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At this point I want to stress that Prayer is an important factor, when studying Gods word. I believe that just as the Bible was written with Divine inspiration, its truths are also revealed in like manner, by the Holy Spirit. I encourage you all to pray, prior to and after your study , ask the Lord to reveal, and impress His word upon your heart and mind, to enable you to impart it to others as He willed.

Write down the list of the five names and dates several days in a row until you have them solidly implanted in your mind, writing them down will help to reinforce your memory.

(ABRAHAM-2000BC)--(MOSES-1500BC)--(DAVID-1000BC)--(DANIEL-500BC)--(CHRIST-1AD)

The Bible isn't intended to be a comprehensive history of the existence of Mankind on the earth. It is rather an account of the relationship of one man's family with the Creator of the Universe. And it is the record of that Creator's intention to bless all of Mankind through the descendants of that man. People are introduced in the early chapters of Genesis to the details of their own history, as a prelude to the history of the family of that one man, and his ancestors, who would inter-react some day with his descendants. That one man is Abraham. The early chapters in Genesis establish his lineage from Adam. After Abraham himself is introduced, the later chapters in Genesis follow his children, his grandchildren, and their descendants for a period of about 500 years, leading up to the time of Moses. (Galatians 3:29) If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
The creation of Adam was about 4000 B.C. The Flood of Noah's in about 2500 B.C. Once you have committed to memory that Abraham's lifetime centers generally around the time period of 2000 B.C., you can pinpoint the general time-frame of a number of Biblical events and characters. Abraham's son by his wife Sarah was Isaac. Isaac's son by his wife Rebekah was Jacob. You can read about the lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in chapters (11 to 50 of Genesis). Any Bible stories which include these characters can be positioned shortly after 2000 B.C., long before Moses--who is the next person we will be discussing on our time-line, and who lived around the time of 1500 B.C.

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Understanding the basics (Part5)
The Bible itself does not have an accurate "internal dating system", where events are described in relation to years before or after some key event. So, in order to construct a chronology of Biblical events, historians must rely on external records from things like ancient historical writings, kept by writers in other civilizations, astronomical facts such as the dates of known eclipses, and compare those factors to clues in the Bible, and so on. This is another reason why it is not necessary to remember exact dates of Biblical events, many of these dates are often disputed among Biblical historians themselves! What is not in dispute in most cases is the sequence of events.

The basic idea of the "time line" we will be constructing in future lessons is this: By memorizing the general dates related to the lives of only five significant Biblical characters, each of whom is approximately 500 years apart, you can establish a frame of reference within, which to order the general sequence of the lives of all other Biblical characters, and events. In order to clearly understand much of what you read in the scriptures, you do need to know that Abraham lived long before Daniel! And you really do need to know that Jesus' ministry was over 1,000 years after the events of the Exodus. If you misunderstand the sequence of events, and the general time frame of the lives of various Bible characters, you can make all sorts of erroneous assumptions about the things you read in the Bible. There are so many different characters each with their own story in the bible, that it becomes almost impossible for the average person to put them into some kind of order, be it by date or theme, so often the bigger picture is never realized.

We want to look at a way to generally divide much of the history of the Bible up into simple segments around the lives of five important Biblical figures: Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel and Jesus. Once you commit to memory the general time frame of the lives of each of these men, you can begin to view other time information you read in the Bible in relation to the lives of these men.

Here are the general, simplified Biblical dates connected with these five: Abraham - 2000BC; Moses - 1500BC; David - 1000BC; Daniel - 500BC; Jesus - 1AD. For this lesson commit these five names and dates to memory, write them down and repeat them, until they are a part of your general thought pattern.

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Understanding the basics(Part4)
I have decided to spend more time than originally planed, on setting up our basic time line because for all further studies we will refer back to it and even build on it. Most people never have to deal with historical dates after finishing school, and most do not have interests, jobs, or hobbies that require such information. But once a person embarks on a serious study of the Bible, it soon becomes obvious that some knowledge about the history of Bible times is necessary, in order to fully understand the panorama of events, one reads about in the Bible. The question is, how much detail about dates is necessary. Many may never have read the whole Bible to get the complete story. As we continue our studies we will find that it not necessary to know exact dates, like when king David was born. But we do need to know the order of events as they happened, like David living a thousand years before Christ etc. If one of our jobs as disciples of Jesus is to reach out and make more disciples for Him, then we all need to learn to be "teachers of the basics"

