION’. Look for it at the book sources shortly. Once I O.K. the pre-copies the publisher will start publication. It will be the best $17.95 you have ever spent if you want you, or your children’s, faith to grow. Look for us at evidenceforthehope.org or Evidence for the Hope Ministries. have a nice day.

136 OPEN WIDE PLEASE

                                                                136 OPEN WIDE, PLEASE

One hears “open wide, please” at the dentist office, but who knew that the plaque scraped off our teeth contains a treasure trove of information?  The largest DNA laboratory in the world doing research on ancient bones is at the University of Oklahoma.  One of their recent discoveries is making us smile.  They are examining plaque on teeth of individuals who died hundreds to thousands of years ago.  Mankind contains about two pounds of bacteria in our bodies, and some of this is found in our mouths.  Plaque has been found to be a preserver of all kinds of things that we have going on in our bodies during our lifetime.  Researchers can even trace how we gained or lost health benefits due to changes in our lifestyles, what we eat, where we work, and much more.  Plaque bacteria is a treasure trove of DNA, containing nearly three and a half million genes compared to our bodies measly 22,000 genes. 

So, what’s the big deal about plaque?  Our mouth contains more bacteria than there are trees and vegetation in a rainforest.  As our teeth develop plaque, we preserve some of this bacteria, along with genetic portions of what we have been eating all these years.  By examining this, geneticists hope to see how we developed things like diabetes, heart problems, and much more.  This will hopefully lead to a cure for all of those things by giving us programs on what to eat or not, how to work safely in dangerous places, where to live, and much more depending on our specific genetics.  Bacteria was once thought to be harmful.  However, science has found that specific bacteria are very beneficial to man.   Researchers examining the teeth of ancient individuals discovered pathogens that are related to heart disease, meningitis, pneumonia, and more.  They hope to use this information to cure these things.

One of the things they have discovered is microbial antibodies that our bodies produce naturally.  People many years ago seem to have had resistance to disease hundreds of years before antibiotics were necessary.  With further research, scientists hope to possibly eliminate the need for drugs.  This whole research project shows me that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made’ as the Bible says.  I can’t imagine how all of this came about by so-called evolutionary accidents causing us to change over millions of years.  How did our bodies know to design antibodies or bacteria strains to form inside of us to keep us healthy?  I must ask evolutionists this; since we needed these things to exist.  How’d we survive before we got them?  Trillions of bodily accidents are needed, if one believes all things came to us slowly over billions of years, that are beneficial.   How is that possible?  Our bodies are in a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria living inside of us.  It needs us and we need it in order to survive. When did this relationship begin, if evolution is correct? The bigger questions for Darwinian evolutionists are how and why did it begin.  The idea that we had natural antibodies that kept us healthy falls right in line with what’s being discovered in DNA research; that we had no sign of mutations in the genes in the beginning of humankind. I imagine that the Garden of Eden had health benefits we can only imagine. Of course, those of us who hold fast to the things of God will one day have the same. I have to fall back on the Bible as my source of knowledge on this; ‘In the beginning, God created man and woman’ and we were “perfect in our generations”.  We were not monkeys, fish, or anything else to begin with.  I have long believed that the study of DNA would ultimately give us plenty of proof for man being created in the beginning by God.  It looks like it’s happening.  Look for us at evidenceforthehope.org.

