The Worlds Greatest Evil

There are many evils in today’s world. Abortion is many times worse than Hitler’s Holocaust. Murder, homosexuality, drugs, theft, envy, greed and all manor of immorality are a common part of life in our times. We do not trust those that we do business with and for good reasons. They will fix what isn’t broken at great cost to us if we are not weary of their schemes. There are those who are worthy of our trust but bad experiences have taught us that we can not necessarily trust our government, our insurance company, our broker and sometimes even our minister. I could give you several examples of these types of injustices but you no doubt have your own horror stories. Morality today is considered to be whatever one can get away with. All of this has given us a bleak and sinister outlook as to the future but none of these rise to the level of today’s worst evil.
When Jesus was asked which of the commandments were the most important he answered with what is sometimes called the eleventh commandment". He said in Mark 12:30 “And thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. If this commandment were kept by a majority of us then the above mentioned evils would be much diminished but most importantly, If this is the most important commandment then doesn’t it follow that the opposite, which is the denial of God, is the worst evil?
So how is this evil manifested in today’s world? This world is like a speeding rocket heading toward the apocalypse of the Revelation. I can assure you that this evil is not only a passive thing brought about by our apathy. There is an organized effort to convince us to deny God which is inspired by no less than Satan himself and we Christians are obligated to resist it. That evil will take the form of a “One World Government” and a “One world Religion” which is Secular Humanism.
No one is pushing these things you may say but you have been fooled by Satan’s subtlety. The United Nations is working hard to become a universal government and billions of our dollars are being spent yearly in an effort to prove that the universe just sprang up spontaneously and that there is no God. This effort comes at us from many fronts. Not the least of these is Darwinism and what I call the New Darwinism which is Global Warming. Global Warming has become an effort to prove that man is in control and not God and will be used to explain away the apocalyptic events predicted in Revelation. When churches give in to these secular views then they will have fulfilled the prophesy that in the latter days there will be those that have a form of Godliness but will deny the power thereof (2 Timothy 3:5). These weak churches will be susceptible to join with the one world religion because there will be little difference.
If we Christians can’t resist the subtle encroachment of Secular Humanism What will we do when the time comes that the remaining Christians will have to choose between denying God and facing certain Death?

The Word of God

The Bible is the infallible word of God but I disagree with some Christians who believe that The Bible is the only and complete word of God. That is to say, any other information source is to be held as suspect or disregarded. This claim comes from those who also profess to believe that the Bible is the absolute and inerrant Word. So, if the Bible is the Infallible word of God, as I believe it is, why do they make the above mentioned claim when it’s contrary to what the Bible actually says?

They are quick to point to the last few verses of Revelation. It warns us not to add or take away anything from what this book says but what book does John mean? At the time John wrote Revelation the Bible as we know it did not exist. Don’t take me wrong, it is advisable that no one should ever change a dot or a title to the book of Revelation or any of the others but it does not say anything there or anywhere else in Scripture that the Bible is the only and complete word of God. To say that puts a limitation on God’s ability to talk to us by any means he chooses. God has no limitations.

Speaking
John wrote in John 21:25 that if all the things that Jesus did were written down that the world could scarcely contain the books. Are we to believe that whatever wasn’t written down about what Jesus said and did wasn’t God’s word?

We are taught that God speaks directly to the spirit of men through His Holy Spirit. The Bible gives many examples of God speaking directly to men in both the Old and New Testaments.
Consider Jacob - Gen. 46:2 Balaam - Num. 24:15, Moses - Exodus 6:10, Joshua - Joshua 1:1, Ananias - Acts 9:10 And Paul - Acts 18:9 just to name a few

God continues to speak directly to men today. In 1st Peter 4:11 it speaks about God’s calling of men to be ministers. Are we to believe that this type of calling is not God’s word to that individual and shouldn’t it be honored by others? God speaks to men not only through the Bible but also through visions, dreams, through the Holy Spirit and other messengers sent by God. If you are not getting these messages perhaps you need to examine your personal relationship with God. To get these messages you not only must be a Christian but you also need to be humbled and obedient before the Lord.


