Latest / Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies / Evangelism Using God's Creation | Mike Houts | Week 06

Transcript

Evangelism Using God's Creation | Mike Houts | Week 06 · Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies

• 0:00
  Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us online@madisonchurch.org be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
• 0:37
  I'm going to start out, I guess, where we kind of left off. Yeah, we just kind of wrapped up discussion of the origin of the universe. And before I got into. I want to again remind everybody, please look at the books on the table and if you see any at all that you'd like, yeah, just send me an email or text. My email is there. Or send me a text and we'll try to make sure we get you a copy.
• 0:58
  And of course there'll be copies available at the church building also. But just a lot of good material out there. There's something that you kind of, I guess you'd say particularly piques your interest. And then of course, the Apologetics Press website itself also has a lot of really good material that's available.
• 1:14
  So, you know, as we've been talking about True Sciences, the Christian's friend, and you know, I was trying to think, you know, a way we could summarize what we've covered so far. Well, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth could have probably just ended there, but you can expand on that a little bit. But that's really what we've been talking about. And that not only applies to the universe like we were talking about last couple of weeks, but really, yeah, it's created life, created us, gave us free will, gave us the ability to choose. And so even though we know that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, we still all get to choose where we put our faith. Psalm 19:1. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his hand handiwork. Psalm 121. 1:2. I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. So again, just over and over again in the Bible, this is who we're worshiping and it really helps us focus too. And you'd be surprised how many people, if it really sinks in, that will really help them because it's so easy to just look at the universe and, and then you get kind of the new age thinking, well, the universe is God, God is the universe. I think we've all seen Star wars way for the late 70s. Special effects man, they were top notch. But the philosophy behind it, it's just kind of like, again, it's just really strange. But a lot of people actually really kind of, they just look at the universe. Wow, that's just so amazing. They start worshiping the creature instead of the Creator. They start kind of worshiping the universe. And you go down a level further. People can even worship animals. And if you go into certain parts of the world, you have, yeah, I guess they call it animism or just basically worshiping animals.
• 2:57
  I was, you know, worked in New Mexico for about 11 years and unfortunately there's, you know, it's probably true everywhere, but there's people that worship that anywhere. So one of our, was basically our group secretary and she's out walking at lunch and, and she goes, while I was walking along and the shadow of a raven passed over me. What does that mean? Okay, now, just to calibrate you on how culturally sensitive I am, I said, well, that means the sun was there. And the raven went right.
• 3:27
  Anyway, so she never asked me any other question like that.
• 3:31
  Wish I'd gotten better. But anyway, so what I'm going to talk about now is the societal implications of atheistic evolution. And there are actually a lot of them. So if you're talking to someone you really want to again, get them to seriously consider putting their faith in Bible, putting their faith in God. There's a lot of, you know, just the hard science, again, true science is catching up with the Bible, but also you just point out, okay, now where does this belief system happen to lead? And so, you know, as we often mention, I have to remember to always speak the truth in love. Speak. So our struggle is not against people. Ephesians 6, 11, 12. Put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. So again, struggle is not against flesh and blood. That's so important because especially these days, it's just so easy to just find the person that represents everything bad. You know, just really focus on the nuts. You know, our struggle is not against them. It's the spiritual forces, wickedness in the heavenly places.
• 4:38
  Now, when we talk about the societal implications, the biggest ones are probably that we're going to face is the fact that the genome is degrading. And this is really a. Just a. I'll say, like a sign shift, you know, evolution requires that somehow you have this bacteria that somehow made itself. And again, we talked about how even our best laboratories in the world coming very close to making life from basic chemicals. So that's obvious false assumption to start with. But then it would say, well, all this information is somehow then added to this bacteria to turn it into all the other life we see around us. And by information, I mean the genetic information, the information, the DNA decode for the physical characteristics. But what we're actually observing in the genome is the opposite. The genome's actually degrading. It's got all the signs of an original perfect creation that's just starting to mutate, starting to lose information, starting to have its information again just degraded. And it kind of makes sense when you think about, you know, in any field you work in, if any of you guys are in chemistry, you work in a chemical app. If you're working with a mutagen, it's a whole nother level. I mean, hydrochloric acid, you know, whatever. But if you're working with a mutagen, I mean, you got to have all kinds of protective equipment on. You have to all kinds of things to make sure you don't get mutated. Because we know mutations are bad.