135 FULL OF GRACE

                                                                         135 FULL OF GRACE

                Many years ago, we had a woman in our congregation by the name of Miss Grace Coffman.  She was like the Rock of Gibraltar when it came to her faith.  Having just turned from atheism to Christianity, I was impressed with her.   Miss Grace was kind, loving, reserved, and as strong as could be when teaching about the Lord.  My wife and I were invited to her home after church one Sunday.  My wife eagerly accepted, but I wasn’t so sure about us going to an older persons home for lunch.  She was in her eighties and we were in our late twenties.  I remember thinking that we’d have nothing in common.  God has a way of humbling some of us who ignore others because of age.  When I entered her living room, I saw a picture of her with President John F. Kennedy.  Miss Grace was busy fixing snacks.  As my wife and I moved around, examining pictures, we saw at least a dozen very famous men with Miss Grace right alongside: Henry Kissinger, Ted Kennedy, President Eisenhower, and more.   We were shocked, to say the least.  This little old lady lived in a humble home, in a tiny town in Virginia.  In the two years that we’d known her, she’d never mentioned a word about knowing these people.  When she came in with our snacks, we asked about the pictures.  She simply stated that she’d met them over the years, and left it at that.  She even had personal letters from them!  Instead, she insisted on talking about “important things”.  She asked how we were doing spiritually and if we had any questions about the Bible or the Lord that she could help us with.   We did, and she answered each.  My wife, still curious, asked what she had done for a living to have met dozens of famous people.  She said she had worked in Washington for politicians for a while, but quickly added that she had also worked as a teacher in Fort Valley, Virginia.  She went on to talk of her teacher days.  We found out later, from others, that Miss Grace had been very instrumental in political circles in Washington.  “There were no buses back in those days”, she related.  “I had to take a horse and wagon to cross the mountain from here to the tiny one-room school in Fort Valley.  One day it began to snow, and I had to keep the old wood stove going in the school for days, until we could get dug out.  I fed the kids, kept them warm, and survived the storm.  I then had to cross that snowy mountain in a horse and buggy to get home.  A car wouldn’t make it.  It took me the whole day.”  We asked if she was afraid, and what she did for days.  “I’m never afraid since I found the Lord, and I was thrilled that it had snowed because I got to read and share the Bible with my students.  Many of those kids are preachers or teachers today.”  She then went on to tell us that she was eight years old before she celebrated her first birthday.  That confused us.  She laughed and explained that she had been born on February 29, 1896.  Anyone born on February 29th will not experience another February 29th for four years, since February normally only has 28 days.  However, in Miss Grace’s case, the year 1900 had no February 29th either.  She had to wait until 1904 before she could celebrate her first birthday; she was eight at the time.  None of the hundreds of students of Miss Grace had ever been arrested, gotten divorced, or left the church.  I was humbled.  Here this woman could have bragged on and on about the people she had worked for and met in Washington, but didn’t.  Instead, she talked of her school kids, and was concerned for our spiritual welfare.  I wept at her funeral, but did as she had asked just before she had died.  I rejoiced and sang praises to the Lord that day that she was with her Lord in heaven.  She, and others like her, are the reason that I wasn’t satisfied just to know the Bible.  I so much wanted to be like her. I’ve spent forty five years researching archaeological and scientific finds proving the Bible to be true. Miss Grace is one of those mentors who encouraged my wife and me to study more than just the Bible. She wanted me to prove it so that I would never doubt it. I am fortunate to have had several people like Miss Grace in my life. She was indeed a teacher, but not just a school teacher; a teacher of Christ and His gospel. Everyone has a story and, if we listen, we could learn much and be blessed.  Look for us at evidenceforthehope.org.

134 COULD THE RED SEA HAVE PARTED

                                          COULD THE RED SEA HAVE PARTED FOR MOSES?

The Bible tells us the story of Moses and the Israelites being freed from hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt, and then being trapped at the Red Sea by Pharaohs’ army.  Miraculously, Moses held up his staff and the Red Sea parted, allowing the Israelites to cross over to the other side.  However, when Pharaoh tried to move his army across, the waters suddenly came back and drowned them.  Could an entire sea suddenly part, then return as quickly as the Bible declares?   National Geographic News ran an article written by Stephan Lovgran on July 19, 2006.  The research of that article was going to be published in the highly acclaimed Journal of Nature, a very scientific journal, the following day.  The very first sentence of Stephan’s article says, “Moses may have received geological assistance when he parted the Red Sea to let the Israelites through, according to the Bible.”  The article then goes on to describe how the European Space Agency’s Envisat radar satellite then examined the area of the Red Sea.  The Arabian tectonic plate has been known to be moving away from the African tectonic plate.  These moving land masses cause tremendous stress on the geology of the area, and partially ripped apart in 2005.  The scientists believe that molten magma is the cause of the plates moving rather than by earthquakes; so much so that Arabia and Africa have been separating from one another for many centuries.  One of these movements of land caused a tremendous tear between the plates in 2005 in the area of the Red Sea.  Nearly 2,000 football fields of lava filled a great void after African and Arabian plates moved twenty-six feet and a mile long from one another.  This is what Stephan’s proposition of Moses possibly being helped by geologic forces is all about in the beginning of his article.  If this same type void happened in the Red Sea when Moses and the Israelites had their backs to it, it would have caused the sea to part.   The waters would have stopped flowing and then travelled back up the Red Sea to fill a great void (there is some evidence of this).  The Israelites could have then crossed, leaving the army of Pharaoh behind.  Once Pharaoh moved his army into the empty sea, the waters could have filled the void and allowed tremendous amounts of rushing water to return, thereby killing all the Egyptians.  The greater miracle here is the timing of this event.  About a million Israelites were about to be slaughtered, suddenly a way was made for them to escape across the sea, and the Egyptians drowned when they entered the empty sea bed by the returning waters.  I’ve often mentioned that I have no problem with God using natural forces to accomplish His purposes and goals.  This is one of those times.  I also have no problem if it was not the way God used to get the Israelites across.  However, I have seen much in my lifetime that gives me confidence that this just might be the way that God saved the Israelites at the Red Sea.  So many things are being discovered today by science and archaeology, giving credence for each and every event written in our Bible, that I am in shock.  In just the last twenty years I’ve watched as thousands of discoveries have uncovered something proving our Bible to be right.  I have to ask…why is all of this happening now 2,000 years after Jesus died and rose to life?  What is God preparing us for?  Are we ready for whatever it is?  Have a nice day, and look for us at evidenceforthehope.org. 