One such basic historical concept that needs to be emphasized before moving on is the very simple distinction between dates "A.D." and "B.C."—and what these abbreviations stand for. Hundreds of years after the time Jesus lived on the earth, scholars decided to attempt to use the year of His birth as the "focal" point of history. All dates before His birth would be a certain number of years "B.C.-Before Christ. All dates after His birth would be "A.D."—which is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase Anno Domini. The word "Anno" refers to the concept of "year"Thus Anno Domini means "The Year of Our Lord", referring to the Lordship of Jesus.

In recent years, many groups have reacted unfavorably to the notion that they should use what is, after all, a "Christian" definition of time. "World religions" such as Judaism, Islam, and committed atheists. Realizing that they cannot possibly get the whole world to accept some totally new method of dating at this point in history, they have dealt with the issue by a symbolic change of the abbreviations used. Thus you may frequently see dates now that use the terms "B.C.E." and "C.E.." The C.E. stands for "Common Era", meaning the "commonly used system" of dating. And the B.C.E. stands for "Before the Common Era". We must take time to get to know all the basics, in order to get the fuller picture of the deeper truths.
I am currently setting up a web site to host these studies, but if you would like a printable version of these pages, send your name and E-Mail address to kenbrucegraham@gmail.com and I will send you copies. I will also be introducing a question and answer section.

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Understanding the basics (Part3)
Most of the many English translations are usually grouped into three main categories: Literal translations: They translate the original texts word for word into the best English equivalent words, and are sometimes also referred to as interlinear translations, the English rendering being placed along side the original Hebrew and Greek. They are undoubtedly the most accurate translations, but can be difficult to read because the flow of language follows the original Hebrew and Greek, quite different from modern English. The ESV as well as the NASB are good examples of literal translations. Dynamic equivalent translations: These translations attempt to be as literal as possible, but restructure sentences and grammar from the original language to English. They attempt to capture thought and intent of what writers wanted to say. As a result, these are more readable in English, but have a higher degree of subjective interpretation than the literal translations. These translations include the KJV, NKJV, and NIV. Contemporary language translations: These paraphrase the thought and intent of the original text into contemporary English. The result is easy to read, but the text is largely a subjective interpretation of the translator. These versions, such as the well known The New Living Translation and The Message, should be approached with great care. Use them perhaps for supplementary readings, but be aware that these texts can differ from the original Bible texts. The biblical apocrypha,(from the Greek word ἀπόκρυφος meaning hidden) these being the extra 14 books which made up the 80 original books, their authenticity, as being divinely inspired is highly contested and hence there omission. For this reason they are typically printed in a third section of the Bible apart from the Old and New Testaments. In some editions they are omitted entirely. In my next blog we will look at constructing a basic time line to the history of the bible to conclude this section, then move on getting to know the word, and Gods plan for us all. In 1517, seven people were burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for the crime of teaching their children to say the Lords Prayer in English rather than Latin (Lucky we never lived back then) "Click on the Lords Prayer above and enjoy"

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Understanding the basics (Part2).
The bible is not one book as many think it is, it's a collection of ancient writings, comprised of 66 separate books, written over a period of approximately 1600 years, by about 40 different authors. The Old Testament contains 39 books written from around 1500 to 400 BC, and the New Testament 27 books written from around 40 to 90 AD. The original Old Testament was written predominantly in Hebrew, with some Aramaic, while the original New Testament was written in Greek. The Jewish Bible (Tanakh) is the same as the Christian Old Testament, except for its book arrangements.
The history of the bible begins with the Jewish Scriptures. The historical record of the Jews was written down on leather scrolls and tablets over centuries, and the authors included , shepherds, prophets,kings and other leaders. The first five books are called the Law, which were written and/or edited primarily by Moses in the early 1400's BC. Thereafter, other texts were written and collected by the Jewish people during the next 1,000 years. About 450 BC, the Law and the other Jewish Scriptures were arranged by councils of rabbis (Jewish teachers), who then recognized the complete set as the inspired and sacred authority of God (Elohim). At some time during this period, the books of the Hebrew Bible were arranged by topic, including The Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nebiim), and the Writings (Ketubim).
Around about 250 BC, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek by Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt. This translation became known as the "Septuagint" meaning 70, traditionally the amount of men that would be assigned to the job of translation, in this case it could have been 72 men. It was during this process that the order of the books was changed to the order we have in today's Bible. Historical (Genesis - Esther), poetic (Job - Song of Songs), and prophetic (Isaiah - Malachi). By 500 AD, some estimate, scripture could already be found in more than 500 languages. In the 1380s the first English translations were made by John Wycliffe. It is estimated that there have been about 450 English translations over the years. The first English tranlation was handwritten and contained 80 books??

