Ken Ham says, in The Lie, that evolution has not occurred. Really?

Ken Ham, leader of the Answers in Genesis (AiG) organization, doesn’t believe evolution occurred:

“Christians who say God used evolution to bring everything including man into being, have a real problem. If evolution is not occurring today (that is, if God is not ‘creating’ through evolution), there is no basis to extrapolate into the past to say that evolution has ever occurred, as there is now no mechanism for it.” - Ken Ham, “Twenty Reasons Why Genesis and Evolution Do Not mix,” which is excerpted from Ham’s book, The Lie. The book seems to have been published in 2012.

So evolution can’t occur, because “there is no mechanism for it?” Well, maybe there is. AiG understands that it wasn’t possible to house and care for all the types of animals on the ark, with only 8 people to handle this. So, AiG says, there were just a hundred or so types of animals, but, after the ark landed, these exploded into the variety we have today. (See here)

This statement contradicts Ham’s claim that evolution can't occur: “God placed the potential for tremendous variety within the original created kinds. This original variation, altered by genetic mutations and other mechanisms after the Fall (such as natural selection), led to the great diversity of living things we see today.” - “Variety Within Created Kinds,” from Answers in Genesis, probably published in 2010.

God used natural selection and genetic mutations, and probably other mechanisms, to make possible the variety we find in created organisms. Praise to Him! 

Psalm 104:24 Yahweh, how many are your works!
    In wisdom, you have made them all.
    The earth is full of your riches.
104:25 There is the sea, great and wide,
    in which are innumerable living things,
    both small and large animals. (World English Bible, public domain)

Thanks for reading.

No Abraham, no Moses: Major events in history, according to Answers in Genesis

Answers in Genesis (AiG) tells us that the Bible is "a history book that reveals the major events of history that are foundational to the Bible’s important messages."

In the web page referenced in the previous paragraph, which is credited to Ken Ham and Stacia McKeever, AiG sets forth seven major events in the history of the world, each one beginning with a C. These are Creation, Corruption (the Fall), Catastrophe (the Flood), Confusion (The Tower of Babel), all of which are in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, and Christ, the Cross, and Consummation, from the remainder of the Bible.

Condensing the Bible into seven, or even more, events is a challenge, and it's not surprising that AiG has left out some major events and individuals. But what have they left out?

Abraham is left out. Abraham is mentioned about 230 times in the Bible, with about 70 of these in the New Testament. These include Galatians 3:6-8, and other important references to Abraham's faith. 

Moses is another omission. Moses is mentioned about 780 times in the Bible, of which about 70 are in the New Testament. These include leading the Israelites through the Red Sea and the Jordan River, governing them for decades, receiving the Ten Commandments and other laws, and speaking to God face to face.

There are other events and people left out of the "important messages," such as Job, David, Ruth, Esther, Isaiah and all of the other prophets. The Psalms are not exactly an event, but they are important even today, often used, and quoted often in the New Testament. There is additional wisdom literature in the Bible. Psalms, Jeremiah and Ezekiel make up about 15% of the Bible.

Acts and the Epistles, which make up much of the New Testament, describe the formation and beliefs of the early church, and are foundational for most of the beliefs of the church of today. They are left out of AiG's list.

On the other hand, the story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) is included in the 7 C's list, in spite of the fact that it isn't referred to anywhere else in the Bible. There are important Bible scholars who do not believe that there actually was such a tower. Bible scholars also question other statements on the 7 C's page, such as that there was a world-wide flood, or that dinosaurs were rescued on the Ark.

AiG is to be commended for pointing us to the importance of the Bible, but emphasizes their interpretation of one book of the Bible,  Genesis, too much. (Genesis is less than 6% of the Bible.)

Thanks for reading.

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 205

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I do this, not because I'm a powerful prayer warrior, but because I'm not. Murray was. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray's book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

O my God! in holy awe I bow before Thee, the Three in One. Again I have seen how the mystery of prayer is the mystery of the Holy Trinity. I adore the Father who ever hears, and the Son who ever lives to pray, and the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, to lift us up into the fellowship of that ever-blessed, never-ceasing asking and receiving. I bow, my God, in adoring worship, before the infinite condescension that thus, through the Holy Spirit, takes us and our prayers into the Divine Life, and its fellowship of love.

O my Blessed Lord Jesus! Teach me to understand Thy lesson, that it is the indwelling Spirit, streaming from Thee, uniting to Thee, who is the Spirit of prayer. Teach me what it is as an empty, wholly consecrated vessel, to yield myself to His being my life. Teach me to honour and trust Him, as a living Person, to lead my life and my prayer. Teach me specially in prayer to wait in holy silence, and give Him place to breathe within me His unutterable intercession. And teach me that through Him it is possible to pray without ceasing, and to pray without failing, because He makes me partaker of the never-ceasing and never-failing intercession in which Thou, the Son, dost appear before the Father. Yea, Lord, fulfil in me Thy promise, At that day ye shall ask in my Name. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, that will He give.’ Amen.