• 5:53
  Used to work at Los Alamos, and we'd run reactors and you'd think, well, you put the reactor out in the field and everybody gets behind this concrete wall and you turn it on, you run it, you play with it, what's the big deal? They'd actually had what they called genetic burden. And what they meant was by running that reactor in a field, you'd be irradiating mice and grass and plants. And we knew mutations were bad. And so you weren't allowed just to randomly mutate things. So it wasn't just protecting people, it was also protecting the environment from mutations. So in every field of science, we know mutations are bad. And so it's so ironic when we say, well, maybe mutations with natural selection, somehow that's gonna make animals better. And it does. Granted. Again, the tie with Hollywood is just amazing. Cause of course, who doesn't wanna be Godzilla, right? I Mean, okay, anyway, so if you've never watched it, don't worry about watching. But basically got mutated and got really big. Okay, so but what we're seeing is the genome is degrading. Okay, so, and this is just an example. This paper is actually from about 10 years ago and it's getting more and more accepted. This is, oh, and I should mention this book, Genetic Entropy. It's one of the books that just let me know if you'd like a copy and we can get you one. But it's really good. Details. A guy that actually co invented the gene gun, which was one of the first things we use to actually do genetic modifications, you know, make genetically modified organisms. So the guy's really qualified, but he's just saying, hey, this is what we're seeing. And you know, and even goes through all the rescuing devices that people say, well, maybe it's not really degrading. Points out how. No, it's, you know, it's degrading or you're losing information, I guess be the way to phrase it. So anyway, the. So paper as was lynch in 2016, says a new paper, Lynch 2016, written by a leading population geneticist, shows that human genetic degeneration is a very serious problem. He affirms that the human germline mutation rate is roughly 100 new mutations per person per generation, while the somatic mutation rate is roughly three new mutations per cell division. Lynch estimates human fitness is declining 1 to 5% per generation. And he has. Most mutations have minor effects, very few have lethal consequences and even fewer are beneficial. Okay, and so again, this is, you know, God sustains his creation. And you know, that's talking to some people, they say, I mean it's. There's a lot more to that than just a subtle. Yeah, I mean like he sustains it every millisecond is what some people are pointing out, you know, just before we're starting to learn about the cell or microsecond or whatever.
• 8:20
  But the whole point is, you know, no matter how he's defining fitness or no matter, you know, it's still, it's this opposite trend. It's not this a million years from now. Again, I watched a lot of cartoons growing up. Million years from now, we're supposed to have these little tiny bodies in this ginormous head because we're just going to evolve into these brains. Okay, that's not happening for sure.
• 8:40
  But again, that's not what we're seeing. You're going the other direction here.
• 8:45
  Again, the genome is degrading okay, so what that can do then, is it even, you know, can impact even the most fundamental biblical commands? Luke 10:27. You, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And the way that impacts it is, you know, as Christians, okay, this is just your data. And not to get really impersonal with it, but it really is just if you go into a situation, you go into a different country, say you're doing like a disaster relief effort or something. Well, you just subconsciously, a lot of times you're thinking, okay, how do I best evangelize in this situation? You know, with everything going on, I mean we have, you know, people go to Ukraine. That's a lot different going to Ukraine than it is going to, you know, a different country or going down to a domestic mission or. They're all really important, all really effective, but you just have different ways of evangelizing. And so for Christians this is just, this factor is going to help us focus how we evangelize. But for atheists, a lot of them are really, really, really bothered by this because then they started thinking, well, we have to, you know, we have to save humanity, you know, we have to save our species. You know, you ever hear talk about how important it is to become a multi planet species?
• 10:02
  Okay, yeah, good. Okay. So some of you guys see the same news feeds I do. So, you know, but it is, but that's part of it, you know, it's like, because the important thing is, you know, our physical survival as a species, you know, just making us like an animal, you know, not people that are creating God's image. And so, so all of a sudden survival of the fittest becomes actually good. That's what you want. Compassion is actually bad.
• 10:25
  People talk. Now they did this about 100 years ago and we'll point out some quotes, but they're routinely now talking about genetic screening before allowed to have children because we only want the top physical specimens or whatever or societal screening before allowed to have children. So it gets really strange really fast. And I wouldn't necessarily believe it, but did actually have known a few, I guess what I'd, I'd say consistent atheists. And I have to be really careful of this because there are a lot of atheists that are really good people. I think I mentioned that the first class. I mean you probably know people that you can't figure out why they won't come to church with you. You know, if your car breaks down at 2 o' clock in the morning, you call them, they're going to be there as quick as they can be there. So it's not, you know, not saying, but it's just. But to be consistent, like the compassion being bad you've had.
• 11:10
  Atheist knew several years ago he would say that, you know, you shouldn't educate a child for free. You know, the child should, you know, when they're four or five years old, you see if they're smart, you think, if, you know, that kid's gonna be able to make me some money someday or he's gonna take care of it. And so then, only then you sign a contract and then you pay for them to get educated. Otherwise, you know, they're on there. You know, I mean, just strange stuff like that. Okay. And so, but it's, but again, this whole idea that we're just physical, that we aren't spiritual, spiritual, that we aren't all created in God's image as Christians. It gets harder and harder to think for that to sink in the longer we've been a Christian. But that's kind of the alternative that we sometimes have to deal with. So what does God say? Well, we're all unique and important to God and so it doesn't matter.