133 SO HOW OLD IS LIFE

                                                                133 SO, HOW OLD IS LIFE?

It’s fascinating to read about scientific discoveries.  They so often prove the Theory of Evolution to be an extremely flawed theory.  Another discovery is now showing that.  Australian scientists working in Greenland discovered fossilized colonies of microbes called ‘Stromatolites’.  The receding ice revealed these hidden fossils, and the scientists were stunned when they discovered how far back these particular stromatolites supposedly dated to; 3.7 billion years ago!!  They immediately published their findings in the journal ‘Nature’.  Scientists around the world were shocked, greatly troubled, and confused.  Why?  The answer is that nothing should have been living way back then.  There are multiple problems with this discovery.  First, stromatolites only grow in shallow water.  The Earth is said to be about four billion years old according to evolutionists.  This puts these colonies of microbes living at the same time the earth was supposedly forming from molten lava.  Two; there was no water on earth according to the Big Bang theorists, when earth was forming.  Three; these were not microbes that were just starting their evolutionary journey; they were already fully formed.  This means that they would had to have been here before the earth formed; an impossibility. How could fully formed stromatolites have lived?  Four; the earth was thought to be all molten lava for billions of years until it cooled.  Life was thought and taught to have not formed until much later; after the earth cooled and comets supposedly brought our water here.  Five; these ‘billions of years old’ fossils look exactly like the same stromatolites found today.  How could that be if evolution is true?  They should have evolved from something far different over eons of time.  This bewildering anomaly of things looking exactly as their so-called fossilized ancestors is now being found in thousands of other living things, too.  Something that only grows in water couldn’t have survived living in a lava world say the scientists.  This is just one more nail in the coffin of the Theory of Evolution.  Notice it is still just a theory. I have an answer to all of these puzzling discoveries taking place in science today; earth is not billions of years old.  God made it just as the Bible says; about six to eight thousand years ago. Their radiological dating systems of fossils and rocks are based upon the so-called “known” age of the earth.  What if their “known” age of the earth is wrong?  After all, If I had to choose between man’s guess and God’s guess, my money would be on God.  Radiological dating is a man-made system and has been found to be wrong in countless situations.  Newly formed lava rock, days old,  has been dated at millions of years. To be an evolutionist one has to first believe in the Big Bang Theory creating the universe sixteen billion years ago.  The Big Bang dictates that something the size of a ‘pinhead’ exploded, and all of the universe came spilling out. W now know there are millions of galaxies.  Is this reasonable?  It says that earth was first a ball of lava with no water.  When enough water was recently discovered deep in the earth (enough to cover the highest mountains), scientists began to wonder if the Big Bang could be wrong.  No water was supposed to be here when earth was formed.  However, the Bible tells us the earth was separated from the waters when God made it; meaning there would have been a lot of water.  Also, the Bible tells us that the waters of the great deep broke up during the flood of Noah and then returned deep into the earth. Scientists just found that water.  Yes, science discoveries can be very enlightening; proving our Bible to be right. Stromatolites are a classic example. Look for my book to come out at the end of April, according to my publisher. It is called “LEARNING THE ABC’S, ARCHAEOLOGY, THE BIBLE AND CREATION”.