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Understanding the basics (Part1)
Over the years I have done many bible studies, ranging from very basic to extremely complex. What I have found is that most, if not all of them, lack the basic outline of the bible, and its purpose. We must understand that when following any bible study, you will undoubtedly be led favoring one or other theological bias. In other words there are many interpretations and view points as to how the story goes and without understanding the basics it is easy to get caught up in confusion, Even although the bible is made up of many different stories and some even appearing to be repetitions, there is an underlying theme to it as a whole. The better we understand the theme (Gods plan) the history, the less conflict we begin to find I want to go through the basics right from the beginning, and start by looking at who wrote the bible and for what purpose. If you think you know all of this, humor me and do it all again, because, every time I go through this process I learn something new. The most important thing to remember is that without the basics we may never grasp the full picture as God wants us to, and some of the stories may still remain shrouded in mystery. We often tend to overlook the basics, and move on to the more juicy parts and in doing so; we miss the plot and end up in confusion. Please give the link (here) to all your friends and those you feel could benefit from this study. PS we are never too old to learn. Let me leave you with this thought. There was no sin in Genesis 1-2. There was no sin in Revelation 21-22. We begin with no sin; we end with no sin. So what is all the rest of it about then?

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I want to share some of what Ive learned over the years, as to how to study, and get a better understanding of the scriptures, and build a closer relationship to our Savior. The first thing we all need to do is to set aside time, now this is normally the problem. How much time is needed? and in these chaotic times, where on earth must I find extra time? when I don't even have enough to do my normal stuff. When it comes to our religion, we often tend to say, "well I go to church on Sundays, have fellowship on Wednesdays, spend some time reading my bible and pray most days when I need stuff, so surely this is enough. Ask yourself these few questions; How much time do I spend planning for my future? financial needs; leisure time: parties; household goods; sport; etc, and then ask yourself, how planned is my prayer life? Is prayer just that thing we do while laying in bed just before we doze off? and then mostly just to ask for something for ourselves or others.
I went through this ordeal for many years, who am I kidding, let me rephrase, for most of my life, never seeming to have enough time. What I discovered as a result, was that I was constantly searching for Gods presence, and looking for signs of confirmation of my salvation. I made a decision to commit at least a half an hour per day, to the study of Gods word, What I mean here is, a half hour, dedicated to a structured study of the bible, not just a random reading, or general reading through the scriptures, but getting to know Gods plan and purpose for my life. I signed up for a self paced bible study on the Internet, and that's where it all started, the half hour was great, but soon I found myself spending an hour and then two hours, and all of a sudden time wasn't a problem. You see as I became more involved in His word, worship and praise, God was making time available to me. I currently spend two hours in the morning, my lunch time, plus an hour at night, and then at least four hours on Saturday and two and a half on Sunday, this adds up to a staggering 24 hours a week, where did all this time come from? (2 Peter 1:5-7)For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love, read the rest of the chapter on the link. Make a commitment start even with ten minutes a day and you will be amazed at how God will add to your time. Study with me, I'll do the preparation and God will make the time.