• 11:55
  We all have mutations.
• 11:58
  Real strange statement, but it's true. We all have our own set of mutations, but we're all unique and we're all important to God.
• 12:05
  First Corinthians 12, 17, 20. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them in the body just as he pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now, indeed, there are many members, yet one body. So again, we're all different. We all are unique. And then also, again, emphasizing, we have to focus on the spiritual, not the physical. 1st Samuel 16, 7, I think that's, you know, I think Samuel had seen, I think it was Eliab that he'd seen. And he said, oh, this has to be him. You know, this guy's just great. And so the response was, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. So again, we need to stay focused on the spiritual, not, not thinking about this physical. Okay, so just some possibly practical examples. This was about nine years ago, and for Whatever reason, you know how the media kind of goes in cycles and everything's like big news for like three days and then they move on to the next big news for two days or one day. I think it's getting shorter all the time, but. And so they hit this cycle where for whatever reason all the media reports is how great it was that Iceland had eliminated down syndrome. And so cursory reading of the headline, you're thinking, oh wow, that's great. Iceland cured down syndrome. How'd they do that? And well, unfortunately it wasn't. It was what was headlined to seem like great news was actually really evil, really bad news.
• 13:40
  And so the Denver Post was one of the newspapers that had done it and they actually had a father write a letter to the editor back to them and he said, as the proud father of a wonderful 14 year old son with down syndrome, I was horrified at the news of a near eradication of children with down syndrome in Iceland due to early identification procedures and early termination of pregnancies. It is clear that technology is ahead of understanding of the contributions that children with down syndrome made to their families and to their communities. Studies show an extremely high happiness rate for families who have children with down syndrome, also for persons with down syndrome.
• 14:13
  And again, these days I'm actually really impressed with the guy for writing the letter because unfortunately you can write the most obvious, logical Christian letter possible and you're going to get all kinds of hate mail in return. And so he probably did, but it didn't deter him from doing that. So I was really impressed that he wrote the letter. It was also kind of sad that, especially that second paragraph when he had to. It's like he's having to justify his son's right to exist now. He's absolutely right.
• 14:44
  And in his statement, it's just sad that he had to make that statement. So he. Yeah, we'll mention three examples and he wouldn't mind me mentioning this. Chris and Michelle heard Chris was here a few months ago. Well, their daughter Summer, when Michelle was pregnant with her, they were in New Zealand and they were told, oh, she's probably got down syndrome. And then apparently they just got incredible pressure from the government to kill her, basically. And the idea was they'd say like, oh, it's selfish of you to have that baby. Oh, we're not going to help you at all if you have that baby abo. We're not going to. And so of course they didn't give into it. And then Summer's born and she just celebrated her 18th birthday and she's a very happy, healthy 18 year old girl. Okay. So that was one example.
• 15:33
  And then there's others along those lines. And I shouldn't have to be giving these examples by the way either. I'm just trying to just really to get people thinking and again, focus on the spiritual. Anybody know Dimar Elam? Yes. Okay, yeah. So Dimar, yeah, he did a lot of work, I think in Russia and then he focused a lot on the Philippines.
• 15:52
  Well, their son, Big John, he's got down syndrome. And Dimar not only loves his son like this says, makes their whole family extremely happy. He's actually an integral part of their ministry.
• 16:06
  And so that's, again, should not have to be saying this, but you start thinking about, you know, God not focusing on the physical, God's focusing on the spiritual. And you can just give example after example after example.
• 16:20
  Gene Stallings. Gene Stallings, yeah. Yeah, Johnny. Right. So. Yeah, yeah. Really? Yeah, yeah. David and Lori Vanderpool, I think they, so we, you know, they have the live beyond ministry and if you get a chance, they're now they're just.
• 16:35
  Oh, I don't know how, I don't have a word to describe them. But to give an example, she has a million dollar bounty on her head in Haiti because she's been standing up to gangs in Haiti. So she doesn't go to Haiti too often, but she did at one point have a guy with a gun in a crowd. She went up to him, yelled at him, took his gun and he ran. Okay, so I don't know her well, I've heard her talk. She seems so nice. Okay, anyway, so.
• 17:06
  But anyway. Yeah, and even have Johnny's kids. Okay. Gene helped to start Rainbow Omega. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. Wow. I didn't know that. Yeah. And you guys all knew Gene Stallings, right? Yeah, so he.
• 17:19
  Yep. Yeah, he had a couple little pro teams in between, but yeah, Alabama.