132 DARWIN’S BIG MISTAKE

                                                                   132 DARWIN’S BIGGEST MISTAKE

Every adult and school kid knows the name of Charles Darwin, the man attributed with the Theory of Evolution.  The full title of Darwin’s book is not ‘The Origin of Species’ as many believe.  The full title is ‘On The Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life’.  In his title we find one of his greatest mistakes; that there are ‘Favoured Races’ in mankind and other living things.   Darwin was convinced that the Black race was lesser evolved than the white race, and more closely related to monkeys.  This gave credence to slavery and racism.  He also believed the aborigines of Australia were not as evolved.  In the late 1800’s and beyond, the aborigines were hunted down and their bones sold to museums all over the world for study, or for the public to view what “sub-human” bones looked like.  American museums were particularly fond of displaying pickled aborigine brains and labeling them as brains of ‘recently living missing links’.  Darwin ordered a Tasmanian skull to study when there were only four Tasmanians left alive in the world.  This mistake of there being inferior races gave rise to a large, financially prosperous bone-collecting industry in Australia; resulting in the deaths of thousands.  For example, England alone had over ten thousand bones in their collections. In 1906, a pygmy by the name of Ota Benga was placed in the Bronx Zoo in New York.  He had been purchased by African slave traders and brought to America to be displayed in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Missouri in 1904 as an example of Darwin’s philosophies.  In the Bronx Zoo, He was given a parrot and an orangutan to keep him company.  Many tens of thousands came to see the so-called ‘living missing link’.  Look it up on the internet.  His purchase, being brought to America and put in a zoo was not considered wrong since he was thought to be sub-human.  This would not have been possible if we hadn’t first been taught that man evolved from monkeys.  This after only 60 years after Darwin. The Darwinian theory of monkey-to-man is mostly responsible for Hitler killing six million “sub-human Jews” during WWII.  Hitler felt like if there was a ‘Master Race’, Germans were it. He also felt that to speed up evolution, it was his job to remove all of the sub-species of man. Remember, it was only Darwin’s ‘beliefs’ that man evolved from monkeys.  There had never been any proof for monkey to man “Favoured Races”.  There still isn’t.  No science has proven the Theory of Evolution.  It is still just a belief. So why am I writing about this?  The Human Genome Project has now proven that we all descended from one family in the beginning.  This project included thousands of geneticists, scientists and others from many fields of study; costing over one billion dollars and taking ten years of painstaking research to complete.  By mapping the entire human genome (DNA), they made marvelous discoveries.  One was that they found all races of man originated at the “same time”, and that we’re related to one set of original parents.  The DNA gene pool can be restricted by centralizing people groups to a local geography, causing the population to resemble each other in various features.  When certain gene features are not passed on, they become less dominant and can become dormant.  Adam and Eve had all the possible gene features of all races.  After the dispersal at the Tower of Babel, we lost certain features in each family of man, developing very pronounced features in each.  However, it’s possible for those features to remain dormant for centuries and suddenly reappear in one of our children.  In the October issue of ‘Acts and Facts’ magazine, they mention twin girls; one’s white with silky red hair. The other is black with wiry black hair.  Otherwise, they’re identical.  Both parents are white; so are the grandparents. We need to be careful how we accept so-called science facts. Many millions died due to Darwin’s erroneous beliefs.   We need to be careful how we act upon unfounded theories.  Darwin felt his family was superior, so the three related families (cousins) all intermarried. He was hoping to create a master race. Just the opposite happened. There were tremendous mental and health issues in the related families. Find us at evidenceforthehope.org. Have a nice day.