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The eight acts set in six days add up to a complete coverage of all the phenomena of the universe as we observe them from this planet. The scheme has symmetry. The first three days are days of separation, setting up three pairs of contrasting elements light/darkness; above/below; sea/land. The arrangement is stable, and vegetation (the fourth action) is part of the fixture. Then come three days in which moving things are placed successively in these three domains - lamps in the periods of light and darkness (Day 4 matches Day 1); birds and fish in air and water (Day 5 matches Day 2); animals and humankind on land (Day 6 matches Day 3). The effect is cumulative; the result is comprehensive. The style is simple, yet grand; the impression is majestic, overwhelming. It is a marvelous combination of plain narrative and high art. The fact that it is history should not shut our minds against its artistry. The fact that it is artistic should not soften our confidence in its truthfulness as history.
The word day in Genesis should then be read literally according to the above text, but lets just define it more clearly for anyone who might be skeptical. The word used for day is "yom" and can have various meanings depending on the content in which it is used. In Genesis 1 it is used in conjunction with the words evening and morning, and denotes a specific period of time, in this case 24 hours.The number and phrase evening and morning are used with each of the six days of creation. Outside Genesis 1 yom is used with the word evening or morning 23 times, these words appear in association but without the word yom another 38 times. In all 61 cases the text used refers to an ordinary day and no more. In Genesis 1:5 yom is used with the word night, and elsewhere is used with the same 53 times and once again can be seen to represent an ordinary day. The plural of the word yom does not appear in Genesis1, and can be used to communicate longer periods of time along with other Hebrew words like olam; tamid; dor or gedem. It may for some, be easier to look at the days of creation as longer time periods, but it does not confer with the language that is being used.In (Exodus 20:11) we read For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

I don't believe God meant the word day, in the statement above to mean millions of years, otherwise we would never have any rest. Put very simply I'm sure that if God wanted to convey the message of millions of years to us, He would have inspired the writer of the text to use language that better reflects long ages. I hope this long lecture has helped you all, my blog will now be taking another course in direction, so be sure to keep up.

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Many of you who know me, will appreciate that my literary skills leave a lot to be desired, however since I started studying the bible with greater intent, I have discovered the need to be able to differentiate between the various types and styles of literature, in order to better understand the content. Some of you might say its all to complicated and why cant we just read it as it is written, and I would agree with you in as much as the more times you read through the bible the more apparent the kind of literature becomes. This is fact, but some text requires a somewhat more in depth approach,what follows is written for those who are confronted with problems interpreting the book of genesis. The first step required when reading any portion of text is to work out what kind of literature it is, and what language it is written in. Each kind of literature has its own rules of composition, and these serve also as rules for its interpretation. To read any passage correctly, we must do four things: 1. Isolate the unit, find one style of writing for the section or book; 2. Identify the literary form (class, type, genre) of the composition; 3. Diagnose the dialect prose or poetry; 4. Use the grammatical and literary rules for that kind of composition. Unless this preliminary work is done correctly, the text can be misread. What, then is Genesis 1? Firstly, Genesis 1 is not a poem, it does not use verse forms. It is written in the standard literary dialect of narrative prose. It is completely devoid of poetic diction, imagery, figures of speech. Secondly, Genesis 1 is straight-forward narrative. It talks about the real world, completely familiar to us. It lists the cosmic elements and terrestrial phenomena such as we observe everyday ; sky, land, sea, heavenly lights, vegetation, fish, birds, and animals, including humankind. The terms "sky", "land", "grass", etc., have their simple meanings. The language is not mythological, allegorical, or parabolic. Genesis 1 states that God made all these things. The story is as simple as can be, straight-forward, matter-of-fact.Thirdly, Genesis 1 is followed by other stories which read like successive chapters in a book. The narrative is continuous, with transitions rather than breaks; and it goes right on through the accounts of the patriarchs, the careers of Moses and Joshua, followed by Judges and Kings. Genesis through Kings is a single, continuous, gigantic chronicle; and all of it is the same kind of writing. It is a unified history of God and his world. As the first part, and an integral part, of that history, Genesis 1 itself is also history. But we still have to work out how history is written in the Bible, and what kind of history-writing we have in Genesis 1. Again, it would be impudent to insist that we already know the answer to that question, even before we begin to read, and to insist on interpreting it in our way, instead of first finding out the biblical way of doing it. We notice, for instance, that Genesis 1 is very repetitious. The events take place on six days, and each day's events are reported in a similar cycle. It is highly schematic and formulaic. Is this artistic pattern a framework, carrying the list of things that God made? Or is it part of the factual information supplied? In all, eight acts of creation are reported. And, no matter how it is done, they have to be reported in some kind of sequence. One of the commonest mistakes in reading Genesis 1 is to assume that truthful history must report events in chronological sequence. Who made that rule?