Psalms 19:1-2 New International
1. The Heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2. Day after day they pour fourth speech; night after night they display Knowledge.

Observing The Creation
The above verses are perhaps the most significant example of God’s word appearing outside of the Bible. It’s clear from this verse that anything we learn from God’s Creation is as much God’s Word as that which we read in the scriptures. History from the beginning of the age of discovery shows that Christians resisted this Bible truth. They started by disputing the fact that the Earth is round. This damnable position is still held against Christians today and we continue to cause science to hold the Bible in contempt because of our uninformed view of what the creation teaches us and what the Bible actually says. Many of these same early Christians are the same ones that initiated many of the false beliefs and odd practices that, unfortunately, many modern Christians adhere to.
God designed the laws of nature and we must give him the full credit by recognizing that His Word is in all of these things he created but it’s not to say that science always gets it right.

The Apocrypha
In the book of Daniel (Michael) a messenger sent from God said to Daniel in a vision concerning the future.

Daniel 12:4 King James
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Have you seen anyone going to and fro lately? It’s only been in the last 100 years that vast numbers of people have been able to travel world wide at high speeds and our knowledge has increased exponentially. We are in the end time age that God’s messenger referred to and we are to receive the information that has been sealed up since the time of Daniel. Are we open to this information?

The name “Apocrypha” has been given to a number of books that were lumped together as having been excluded from the final draft of the Bible. Starting about 325 BC books that were deemed unfit to be included in the Bible became the object of mass book burnings. Most of these books were written in the 1st century or later and were the work of people who would pervert the teachings of the Apostles of Jesus and should have been left out of the Bible.

In my first book “The Creation Puzzle Solved” I went into detail about “The Book of Enoch”. Enoch was Noah’s great grandfather so anything he wrote had to precede any of the books in the Bible. I have studied this book and I find that It explains much concerning creation. Enoch predicts both the 1st and 2nd coming of the Messiah in terms that are often stated more clearly than what the Bible itself does. The Bible recognizes Enoch as a Profit (Jude 14) and it directly quotes his book many times. This book was known in the time of Jesus; otherwise, how could Jude have quoted it? The Book of Enoch has been considered sacred and meticulously copied along with the Bible by the Coptic Christian Church in Ethiopia for 2000 years.

I believe that this book is a part of the Word of God. I believe God has purposely kept it under wraps, so to speak, until recent times because this book would have been very hard for early Christians to understand. Fortunately, with increased knowledge this book can be understood today.

In the Introduction I mentioned that the Early profits left out details that were common knowledge at that time. The book of Enoch was known to the Profits and it wasn’t necessary to duplicate what was already written. The Book of Enoch was probably a type of Bible for believers who lived before the early Biblical Profits. Parts of Enoch have been found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Copies of my favorite translation by Richard Lawrence are available on the internet.

God is Sovereign
Who are we to decide for God what His Word is? God can communicate His Word by any means, anywhere and anytime he wants. Since the Bible does not tell us directly that it is the complete and only word of God then we do not have the authority to decide that it is. The Bible remains the most sacred and useful tool for all Christians and in our computer age it is in no danger of ever being changed.