131 SET THE CAPTIVES FREE

                                        TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE

In the days of Jeremiah, the biblical prophet, it was prophesied that the Israelites would be defeated and taken into captivity.  They had turned their backs on God, and God thus turned His back on them; allowing this to happen.  Did it actually happen as described in the Bible?  For thousands of years there had been no proof for this other than that which was written in the Bible.  The answer is that we now have an overabundance of archaeological evidence to support all of what happened.  Jeremiah told the people that God said, when they went into captivity, to “Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit.  Take wives and begat sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters.  Multiply there, do not be decreased.  And seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Lord in its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper.” (Jeremiah 29:5-7).  We now have the records of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon that state he took captives of Judah starting about 597 B.C.  The temple in Jerusalem is recorded as being destroyed, and its artifacts taken, in 586 B.C.   Remember, the dating system before Christ counts down not up; as we do now.  If it is 597 this year then the next year would be 596, and so on.  The Judahite king Jehoiachin was taken captive, just as our Bible says.  Nebuchadnezzar’s tablets confirm this.  In one of the passages of the Bible it says that one of the Babylonian princes came with Nebuchadnezzar and took a seat in the gate of the captured city.  His name was Nebosarsekim, as found in Jeremiah 39:3, 13.  A small tablet has now been found in the form of a receipt with his name on it, and naming him as a prince of Babylonia.  Our Bible also says that when Nebuchadnezzar seized the city and took its king captive, that he set another king up in his place.  A Babylonian tablet has been found saying that this did happen.  It reads “…the second day of the month Adar he captured the city…seized…. King.  A king of his own choice he appointed in the city.”  Our Bible says that king Jehoiachin was then appointed rations as a captive king (2nd kings 25:30).  Once again, the records of Nebuchadnezzar state that Jehoiachin and other captured kings were assigned a daily ration.  We just heard how Jeremiah said to pray for the city that the captives would be assigned to.  Ancient Babylonian tablets have now been found detailing a place called ‘al-Yahudu’, which translates to ‘Judah town’.   This is where the Israelites were taken and placed in captivity.  The records show that the captives did exactly what God told them to do; they married, bore sons and daughters, prayed for their captors, and prospered in that place according to the newly found records.  This prosperity allowed them to increase their numbers.  Over 160 texts have been found in nearby towns, too.  They record that the place was also called ‘alu sa Yahudu’, meaning ‘the city of the Judeans’.  Isaiah prophesied that the Judeans would eventually be freed by a Persian king named Cyrus; who was yet to be born.  About two hundred years later, Persian King Cyrus set the captives free and ordered them to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and ordered others to rebuild their temples, too.  The Judahites were now free.  This is interesting because Jeremiah prophesied that when that order would be given, the Messiah would be killed 483years later.  Jesus was crucified 483 years later.  Do we have records of a Persian king by the name of Cyrus ordering the freeing of captives, rebuilding of temples, and Jerusalem?  Yes.  It’s found on the Cyrus Cylinder, which is located in the British Museum.  These are just of the few things that we can use as proof for our Bible being correct, and being the Word of God, by way of archaeological discoveries.  Look for us on evidenceforthehope.org or on Facebook at Evidence for the Hope Ministries, Inc. My first book is now ready to print and is in the research for a cover stage. Please tell your friends about it. It should be on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other places soon. It is “LEARNING THE A B C’s; APOLOGETICS, THE BIBLE, AND CREATION”. It is a first in a trilogy; two more to be written.