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I want to look at the main reason why I believe what I do, and at this point I also want to say, you can believe whatever you want, as to the age of the Earth, as long as you don't try and change the meaning of the text in the bible. The text in question here being in the book of Genesis, there are others but for now I want to look at Genesis. Before we get into it ,lets just look at one of the alternatives to reinterpretation of Gods word. The challenge of the distance of the stars, the speed of light and the time taken to travel to the Earth= a very old creation. Now there are many theories as to how both parties could be right (see one here) or using my own very simple theory of the light always being here, in other words it started out here, and is traveling away from us and not toward us. These are just a few ways whereby if you apply your mind to something there are always alternatives, so lets leave the scriptures intact and seek other means of satisfying our inquiring minds. For the next few blogs I want to look at how I see Genesis in context to my beliefs.

Numerous themes run through the Bible yet none may have more of a dramatic effect on our understanding of the theme of the Bible than the opening chapters of Genesis. Creation, sin and the fall begin the journey which finally culminates in the coming of the Messiah. Perhaps no other story line plays such a pivotal role in the theology and understanding of the Old Testament and the necessity of the New Testament. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that without the first three chapters of Genesis, the rest of the Bible would be meaningless. What effect do these chapters have on believers today? Do the Genesis events have to be taken as allegory (story), meant to convey spiritual truths but not actual reality? Is this report history? Or is it something else - parable, allegory, legend, myth, whatever? It is easy enough to make the statement: "It must be history!" Such an assertion often arises from anxiety for the truth of the Bible. It is intended to protect the Bible from skeptics, liberals, and other bad persons who have suggested that Genesis is not history, but rather parable or allegory or myth or whatever. So where do we begin?

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Geoffrey Miller, in the November 2006 edition of New Scientist said: “Evolutionary moral psychology will reveal the social conditions under which human moral virtues flourish. The US will follow the UK in realizing that religion is not a prerequisite for ordinary human decency. Thus, science will kill religion - not by reason challenging faith, but by offering a more practical, universal and rewarding moral framework for human interaction. A naturalistic moral philosophy will replace the rotting fictions of theological ethics.” Dr. John Bradshaw, Professor of Neuropsychology at Monash University Melbourne wrote: “Evolutional models are every bit as beautiful, intellectually and morally satisfying as the myths, stories and precepts of an ossified theology - and they can explain, predict and be applied in hosts of important and socially useful ways.
This is the kind of statements you can expect to find on websites of many an evolutionist/atheist, here is one come from the site of Richard Dawkins. We encourage you to make visits to our web site a part of your Atheist lifestyle. We also urge you to share Atheism with friends and family. We need to be activists for Atheism! By making your Atheism known to others, you will be surprised how easy it becomes for others to admit that perhaps they, too, are Atheists! The world will become a less lonely place in an otherwise unrelentingly religious society.
On the up side take note of two things 1) look at the word "Probably" on the bus, this must imply that he has doubts in his own beliefs, he's not sure. 2)The most visible proof that is staring us all in the face, of Gods existence,and has been throughout history is this, why does Richard Dawkins and others like him, go to so much trouble and expense to try and disprove that God exists, if they don't believe in Him? If anything they are confirming the fact that He does exist. This bus does regular tours, to spread the gospel of atheism. Looks to me like Satan has found himself a financial backer
( Mark4:15) Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. I hope this doesn't happen to any of you.

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Most of you are probably thinking, why such a fervent attack on evolution? or what is his agenda? Well let me take you on a picturesque journey into the world of evolution, and at this point I will apologize to all those out there who have no options when it comes to being associated with the name of evolution, perhaps I should be labeled as being narrow minded.There is apparently a good side to evolution, and maybe a new definition should be sought to describe these merits of an otherwise damning subject. Now the sad part of it all is that the original meaning of the word, as well as some of its current definitions, are far removed from its current status quo. Just ask anyone to define the meaning of evolution, and probably they would say something like, from ape to man, and the first name that will be mentioned will be Charles Darwin, strangely enough he didn't even like the word, and I can only find one quote of his with it in. He did however, perhaps unintentionally promote it to its more accepted definition.

Many are also of the impression that the evolutionary theory is a relatively new one, but this is not the case and it dates back to before Christ. Empedocles (495-435 B.C.) was the father and original proponent of the evolution theory, followed by advocates such as Democritus (460-370 B.C. ), Epicurus (342-270 B.C.), Lucretius (98-55 B.C.), Abubacer (1107-1185 A.D.), Bruno (1548-1600), Buffon (1707-1788), Helvetius (1715-1771), Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), Lamarck (1744-1829), Goethe (1749-1832), Lyell (1797-1875), Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and many others.