• 17:24
  So anyway, so. Yeah, he's.
• 17:27
  Yeah, exactly. And so then they just say he was just, he was just integral to their, just their whole, Even the football team.
• 17:35
  Yeah. Oh, okay. I never got to meet him one Sunday and sat down beside him and my daughter was 15 then and she sat down and he looked at his daddy and he went, whoo. Yeah.
• 17:46
  That's awesome.
• 17:47
  Yeah. Okay, so that's. And then Johnny's kids, now they're actually, there's countries in the world where, you know, basically Christianity is banned, but they go in and they work with families. Those same countries, if a child has a handicap, they're ostracized, even if they're the correct religion.
• 18:06
  And so they go and work with those kids and they. So they have all kinds of kids that are walking. And if you go just live beyond, I think you can just sign up for their website. But, you know, kids that they've helped walk. So again, it's just the spiritual, the focus on the spiritual. Because you can argue any of those three I mentioned are really good evangelists, you know, and then I think they like to say they know it, you know, so it's. I mean, they're not in a proud way, but just they're so okay. So then also at this same time period, even had people with down syndrome having to testify in front of committees. And so this one's still out on YouTube. I think it's Frank Stephens and he was testifying. And again, it's just amazing that he did this testimony. But he starts out, he says, just so there's no confusion, let me say that I'm not a research scientist. And he said it obviously tongue in cheek, but also kind of like, I'm not a research scientist, but, hey, I have down syndrome, so listen to me a little bit. He says, however, no one knows more about life with down syndrome than I do. Whatever you learn today, please remember this. I am a man with down syndrome and my life is worth living.
• 19:11
  Sadly, across the world, a notion is being sold that maybe we don't need research concerning down syndrome. Some people say prenatal screens will identify down syndrome in the womb health, and those pregnancies will just be terminated. It's hard for me to sit here and say those words. Okay, so let that sink in because I'm trying to think of, okay, say just with you guys, you guys are all friendly and everything, but say you're in front of this committee and you're having to say, hey, I know my DNA is a little different, but hey, trust me, I should be allowed to live. I mean, hard to say those words is kind of an understatement because I completely understand that people pushing this particular final solution. He did borrow from, you know, Nazism, of course, are saying that people like me should not exist. That view is deeply prejudiced by an outdated idea of life with down syndrome. Seriously, I have a great life. Again, why should he have to be saying this? You know?
• 20:00
  And so that's the kind of the point. It goes on, talks about all the things he's gotten to do. And then this was the says first, we are medical gifts to society blueprint for Medical research into cancer, Alzheimer's, immune system disorders. Second, we are an unusually powerful source of happiness. A Harvard based study is a disorder discovered that people with down syndrome as well as their parents and siblings are happier than society at large. Surely happiness is worth something. And then finally, we are the canary in the eugenics coal mine. We are giving the world a chance to think about the ethics of choosing which humans get a chance at life. Okay, so we are helping to defeat cancer and Alzheimer's and we make the world a happier place. There's really no place for us in the world. So that was his testimony. So this is going to be probably increasing topic and it's going to be so it's. You can't make blanket statements because there's so much technology going on across the board and a lot of it's really helping people and a lot, you know, it's so it's not so that's why it's so important that we know people personally, know what they might be going through and know how to relate to them. But it's still a way to point them back to God. You know, just say that no matter what situation they're in, their unique and important to God. Their relative is unique and important to God. Their friend down the street is unique and important to God. You know, just kind of use that approach to the creation.
• 21:20
  So but then you get into the, I guess you'd say the real extreme eugenics. Now what I want to point out here is, you know, we've been talking about how true science is catching up with the Bible. Well, this was the most widely used biology textbook in the US this is back in 1914 and I put the pre World War II in parentheses because World War II made this kind of teaching really unpopular. But this was again I got a copy that was used in Detroit public schools. And if you read some of the statements in there, you'd just be like, it's almost humorous in a sick way I guess you'd call it. In other words, like I can't believe we use this in a public school system in a large city to teach some things that were taught. Well this was, it's a particular teaching on eugenics. And of course that's what again Hitler used to claim that Jews weren't fully evolved into humans yet. And others had said similar things. And so but we were teaching it as Science in 1914. So again you got to keep the timeline straight. This is before we knew.
• 22:14
  A lot of people were probably thinking they knew where it was going to lead. And they were probably right. But this was before we had that strong evidence says if such people were lower animals, we would probably kill them off to prevent them from spreading. Humanity not allowed to allow this, but. But we do have the remedy. It goes on about, but just kill them out. Perpetuating such a low and degenerate race remedies. And then this one. Remedies of this sort have been tried successfully in Europe and are now meeting with success in this country. Okay, so that's the peer pressure thing, because 1914, most Americans hadn't even traveled more than 10 miles from where they were born, let alone finished high school or finished college. And so, wow, Europe's doing it. It must be right. So that's just. Again, we gotta keep focused on the Bible. You know, the Bible tells us what's right. Don't worry about what everyone else in the world is saying happens to be right today. And so. But that was true. True now. And of course this is well over 100 years ago is also true.