The Flood of Noah

We all know the story of Noah and the Ark which has largely been relegated to being a children’s story so I am not really going into that part here. In my book The Creation Puzzle Solved I had a chapter of the same name. In it I stated that we can not always understand the Bible exactly right until God is ready for us to. I stand by that statement. There were several scenarios given that might or might not be true but all could possibly be a solution or part of a solution that explains the Genesis account (Some copies of the book are still available).
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The flood is an issue that troubles even Christians but more important young people who are exposed to science education which seeks to destroy the Biblical account make this a relevant issue. Christians in general have done a bad job of making this story acceptable to young minds. This article is intended to be an addendum to that book.
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Many Christians seem to lean toward a young earth explanation of scriptures but I am not one of those who do. The young earth scenario requires an assumption that God created the earth to appear to be old, thus fooling scientists into accepting evolution as the only viable solution to what we observe. One of my hobbies is scuba diving and a few years ago I had the privilege of diving in what is known as the Blue Hole which was discovered by Jacques Cousteau south of Belize. It’s over 500 feet deep but when you reach 120 feet you realize that you have entered an underwater cavern complete with stalactites and stalagmites. These beautiful and huge formations take tens of thousands of years to form but they can’t form at all under water. Why would God make something like that appear as if it formed hundreds of thousands of years ago then sunk below the Caribbean sea? Numbers 23:19 says that “God is not (like) a man that he should lie:" I do not believe that God has any need to fool man into believing that the earth is any older than it is. The age of the earth is whatever it is but probably several billion years old.
Many Bible scholars would assume wrongly at this point that I am an evolutionist but that is for another story.
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The flood
Genesis 7:19 “And the water prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.”

This verse in the absence of geological evidence is one thing that scientists use to try to refute the scriptures and in all honestly it has bothered me too for years. I believe that if any person struggles to understand difficult scripture, and they pray for understanding, God will in his own good time answer that prayer at least to the satisfaction of that person. In fact, what I am about to explain may be the answer to some of your prayers.
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In the mind of science, In order for water to cover all of the high places it had to come from somewhere and afterward it had to go somewhere and it had to leave evidence. To cover the world, as we know it, that would take water over five miles above sea level. That is considerably more water than what we appear to have. Sure there is water in our atmosphere but not near that much.
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The problem here, to use a cliche, is that we are not able to think out of our box and we miss even the obvious. I was reading a book written by a "young earth theologian" as I often do to learn how they think and an answer came to me from out of the blue, to use another cliche. An answer to prayer is what it really was.
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The Bible does not distinguish between the states of water: gas, liquid or solid. The flood was the beginning of the only Biblical mention of a climate change. We are told that it had not yet rained on the earth. Can you Imagine a volcano so large that ash goes into the atmosphere and completely encircles the earth? The dust in this dark cloud seeds the water vapor in the atmosphere and causes it to rain exceedingly. There is another effect as well, the Sun is blocked out to the point that the temperature in all of the high places and the extreme north and south drops and freezes the rain so that all of the earth is indeed covered with water or ice.
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Science attests to the fact of such a volcano http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/volcano-tours/volcanoes/indonesia/sumatra/toba/
and science attests to the extinction of animals such as the mammoth, giant sloth and the saber tooth tiger. Noah must have saved smaller varieties of these species as we still have them today but the truth is that tropical animals like those mentioned above can still be found frozen whole in Siberia. http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/fit/chapter1.asp Science also agrees that catastrophic local floods have surely happened in the past which would have been the condition where Noah was. http://www.sentex.net/~tcc/cfdb.html So now you can see that the Bible and science can be brought to a common agreement on at least this point.
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I am convinced that all the other objections that science has can be explained as well and it is probable that the expeditions searching for the ancient ark are looking at too high of an altitude. See this amazing almost half size replica of Noah's Ark. http://www.pbase.com/paulthedane/noahs_ark
And http://www.arkvannoach.com/language/en/
Jimmy Huffman

We Win One

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal Has Signed a Law Allowing Intelligent Design in Louisiana Schools. Teachers are to be permitted to supplement textbook discussions on evolution and global warming with contrary scientific evidence. This will probably be met with law suits if any perceived religion creeps in. The full story by Peter J. Smith is found at this web address.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08062706.html

The so called intelligent design concept is far from Christianity but it seems to me that Evolution in the absence of any real evidence should be officially declared a faith or religion itself so that we can deal with the issue on a level playing field.
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Other news

A New York Times story proves the liberal paper knows so little about Christianity that they think a discovery of a Jewish stone writing about the Messiahs being resurrected after three days somehow dilutes what they assume is supposed to be a unique Christian story. They don't seem to realize that most of the Old Testament is a prophesy regarding Jesus and that we Christians welcome such a discovery.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06stone.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Resurrection+may+be+part+of+jewish+tradition&st=nyt&oref=slogin