Lets look at a few of these men and their agendas in life. (Epicurus) His idea was to explain everything mechanistically avoiding direct causes by God, was a reason that he was considered as an atheist, and was also the founder of epicureanism, Bruno He was an occultist believed in extra terrestrial life, was considered heretic and burned at the stake in 1600. All of these men had one thing in common, a disbelief in God as the creator, and often made public statements renouncing God or placing Him below mans own abilities, many embraced the ideas of a unified religion (atheism) working toward a better more peaceful future. Now if we look closer we will find that evolution is the accepted origin doctrine of atheism, and herein lies the problem. These guys were tame in comparison to current day counterparts as you will see in my next blog.

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In (Ephesians6:11-12) we read this. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Now what is Paul talking about here, and does it pertain to us today? He is talking of a battle going on in a realm, that is outside of normal vision of man, and even if we don't want to believe it, this battle is going on right now. And where does man look for the answers? he looks toward himself, and that is just what Satan wants.

When the world tumbles into recession and poverty, as in the past and even now in the present, you will find men who are driven by ulterior motives, asserting their wills on the masses, in the name of justice. Hitler was one of these men, look at this statement he made, it tells a story on its own. Christianity makes no distinction of race or of color; it seeks to break down all racial barriers. In this respect the hand of Christianity is against that of Nature, for are not the races of mankind the evolutionary harvest which Nature has toiled through long ages to produce?"

August of 2000, in the United Nations, the world religious leaders gathered to discuss global crisis situations. The UN general assembly hall, which is often filled with questions of war and discord, resounded with prayers, meditations and sacred ceremonies, as a distinguished and colorful delegation discussed the role of faith, love, and forgiveness in solving the world’s problems. The summit opened August 28, with the blowing of the conch by Swami Bua, the hundred and twelve year old ascetic who lives in New York City. The hall was then steeped in prayers offered from nearly every faith on earth: Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Shinto, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, indigenous faiths, Sikhism, Taoism and Baha', all the world’s religions. (Hinduism Today) So what do we see happening here? I would say it looks very much like someone trying to unite all religions into one.

Just over a year later we have a date that many will never forget 11 September 2001, and we all know how tragic that was. From that point on we have heard a lot of talk about religion and peace. It was on January 24, 2002 in Assisi, Italy that Pope John Paul II invited the religious leaders from around the world to gather for a day of prayer. Representatives included Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Shintoists, tribal religions, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Catholics, Lutherans, Quakers, Mennonites, and Orthodox Christians. So as you can see throughout the years, a trend developing, in a direction where things are headed. And of course we are being told the requirements for peace are to unify religions. In books like Earthminds and Communicating with the Living World of Gaia, they say it is all about science and understanding evolution. But when we look back historically, we see that the Greeks worshiped Gaia as a goddess. I think that there are few people today who are prepared to stand up for their beliefs, and there are many Christians among them, and they are all being swept along in a wave of worldly delusions, orchestrated by Satan.

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Erasmus Darwin was a religious man, and worshipped the gods Bacchus and Venus, he seemed to have a personal agenda to attack biblical authority. He was not alone, in fact, he was one of fourteen members who formed what was called the Lunar Society. The Lunar Society met in Birmingham on the Monday closest to the full moon, which may give you some insight into the spiritual interest that some of these men had. Erasmus Darwin himself worshipped Bacchus and Venus, and was interested in Eastern philosophy, Eastern religion. The Lunar Society projected the concept that the biblical view of the origin of man was a mythological concept and what we need to do is rely upon science in order to determine the truth. It is interesting that Erasmus Darwin was one of the members of the Lunar Society, but so was Josiah Wedgewood,Darwin’s grandfather on his mother’s side.

Most people know the story of Charles Darwin, and some claim that because he was buried at Westminster Abbey that it was his or his families wishes, and it was only because of his daughters death that he became bitter, I think not. Read this statement by him."Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and I have never since doubted even for a single second that my conclusion was correct. I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so, the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe—and this would include my father, brother, and almost all my best friends—will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine".What Darwin was doing, was setting a precedent for all those who followed in his footsteps, one just needs to look at Richard Dawkins,and some of his statements Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. (see more here) as can be seen here, there seems to be somewhat more to all this, and the deeper you scratch beneath the surface the more scary it becomes.So what does the bible tell us?