• 23:02
  What does the Bible say about children? Psalm 127:3. 5. Behold, children are heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior. So are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate. Okay, so again, Bible's very pro family, very pro child.
• 23:24
  This is Margaret Sanger. She founded Planned Parenthood.
• 23:29
  Has anybody heard of Planned Parenthood? Okay, okay. Yeah, a lot of people heard it. Okay. Yeah, most.
• 23:34
  The good news is a lot of countries around the world, they haven't. So. But, okay, so most people in the US they have. So this is what their founder, Margaret Sangeroch, said. The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it. Okay, so you're thinking, okay, how can anybody write that? Well, just think about. And I'm not justifying her at all, but if no belief at all in the spiritual, only belief in the physical.
• 23:58
  People are just animals. You know, it's almost.
• 24:02
  It's still hard to justify, but she's probably thinking that it's almost like, you know.
• 24:08
  Well, not to be too graphic, but it's like the runt of the litter or something type of thing. Yeah, that would be her thing, but she published it. So all these. I went ahead and got copies of them just because couldn't. She didn't really say that.
• 24:20
  Order Woman in the New race, which I hated. To do because it cost me like four bucks. But, you know, but it was, you know. But yeah, sure enough, it's right. Right there. So it's. And then she had this plan for peace. And again, that's just another one. And you'll just run into this, possibly when you're talking to people about the Bible is they'll hear something and the title just sounds great. I mean, and so it's easy to get sucked into something where it's. When it's labeled, you know, something that sounds great. Well, Plan for Peace. I mean, everybody wants peace. Okay, so, but then you read what the plan for peace was. And what does any of this have to do with peace? Okay. And so Article 1 was. The purpose of the American Baby Code shall be to provide for a better distribution of babies and to protect society against the propagation and increase of the unfit. And now again, you start thinking, okay, who's going to define who's fit and who's unfit?
• 25:07
  I mean, that's really going to kind of medieval, right? You know, because obviously anybody in the king's family was the most fit, you know, type of thing. And so. But that's what they're. That was Article 1, Article 4. No woman shall have the legal right to bear a child. No man shall have the right to become a father without a permit. And Article 6, no permit for parenthood shall be valid for more than one birth. Okay, and that was published in 1932. And again, this is all in the kind of the.
• 25:30
  Again, the lead up to World War II. Probably guessing by 1932, people were thinking a lot more about wanting peace. And so that's part of the reason that she tried to slip this in. And it's having to do with peace.
• 25:43
  Okay, so what was she basing this on?
• 25:46
  Well, you go all the way back, way back to. Anybody heard of Charles Darwin?
• 25:50
  Okay, yeah, a lot of people have. Okay. So this is in his book the Descent of Man. And again, same thing.
• 25:57
  Don't believe it until you get a copy. So I went ahead and got a copy. And this is just crazy. I mean, it's probably the most racist statement you could make. It's very eloquent. A lot of people get sucked in by eloquence. But it's about the most racist statement you can make. So I apologize in advance. But this is, again, quote out his book. He says, at some future period, not very distant, as measured by centuries, the civilized races of mammals certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At that time, the Anthropomorphous apes will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies. I mean, man and his nearest allies. I don't even know if chat can come up with that kind of stuff. I mean, that's eloquent. Right, okay, but he goes, the break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider for will intervene between man and a more civilized state, as we may hope even than the Caucasian. Okay, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of it's now between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla. Okay, so he writes this. So then you start wondering, how did this guy not get canceled? 10 years ago everybody was getting canceled and still Charles Darwin. I was down in Cape Town and on their pier they have a little bust of Charles Darwin. And so then you start giving talks there. Hey, do you know some of the stuff the guy said? Oh yeah, oh, here.
• 27:20
  So again, so that was the European connection. That was the so called scientific tie was, well, wait, no, this is science. This racism thing is science. And then he also spends like two or three pages developing this one, the next two statements.
• 27:36
  Because of course, he being a white Caucasian, was really trying to figure out why white Caucasians were so superior to everybody else. You know, and I'm sorry, white male Caucasians, very important white Caucasians, you know, so male, you know, Caucasian male. Why are Caucasian males superior? So he really works hard to develop it. And so these are his two conclusions. The average mental power, man must, must be above that of women. And he goes, thus man has ultimately become superior to woman in poetry, strength, voice, etc. Okay, so again, that's the foundation for this thinking. So that those kind of statements did a lot of damage. Now he had a lot of supporters. This was Ernst Haeckel.