The United States in Prophesy

Hal Lindsey, perhaps the premier interpreter of Bible prophesy in our time, has written a number of books including the well known “Late Great Planet Earth” and he is among my favorite authors. Hal has been asked many times what role The United States plays in Bible prophesy. So far his answer has been that he can not find anything in prophesy that specifically refers to the United States. Lindsey readily identifies Russia, China and the European Union in Bible prophesy but not the US.

Over the years I have found this neglect of what is one of the most significant countries in history to be very perplexing. This omission has caused me to ponder, search and pray about this issue. I leave it to you to judge if this answer has merit.

The Divided Kingdom

After the reign of Solomon the nation of Israel split into two parts. Judah sometimes called the Southern Kingdom had it’s capitol in Jerusalem and The Northern Kingdom of Israel which had it’s capitol in Samaria. In 722 BC the Assyrians captured Israel and killed or enslaved all it’s inhabitants such that the ten northern tribes completely lost their identity. They are sometimes referred to as The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

In contrast, Judah survived for more than a century after that before being captured by Babylon. Jerusalem was later allowed to be rebuilt when the King of Persia allowed many Jews to return. The Jews who rebuilt Jerusalem have retained their identity. As God’s chosen people despite being scattered globally by the Romans centuries later.

Hosea

Before 722 BC Hosea was a Prophet of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. In the book of Hosea he uses his life to metaphorically show how Israel had completely abandoned the true God in favor of worshiping idols and the gods of surrounding countries and how they would later return to God.

According to Hosea, Israel had become a nation of liars, murders and adulters. Hosea warned them to return to their true God and amend their ways or God will bring their nation to an end which as I said happened in 722 BC.

Hosea did not confuse the two kingdoms, when he said Israel he meant the Northern Kingdom not any combination. He predicted that Judah would also fall though not immediately. He predicted that for a long time Israel would not have a king or a temple or even idols. (Hosea 3:4-5)

The first chapter of Hosea is sort of an introduction to the book as a whole. In it he makes a startling prophetic statement (1:10-11). Despite the fact that in our time we have no idea what happened to the people of Israel or who they might be now, Hosea says #1, They will come together and become a great nation. 2. He says that their number will be countless. 3, He says that they will return to their God. 4, He says that Israel and Judah will come together in their own land and 5, appoint themselves one leader.

Is The United States Israel in Bible Prophesy?

What country fits all of Hosea’s criterion? The modern state of Israel is composed of the descendants of Judah along with Arabs and Palestinians but in the United states mostly Christians and Jews live together. The Christians have no way of knowing if they are descendants of the ones exiled from Israel but undoubtedly many if not most of us are. In ten generations each of us have 1,398,100 grandparents. It would be unusual if none of them are Israelis.

Consider also that the State of Israel only exists due to the constant effort of the United States. Israel is by any definition a client state of the US and many Israelis have duel citizenship. The physical existence of Israel depends on both our military support and the generosity of both our citizens and our state treasury. We are taught that God blesses those who bless Israel and no country is more blessed than The United States of America. We are in essence one.

We do not know who these lost Israelite people are so we can not number them. I don’t mean to imply that every single American is an Israelite but consider that many of the minorities in this country could be descendants of Israel just the same as the Anglo majority. When the Israelites were captured for slaves they were disbursed world wide over time. For instance over time they assimilated with the Spaniards in Spain who in turn conquered Mexico and assimilated with the native Indians. Mexico has some pure Indian people as well as some Spaniards but the overwhelming and growing majority are mixed and are now known as Hispanics or Latinos. Mexico is overwhelmingly Christian and many have migrated to the US and are now assimilating with North Americans. A similar pattern is true throughout the European countries that sent colonists to America.