(Colossians2:8)See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

What the eyes can't see 42

We read in (Judges2:11)Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.Then when we go to the book of Romans (Rom1:20) For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.follow the links to Romans and read this whole chapter, then relate it to the world we live in.(Rom1:23) and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Now I want to go back to the book of Judges, and this is not for confusion but rather to build up a picture that clearly describes where we are at today.(Judges21:25)In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. Does this not remind you of man today? no king, (God) no direction, and it is at times like this that man gets easily led astray. There is nothing new under the sun, as we stated. (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11.)

As we look back we see our forefathers following many gods, some in the image of men with grotesque bodies, and others in the form of animals. So we see, history reveals that people of the past were obsessed with the gods, just as the Bible states. People today seem to be obsessed with these kinds of beings. Some of the popular comic books of the past, like the fantastic for, also show creatures that are part goat and part human. These entities are extremely popular. This is a multi-billion dollar industry, whether it is collecting cards, toys, or characters that come from the movies. The common theme is supernatural beings, from extraterrestrial sources with supernatural powers.Young people participate by practicing spells and playing the role of demons, then of course, there is the New Age where many methods or therapies are really nothing more than Eastern metaphysical beliefs that are being introduced into society, even to children. One just needs to look at books like Harry potter to see where its all going. So what has this all got to do with evolution?

During the French revolution you might recall that bibles were burned, the idea was promoted that we must throw away superstition and religion, and turn to man’s ideas. That was the Age of Enlightenment. Charles Darwin’s grandfather, who was born in 1731 and died in 1802. Erasmus Darwin, was a medical doctor but he had some ideas on the subject of origins, he wrote a book called, The Zoonomia, in which he expressed that through time, life had progressed from lower to higher.So what? you might say, well read on and you might see a whole new side to the Darwin debate.

What the eyes can't see 41

It looks like we come from a line of ancestors that were great thinkers and master craftsmen, but above and beyond that, as we read through the bible we find another side to man. According to the Scriptures, there are consequences when we reject the overwhelming evidence that God exists. I want to look at those consequences.The facts show that man has always been man. The artifacts that have been left to us by ancient civilizations agree exactly with the biblical perspective, that man was created and had tremendous abilities and attributes. And when we look at the major accomplishments of the ancient civilizations, the cities that they built, towers,

ziggurats, pyramids, their ability to alloy minerals together, what does it say? The biblical creation view can be supported by the evidence. The evidence is overwhelming, but still the majority of intellectuals worldwide have chosen to discredit creation and accept evolution.

From the time of mans downfall in the garden of Eden, there has been a side to him of continually trying to replace God with other gods.The city of Babylon was built by survivors of the flood. They were in rebellion to God and built a tower to reach the heavens to communicate with the spirit world. You cannot understand biblical history unless you understand that God has an adversary, Satan, who has followers, the fallen angels. And man, as we are going to see throughout history has constantly been involved in communicating with that dimension which God forbids

Archaeology shows us this, all over the world, we see the sudden emergence of great civilizations who built cities, temples and pyramids, like those in Egypt, Indonesia, or in Central America, in fact all over the world. These people were worshipping the gods. They believed the sun, moon, and the earth is god. We see this in the archaeological remains of great civilizations.Today because of mans insistence of trying to do his own thing and not accept Gods word, we are diversifying, and headed in all directions each claiming to be the way, and evolution seems to be playing a leading role in the unification of all these alternative beliefs. In October 1996, the papers reported and it can be documented that Pope John Paul, at a meeting before the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, said, "Truth cannot contradict truth." He said, "The Bible said God created. But scientists have proven that evolution is true, so God used evolution to create." Basically what is happening man is not quite sure of what truth is, so instead of trusting in Gods word, they for fear of looking foolish, just go with the flow. When we talk of worshiping other gods we always tend to look way back into the past, but in reality if you just look around today, you will find that man is heading for some kind of a unification of religions, in order to find peace, on our own terms. For fear that the bible may be wrong in some areas, many Christians are also looking to the world for answers. Where is it all leading?