• 28:13
  He was, you know, very kind of jumped on trying to support Darwin. So he wrote a book in, I think it was 1870, either 73 or 76, said the history of creation. Okay, so that was 1876. So he writes, so it's this obvious alternative to Genesis. So the first thing he has to do is he has to come up with some way that life could make itself.
• 28:36
  And so they came up with Monera. He also was the one that did the fraudulent drawings of the embryos to try to say that people were going through like the fish stage, the pig stage, developing baby. So the baby's developing in the womb. He would say, oh, it's going through the chicken stage, I think was another stage. And so I knew people that actually had that in school. Older people where they were actually told they had to point to which drawing and they were all fraudulent. And we knew it almost immediately.
• 29:01
  At what point is the baby a pig? At what point is the baby a chicken? Okay, well, think how that played out in the early 1970s when they were trying to push abortion.
• 29:11
  Because that was actually used, you know. Well, no, you're not really killing a person at that stage. You're really just killing. It's like killing a chicken. Okay, so really sick consequences from this kind of teaching. But he also very racist. This was his quote in his book said, in order to be convinced of this important result, it is above all things necessary to study and compare the mental life of wild savages and of children. The lowest stage of human mental development are the Australians, some tribes of the Polynesians, and the Bushmen, Hottentots, and some of the Negro tribes.
• 29:41
  Many of these languages are numerals only for 1, 2 and 3. No Australian language counts beyond.
• 29:46
  Very many tribes can count no further than 10 or 20, whereas some very clever dogs have been made to count up to 40 and even beyond six. All those were false statements, but they're published in a book. It even had like color plates of the Monera.
• 29:58
  So again, it's starting to have a huge impact because people are looking at this as science and it's fake science. It's all incorrect. It goes against everything we know about true science. But it's again, it's being published, it's being promoted. Probably a lot of you, well, maybe some of you had heard of Ernst Haeckel, but, you know, everybody had heard of Charles Darwin. Okay, and this is again his push aside. So, okay, so where did that lead? Well, that same book, Hunters of Civic Biology, most widely used biology textbook in the United States. Okay, and so this is from, say, 1914 to 1930s. This is what we were teaching our children. As science says at the present time, there exist upon the Earth 5 races or varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts, social customs, and to an extent, in structure. These are the Ethiopian or Negro type, originating in Africa, the Malay or brown race from the islands of the Pacific, the American Indian, the Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of China, Japan, the Escort, and finally, the highest type of all, the Caucasians, represented by the civilized right, inhabitants of Europe and America. Okay, so you're in class and so you think, okay, why do you have such a problem with racism? Well, a lot of causes for racism, but the biggest one would be so someone, if Most students, they're just soaking stuff in so they can pass a test. So 9th, 10th grade, they either hear that they're in the superior race, okay, that's going to actually do a lot of damage. That might do more damage than being told you're in the inferior race. But anyway, so they're told they're in the superior race or they're one of the inferior races and they're probably trying to rank themselves against the other inferior races. And so either way, you're doing this huge amount of damage. Well, okay, so that person's maybe, I don't know, 15 years old when they hear it. Well, when they're 50 years old and there's a lot of racism at 40 years old or 30 year old, 30 years old, even.
• 31:46
  Well, what's in their subconscious that they might not even remember?
• 31:49
  They just know racism is true. They can't remember why. But. But one of the reasons they would, quote, unquote, know it was true was because they were taught that in the science class.
• 31:59
  And unfortunately, I think some of the. Like those fraudulent drawings of the embryos, I think some of those are still in the textbooks today. I mean, it's just.
• 32:08
  I mean, it's just nuts. I mean, I don't know how else to phrase it. And so anyway, so this was what we taught as science. And so obviously that led to a lot of issues. This was, again, Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social service backgrounds and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to Negroes through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.
• 32:33
  But she published it. I mean, it's just. So this was Women Morality and birth control, 1922. So you remember this was probably five years ago when the organization she founded was accused of targeting their advertisements against. Against certain groups. Okay, so they weren't, you know, the people making that accusation, they had a basis for that. And so.
• 32:56
  And then, and then you have again, you know, going up to World War II and I'll try to show some video clips, but I mean, they're really disgusting to some of the German propaganda that was used just during World War II.
• 33:10
  Don't feel like you'd have. I won't show them in class because they're. But they're. I mean, they're just graphic and really bad. But again, Margaret's. Yeah, yeah, it's hate. And then you wonder, okay, how do people. How does that get Generated.
• 33:22
  Yeah, yeah. And it's.