The election of a president by the people was an unknown concept in the day of Hosea; Yet there it is in verse 11. This is one of the proofs that the Bible is divinely inspired. Hosea would have had no way of even guessing this detail. The European countries where the majority of early Americans came from only became democratic after America did. America is unique in being a successful pioneer in democracy and bringing together diverse peoples.

Just as Hosea 3:4-5 says it has been a long time since Israel has had a king, and Jesus will surely be their next one but they also do not have a temple or even idols. Just as Hosea predicted most of the people assimilated into countries that later became Christian and in America they have indeed returned to their God. Americans like Israelites of old are not ideal believers but an overwhelming majority profess belief in the one true God.

I know many will say that God only promised land to Israel that is in the Middle East but be careful about believing what the Bible does not say specifically. Hosea only says that Israel will inhabit their own land and this is definitely our own land. There is no mention in Hosea where this place is that people from both Israel and Judah will come together and call it their own land. Therefore, the US is as good a prospect as anywhere.

This Prophesy concerning Israel is not God’s conditional promise to Abraham which promises to give his descendants the land from the Euphrates to the River of Egypt. God's promise to Abraham has never been fully realized. To date God’s condition of obedience has not been met. Early Israelis did occupy land on the Nile River in Egypt and in recent years they temporarily held the Egyptian Sinai but they have never held land north of the current border with Syria. I am looking on with great interest regarding what some call the US occupation of Iraq which includes the Euphrates River. I wonder if this is a precursor of the realization of that promise to Abraham.

Conclusion

The fact that the United States may be Israel in Bible prophesy does not necessarily bode well for it as a nation. We will only be saved from total destruction by the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Jimmy Huffman

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"Expelled" A Movie Review

A Documentary movie named "Expelled; No Intelligence Allowed" PG is making it's way through it's theater run with almost zero publicity. It should soon be available on CD. This movie is showing at a very few theaters and when I went there were 9 people in the theater counting me. I recommend this movie especially for children older than 12.
The below link will take you to the trailer it also has a theater locater.

"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," a rare documentary opening in wide release, debuted at No. ... 9. "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," $3.1 million.

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playground.php

This Movie staring Ben Stein as himself makes a case against evolution and for Intelligent Design. In it Ben travels extensively to interview scientists and academicians who have some reputation on the subject. There were two things that stood out to me above the information that I have read in many books. 1St he highlights several college professors that have been fired (Expelled) for expressing even the slightest hint toward Intelligent Design. 2nd he makes a connection between Darwinism and Hitler's Holocaust. Beyond that there are good graphics used to debunk evolution.

Intelligent Design is not Christianity. In fact. Bob Stein is Jewish but the movie serves it's purpose.

When I Googled "Expelled" there was a web page that tries to discredit the Movie based on the contention that Intelligent Design is religion but the same case can be made for evolution.

http://www.expelledexposed.com/

Jimmy Huffman

The Pew Forum and the Liberal Media Get It All Wrong

A huge survey on religion in America released today (June 24, 08) skews the facts on religious beliefs. To their credit they interviewed 35,000 people to reach their conclusions but the wording of their questions make the results invalid.
http://religions.pewforum.org/

I always get nervous when I see news media entities ask survey questions. The questions are usually something that the average person has no expertise on which to base his answer and therefore has no valid meaning. This survey has some of those types of questions. It may have some usefulness in telling Christian denominations how well they are doing in communicating their message but the survey does not take in to account that a large percentage of Christians are in early stages of being slowly trained in what the Bible teaches and are not qualified to answer a comprehensive survey.

Another problem and probably the most relevant one is the fact that in their questions they make no clear differentiation as to whether the term “other religions” is the same or different from the term “other denominations” This skews their conclusion that most respondents say that there is more than one path to eternal life. If 57% of Evangelicals believe this as the survey says we are in big trouble. Most likely though, it is a purposeful attempt to give credence to the secular universalist view of religion. Surveys always have an agenda to push. They think a “One World Religion” would make the world a better place with no conflict and everyone in one accord.