Sunspots 959

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*

Computing: A Christianity Today author warns of the danger of spending time in cyberspace. In addition to pornography and misinformation, internet use distorts the importance of the real world.

(or something:) NPR tells what happens to lost luggage. There's a lot of it!

Science: ScienceAlert describes an amazing newly found area on the ocean bottom.

A Conversation writer discusses genetic and other changes in species, which help them avoid extinction, due to climate change. Most of these strategies are not enough.

NPR reports on an attempt to grow food plants on simulated Martian soil.

(or something): NPR tells us about big tumbleweeds, lots of them.

Sports:

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view

Thanks for reading.

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 204

 

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I do this, not because I'm a powerful prayer warrior, but because I'm not. Murray was. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray's book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

And so once again the lesson comes: What our prayer avails, depends upon what we are and what our life is. It is living in the Name of Christ that is the secret of praying in the Name of Christ; living in the Spirit that fits for praying in the Spirit. It is abiding in Christ that gives the right and power to ask what we will: the extent of the abiding is the exact measure of the power in prayer. It is the Spirit dwelling within us that prays, not in words and thoughts always, but in a breathing and a being deeper than utterance. Just so much as there is of Christ’s Spirit in us, is there real prayer. Our lives, our lives, O let our lives be full of Christ, and full of His Spirit, and the wonderfully unlimited promises to our prayer will no longer appear strange. ‘Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my Name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. At that day ye shall ask in my Name. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my Name, He will give it you.’
 

Sunspots 958

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*

Health: (and Politics, to some extent) Gizmodo reports that the Centers for Disease Control tell us that more  parents are finding excuses for not having their kids vaccinated.

Science: Gizmodo reports that some viruses enter host cells, with the (unwitting) help of other kinds of viruses.

Quanta Magazine reports on how we perceive small numbers of objects (1-4), and it's not the same way we perceive greater numbers of objects.

IFLScience reports that a yeast organism with artificial DNA is functional and alive.

A Conversation writer discusses treatment for concussions and other brain injury.

Sports: (and Finance, and Education) The Guardian complains about our priorities -- Texas A&M's football coach has been fired, but is to get 77 million dollars for not coaching. Education in Texas (and elsewhere) is seriously underfunded.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view

Thanks for reading.

With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray, excerpt 203

This post continues a series of excerpts from With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. I do this, not because I'm a powerful prayer warrior, but because I'm not. Murray was. I thank the Christian Classics Ethereal Library for making this public domain work available. To see their post of the book, go here. His book is based on Mark 11:22-24. The previous post in this series is here. As usual in this blog, long quotations are in this color. Murray's book is based on Mark 11:22-24.

Brother! what we need to pray in the Name of Christ, to ask that we may receive that our joy may be full, is the baptism of this Holy Ghost. This is more than the Spirit of God under the Old Testament. This is more than the Spirit of conversion and regeneration the disciples had before Pentecost. This is more than the Spirit with a measure of His influence and working. This is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the glorified Jesus in His exaltation-power, coming on us as the Spirit of the indwelling Jesus, revealing the Son and the Father within. (John xiv:16-23.) It is when this Spirit is the Spirit not of our hours of prayer, but of our whole life and walk, when this Spirit glorifies Jesus in us by revealing the completeness of His work, and making us wholly one with Him and like Him, that we can pray in His Name, because we are in very deed one with Him. Then it is that we have that immediateness of access to the Father of which Jesus says, ‘I say not that I will pray the Father for you.’ Oh! we need to understand and believe that to be filled with this, the Spirit of the glorified One,  is the one need of God’s believing people. Then shall we realize what it is, ‘with all prayer and supplication to be praying at all seasons in the Spirit,’ and what it is, ‘praying in the Holy Ghost, to keep ourselves in the love of God.’ ‘At that day ye shall ask in my Name.’

Sunspots 957

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*

Health: A Conversation writer tells us why we often get nasal congestion when we're sick, and about the functions of snot.

Politics: (or something) A Conversation writer tells us that young black men are more likely to die in certain small areas of large cities than as if they were engaged in battle as part of the US military.

Russia has withdrawn support for the nuclear test ban treaty, according to Reuters.

A Conversation article tells us that Democrats and Republicans differ widely on whether or not to remove misinformation from social platforms.

Science: Gizmodo reports on how the Yucatán asteroid may have wiped out the dinosaurs.

Gizmodo also reports that scientists have found that an asteroid, less than a kilometer in size, has an even smaller asteroid orbiting it. A later report shows that the smaller asteroid is actually two rocks.

Phys.Org reports that studies of DNA from many species of crabs indicates that crabs took up residence out of the ocean about 17 different times.

A Conversation writer tells us how we come up with the word we want, fast.

*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view

Thanks for reading.