• 33:24
  Yeah. And there's probably a hundred different. You know, but it's. But again, this would be. It is a. It's a natural consequence if evolution were true, which. It's. Of course not. It wasn't. It's about the year 2000 when they.
• 33:38
  We mapped the human genome and they figured out that there's really tiny differences in the DNA between all the people on Earth that they finally. And I'm not saying all evolutionists were racist, but that was when there was finally some of the top evolutionists said, oh, well, there's no such thing as race. Okay, well, the Bible was saying that 2,000 years before or longer.
• 33:59
  But it really had to get to that point because they had all this teaching that had built up.
• 34:05
  And so it's. And so again, you can just look, some of the Hitler quotes, it's the same thing. But just.
• 34:12
  I don't know. That's an important point because then how do we use that to evangelize?
• 34:20
  Because a lot of times it's. People are looking for something to blame their problems on. And if we turn it around to their problems, might be because society as a whole isn't following God's plan. We're not doing God's will, you know, and they have to be really careful that too. A lot of people have problems brought on by someone else that just wasn't, you know, that was choosing to go against God's will, but somehow shifted around to, you know, that why is there pain and suffering type of argument. So why would there be pain and suffering? Well, somehow somewhere along the line, people decided that it was a good idea to pretend Jewish people were evolved in human jet.
• 34:58
  So that was obviously going against the Bible, going against God's will. But I don't know. That's a pretty. There's probably got to be a much better way to communicate with something, but that's why throw this out there and just depending on who you're talking to and you might still have people out there thinking that because it was taught widely that, well, there's no way we could have all descended from Adam and Eve because we all look so different. And that's been disproven for the last 50 years just with our study of genetics. But it's still out there. So you never know. You know what might click now. So what does the Bible say about races? Acts 17:26. And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth. And he's determined their pre appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. Genesis 1:27 so God created man in his own image and the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And then it also, of course, it's, I think it's in Genesis 3 where Eve is the mother of all living. So there's other verses in there, but it's really clear now. We're all, there's no separate races. We're all descendants of Adam and Eve. We're all created in God's image.
• 35:58
  And so fake science again often used to claim evil is good and good is evil. Isaiah 5:20, 23 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light, light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Woe to men, mighty at drinking wine, valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man.
• 36:23
  And you know, we talked about again, the most fundamental difference or the most fundamental effect of someone that really, truly just put their total faith in the physical and not the spiritual would be that they would just violate fundamental commands. And so Mark 12, 29, 31, Jesus answered the four foremost is hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. The second is this, you shall love your neighbors yourself. There is no other command greater than these. Well, the best way to love our neighbor is to encourage them to obey the gospel. And so just keep that in mind too. If someone's getting in a discussion, someone says, hey, why are you bothering talking to me? Why are you spending all this time evangelizing? Why are you spending all this time trying to convince me to become a Christian? Well, you just point out to them, well, you know, as Christians, we're to love our neighbors as ourselves. And you know, no matter what I did for you, it's nothing compared to if I at least try to encourage you to obey the gospel, become a Christian so you can spend eternity with God. And then of course, we've talked about this one in the past, but you know, just always be ready with a Bible study or some verses, you know, because, boy, because a lot of times if someone is in Honduras once and we're talking to a lady and, and she was very, very nice and we're studying, we're studying, we're studying and it was probably about an hour and a half into it, and she was just agreeing with everything we're saying, but we're making no progress. I don't know if you've ever been in those kind of Bible studies. So all at once. And I still have no idea what triggered it.
• 37:48
  Actually, I was with Carlos Hernandez. I'm going to get to do a mission trip with him in a couple weeks. Again, the guy's fantastic. Just really super fluent in English and Spanish. So anyway, so he's translating and we're studying, we're studying, we're studying. And all of a sudden it's just.
• 38:01
  Just.
• 38:02
  I don't even know how to describe it. Just, just. She fires off like five questions really fast. And then Carlos answers five, all five, really fast. I have no clue what's going on. Okay, so, so. But literally we had just covered, I think, Acts 16, you know, when the Philippian jailer was baptized that very hour of the night. Okay, so it says, you know. And so, you know, it says they.
• 38:26
  They had the earthquake.
• 38:28
  He asked what must they do to be saved. They studied with him, baptized at every hour of the night. So we just covered that.
• 38:34
  And then all of a sudden, she just rapid fires with Carlos, and Carlos says she wants to be baptized. And it's like, great. And then one of us made the really silly mistake of saying, well, when? And she just looks at us like, now, because we'd just gone over that. And so.
• 38:52
  So there's some tilapia ponds right where we were studying. And so she's all ready to get baptized in a tilapia pond. And we're good with that. But then Carlos points out that there is a baptistry like a mile away if you don't go.