130 quartzite questions

                                             130   QUARTZITE QUESTIONS

It’s amazing how much we can learn about the evidences for our Bible from rocks.   I was recently reading an article on percussion marks being found on quartzite boulders and rocks.  Quartzite is one of the hardest known rocks known to man; just below the hardness of diamonds, the hardest known mineral in the world.  Scientists around the world have found that not only is some quartzite rounded smooth but that others had marks on them of something striking them.  This is what I was referring to as ‘percussion marks’.  So, what’s the big deal you ask?  There are several things here that need to be understood.  First, we need to know how rocks get rounded.  When rocks fall from ledges on mountains and other geologic formations, one will notice that they are not rounded at all but usually flat, jagged, rectangular and so on.  In order to be rounded or smoothed over they have to be captured by a source of water.  Once a rock falls into a river or creek it starts its journey downstream.  As it goes along, it’s rolled over and over until it is finally circular and smooth.  Notice that sand on a beach is all rounded.  It takes quite a force of water to round off quartzite, though.  The faster the water is moving, the quicker the stone becomes rounded.  Scientists have a very hard time explaining why there are percussion marks found on rounded quartzite.  In order to mar the surface of rounded quartzite by something striking it in water, there have to be tremendous forces applied.  These forces absolutely must be equivalent to water moving at least seventy miles per hour.  There’s never been any flood in the world moving constantly at that speed on land long enough to round off quartzite and then leave percussion marks.  The speed of seventy miles per hour is three times any flood speed ever observed on the earth.  Or is it?  It’s estimated that a worldwide flood would reach orbital speeds on land of over a hundred miles per hour and could easily leave percussion marks on quartzite.  Many disbelieve the story of Noah and a worldwide flood.  If not from Noah’s flood, how did quartzite become rounded and have percussion marks?  There’s no answer to this for those who dismiss the story of Noah.  For those of us who have spent a lifetime researching proofs for the things of the Bible, the answer is obvious; there once WAS a worldwide flood, and eight people were all that were saved by entering into the ark.  It’s incredible to know that no other ship was as large as the ark until the Queen Mary luxury ship was built in England in 1931.   Like I said, rocks can give us proof for things in our Bible.  Didn’t Jesus say the very rocks would testify of Him, if we denied Him? I’ve studied my way from atheism to becoming a strong Christian believer by examining things that we find all around us.  I love science, ancient history, and archaeology.  In each of those fields, I find tremendous amounts of evidence for nearly every story and other things in our Bible to be true.  I can now go to any part of my Bible and say “Gosh, we have proof for that”.  Therefore, I write newspaper articles and speak on radio in four states.  I want others to have the opportunity to learn what I’ve learned and to decide one way or another for or against the Bible being the very Word of God.  I honor whatever one decides to choose.  God would have it no other way.  Each of us is given free will, and we should respect each other’s right to choose what they want to believe.  I just want to present some facts, not normally taught in the average church, to become  known before that decision is made. Look for us at evidenceforthehope.org or on Facebook at Evidence for the Hope Ministries. Have a nice day.

129 who knows more about the past

                                                    WHO KNOWS MORE ABOUT THE PAST?

An archaeologist is quoted in the “Times” as saying “It shouldn’t be every archaeologist’s first instincts to see if their findings are in the historical sources”.  In other words, archaeologists shouldn’t be trying to prove the history of the find, but just report the find.  I’m confused.  Why wouldn’t a curious archaeologist want to know if discoveries are rooted in true history?  This type of thinking is especially common when it comes to a Biblical archaeological find.  The average Western archaeologist seems to side with fiction at any mention of Biblical history.  Any proof the find is actual history has to be forced upon them before they grudgingly admit that it’s true history.  For example; it was long held that King David and Goliath were fiction, that there were no King David palaces, Solomon (the fictional David’s fictional son) never built the fictional first temple and so on.  Recent archaeological finds proved that David, Solomon, Goliath, the Temple and the palaces were all real, but do the antagonists admit they were wrong?  No.  They simply discredit something else.  The ultimate discovery of things once discredited have now reached over 6,500 in number; proving the Bible to be right 6,500 times!  Why do they even bother to attack the Bible anymore?  They’re being proven wrong over and over.  Why is it so necessary to say that Bible history is pure fiction or myth?  You’d think they’d be a bit embarrassed by this time.  The people of the past, not the people of today, knew more of that past.  Wouldn’t it be wise to accept what they wrote, and use that to make other discoveries? 

The answer as to why some can’t accept the Bible lies in another realm; there’s a God and a devil.  It’s the job of God to get us into His kingdom, and Satan’s to keep us out.  God uses truth to accomplish this, and Satan uses lies.  Ephesians 6:12 says “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”.  I find myself somewhat frustrated when challenged by an antagonist of the Bible…until I remember who my antagonist is mindlessly serving.  Many give themselves over to the works of the devil without even knowing they’re doing so.  I’ve spent nearly forty years studying scientific, historical, and archaeological facts proving the Bible to be right.  When I first began, much of what we know today was not known.  Over 2,000 discoveries in archaeology alone, proving the Bible, have taken place since. 

So what’s the answer to so much antagonism against the Bible in this world?  Ephesians 6:13 says “Wherefore take unto you the full armour of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”  Each Christian is called to share his or her faith and make disciples, even during persecutions.  The enemies of God called His Son names, spit on Him, beat Him, and crucified Him.  Should we expect less?  However, we can still share our faith without much fear of retribution.  We will never rid the world of Biblical adversaries.  They’ll always be among us trying to take away our religious freedoms.  “Having done all, to stand” should be our motto.  Look us up at evidenceforthehope.org or go to face-book; Evidence for the Hope.   I currently completed a book on a lot of these discoveries and what they mean for Christian believers.  It is a compilation of forty years and many tens of thousands of hours of research.   Please pray for it to get in the hands of students and others.