• 39:04
  So she hops in her truck, she's flying down the hill, and we, of course, couldn't keep up with her, but she knew where we were going. So anyway, I guess what I'm saying is if you're talking to somebody, don't get as caught off guard as at least I was. Carlos. Emily knew it all that's going on. But, you know, because, you know, just be really ready for someone to all of a sudden to say, okay, I'm convinced, you know, I want to obey the gospel. So it's a really pleasant. And you can, you know, again, you can really address any situation they're in. Just with the examples in the Book of Acts, you know, if you read through those examples, almost not aware of a question a person has asked yet that couldn't Be addressed just by showing them, you know, pick which example addresses it the best, but they all address it.
• 39:44
  Okay, going to just introduce the age of the Earth because I think that was the first bell. But any questions or comments on just the societal implications? Any ideas on how that might be usable?
• 39:56
  I mean, one could be maybe just pointing out. I mean, I'm sorry, but yeah, I know we've all heard of Charles Darwin for a while. So maybe if you're in a situation where someone's saying they put their faith in Darwin, well, you know, let's talk about what exactly that means. You know, point out where his thinking led him, you know, and how false it was. You know, that'd just be one thought or just this whole idea of as fast as technology is advancing, it's very easy for to imagine. You've probably all heard about how AI is going to either going to be really, really, really good or really, really, really bad. You know, and there's this big debate going right now, so. So people are kind of in tune to, hey, we gotta start thinking about this.
• 40:38
  What effect could it have on if we start teaching things like this again as science?
• 40:45
  What effect could that have?
• 40:47
  So it could be a topic of interest, but not for everybody, just like a lot of the other topics we've covered. Not for everybody, but again, could be a topic of interest.
• 40:56
  Okay, well then just real quick, just to give us something to be thinking about for next week.
• 41:01
  You know, as with anything, always rely on the Bible. 2 Timothy 3, 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every Good work. John 17:17. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.
• 41:20
  The age of the earth. Some people consider that a stronghold against the Bible. And again, what I mean by that, we talked about it a little bit with the origin of universe. I think the big bang's falling on really hard times right now. So I don't think they're going to be using that one too much more. But the age of the earth is one where they'll try to say that, well, that somehow that disproves the bible.
• 41:38
  And so second Corinthians 10:3,5 talks about that. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against us. The knowledge of God bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
• 41:57
  So again, casting mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.
• 42:02
  And then always be ready to give a defense. This is one to me. It's so easy to give a defense that, hey, we can make choices, we have free will. Or easy to make a defense that, hey, life can't just make itself. We can't even make life in our best laboratories. This can be a harder area to give a defense on.
• 42:18
  First Peter 3, 13, 15 and who is he who will harm you if you become followers? What is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed. Do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Okay, so just an intro slide and we'll go through each of these in a lot of detail next week.
• 42:41
  But if you look at the age of the Earth, almost every method is consistent with the Earth being a few thousand years old. So you have all kinds of ways you can estimate the age of the Earth. And so this is everything for very little sediment on the sea floor to think about. We can measure how fast sediment's going into the oceans from plate tectonics and stuff. We know how fast it's being removed. Very consistent with the Earth being a few thousand years, especially when we take into account effects of the flood.
• 43:06
  Bent rock layers. The example we can use there is you'll have rock layers. They're clearly sedimentary rock. In other words, you have layers, individual layers. They had to be laid down horizontal, but then they're bent. Some of these bends are like hundreds of feet. I mean, just these huge S curves, no cracks. Okay, so what that implies is very consistent with, is it was laid down underwater. And you have things like the cross bed angles and other things, other indications that it was laid down underwater.
• 43:34
  You know, cementation occur, but then also. Or in water. But it also had to bend when it was still soft. Because if you take, you can try this tomorrow morning if you're really sleepy, take your coffee mug and try to turn it into a bowl. You know, get some vice grips or something, you know, okay, it's not going to work because it's hardened. It'll just shatter. Well, if those rock layers had had time to harden, because someone will say, oh, it's hundreds of millions of years, at least millions of years. Those rock layers had had time to harden. They'd have been solid and it been to bend them, they'd have cracks. We can go down bottom of the Grand Canyon and see some of these bends, and there's no cracks in them. I mean, it's just it was obviously bent or very the best explanation is it was bent while those layers were still soft. Soft tissue and fossils. This is a big one. I was looking at a little bit today. They're actually it was being reported back as early as the 60s. The people thought they were fine in soft tissue and fossils. But it wasn't until 2005 when someone was actually able to push it through the point where it was getting published and it was getting and she got all kinds of pushback. Mary Schweitzer, we'll talk about the rest of those next week. But just kind of setting the tones. All right. Thanks a lot, everybody.