Participants: Stan Hudson
Series Code: ITB
Program Code: ITB000007
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00:14 Hello, I'm Stan Hudson speaking for In the Beginning.
00:17 Today we wind up our series, this is program number 7. 00:21 In the Beginning and In the End. 00:23 How do things end? 00:25 You know our theories of origin that we have taken a look 00:29 at this series, whether it is evolution or creation, very 00:32 much impact how we feel things will come out in the end. 00:36 If you believe in the Big Bang theory of how we got here, 00:41 which is a cosmic evolution than the most popular beliefs 00:45 are we are going to a some kind of a big crunch, or a big 00:50 freeze, anyway not a very happy ending. 00:53 If on the other hand you believe in the creation account, 00:57 you have a much different belief in where we're 01:01 going to end up. 01:02 I hope you enjoy today's program. 01:08 I can't believe after this week is already done. 01:10 It seems like it has gone very fast, this is the fastest 01:13 week I have ever lived I think. 01:14 But full and busy and with lots of interesting people 01:19 we have met. 01:20 We've enjoyed this interaction and I hope you have. 01:22 And we are ending where we should tonight. 01:25 We are ending on the end because today as we take 01:29 a look at the subject, In the Beginning, we are going 01:32 to look at also In the End. 01:35 What happens in the end? 01:39 Because many worldviews, as we look at these big 01:42 questions of origins, directly impact how we feel things 01:46 are going to end. 01:47 So our models include how things end. 01:50 We will talk about that quite a bit today. 01:52 I just thought with this busy week we could stand 01:56 a little humor so. 01:58 Sometimes I question if there really is a dog. 02:02 Agnostic fleas. 02:06 I thought that was pretty good. 02:08 That is pretty good. 02:09 Sometimes things are so big we don't see it, we need 02:14 to see the forest as well as the trees, don't we? 02:18 Well again in the beginning God, or in this case as 02:22 we discuss it tonight, or perhaps the Big Bang. 02:25 Maybe the Big Bang has the answers for how we got here. 02:29 A Big Bang undirected. 02:31 A Big Bang by itself, a big explosion. 02:33 The most popular view of how we got here today. 02:35 So we are going to take a look at the universe a 02:38 little bit tonight. 02:57 It looks like even Scripture says we can learn a lot by 03:02 taking a look at the starry heavens. 03:04 There is no speech nor language where their voice 03:07 is not heard, it speaks to all of us. 03:10 Let's take a look at some of the marvelous things. 03:13 Well, this is a picture of yours truly back in the day 03:17 when I had a very, very cool 6 inch refractor with a 03:22 motor drive. 03:24 It was a big deal, and I miss that telescope more than 03:28 you can know, but I had a lot of fun. 03:31 We went out to the Mojave Desert sometimes to the Joshua 03:34 Tree National Monument, where that was. 03:35 There is no light pollution to speak of and you can see 03:40 down to the six magnitude stars, and it was wonderful. 03:45 I just had a lot of good memories. 03:47 This had a lot to do with pushing me toward an interest 03:50 in science, so astronomy is a great thing. 03:54 Astronomy, physics, okay well astronomy. 04:00 Now here is a great announcement that was made just 04:03 recently, the Atheon: 04:27 Now what is this that they have built? 04:30 A hint in the word, a - theon, a -theist. 04:34 This is a temple to science. 04:37 It is a religious building, a church that was built for 04:41 strictly the understanding of science will teach us all. 04:45 It's in Berkeley California, which is not terribly 04:48 surprising, but that is where it is and it has just 04:52 opened in the stained-glass window that used to be 04:55 reserved for such things as spiritual stories now has the 04:58 background radiation of the Big Bang there. 05:02 So it is a place of worship for those so inclined, 05:05 the Atheon, a -theist, place of worship. 05:10 It is interesting, and this is what they have a pattern 05:13 after, now this is far as the Big Bang theory is 05:17 concerned, it was the final deal that sealed it for 05:20 astronomers, for people who view origins issues. 05:24 What they did is they took a government project that 05:28 was searching for what amounts to the remnants of 05:32 the Big Bang. 05:34 The after effects of the explosion, the radiation out 05:37 there in the universe. 05:38 This map was taken, was formed by instrumentation that 05:43 they aimed at the universe to see if they can find this 05:47 material and in this picture looks like the 05:50 Big Bang did happen. 05:52 There is a reminiscence of it. 05:54 It was quite a project, but here's how NASA imagines 05:59 the Big Bang to have taken place. 06:01 This is a clip from them. 06:07 Notice that it speeds up, and that is it. 06:11 That is a NASA clip, downloadable. 06:14 That is what they view happened in the Big Bang. 06:17 It just exploded and actually there is an increase in 06:19 speed which is an interesting dynamic of it. 06:22 There is the Big Bang expansion over the last 13.7 billion 06:28 years in a NASA picture. 06:30 There is dark energy, accelerating expansion which is 06:33 an interesting thing. 06:35 Here's one, how are your minds today? 06:38 Do you think you have your thinking caps on? 06:40 I want you to try and wrap your mind around this. 06:43 The Big Bang theory is that not only matter got blown up, 06:46 but space, and that space is expanding with matter. 06:50 So do you have that so far? 06:54 Space and matter are doing this. 06:56 Space and no, that is a hard one for me too. 07:01 What is on the edge, on the other side of space? 07:06 Physics, it is an interesting place. 07:12 Falling off into where? Yeah that is the question. 07:15 Now the Big Bang is responsible, as the theory goes, 07:18 for the formation of our solar system. 07:21 The material was hot, and it was cooling and circulating 07:26 around and around and became the orbit of some matter 07:31 out a little further it coalesced into planets. 07:34 Here we are today with the planets circulating 07:38 around the Sun. 07:39 Everything was blown out from the Big Bang and rotating, 07:44 revolving and that gave us our galaxies and our wheel 07:48 within a wheel type of thing all the solar systems. 07:52 For that matter I guess Atoms do the same thing. 07:55 Now with Sir Fred Hoyle that coined the term "Big Bang". 08:01 He was being a little bit sarcastic when he said it 08:03 because he didn't actually believe it at first. 08:06 The astronomer Fred Hoyle. 08:08 But after a while he became converted to the concept. 08:12 It was he that developed the nucleosynthesis idea in 08:17 stars formation, within stars heavier matter is formed 08:22 over time than hydrogen and helium and so on. 08:25 It was this kind of idea that he developed and he 08:27 actually became very famous for it. 08:30 He championed the steady-state universe. 08:32 Why would astronomers have, shall we say ax to grind, 08:37 but an interest in proving a steady-state universe? 08:41 The Greeks were the believers in the steady-state and a 08:44 number of people throughout history have been pushing 08:47 steady-state concepts of the universe. 08:49 Remember no vestige of the beginning, no end in sight. 08:54 It was because you eliminate, well it wasn't because, 08:58 but it certainly had this effect, it eliminated the need 09:01 for a Creator, because there was no created act. 09:06 Nothing that started, it just has always been. 09:10 So the steady-state universe was particularly championed 09:13 by people like Fred Hoyle and others that have a tendency 09:17 to not want to see God's hand anywhere. 09:20 Or a Creator, or a start, a beginning. 09:22 So it was actually resisted at first by people, 09:25 with that kind of thinking. 09:28 The interesting thing about Fred Hoyle's own story, 09:32 he has quite a journey or interesting story. 09:34 He became disillusioned in the science of evolution and 09:37 began to talk like that with his colleagues. 09:41 They had picked up on that and when it came time for the 09:45 nucleosynthesis work that he did in the stars they passed 09:48 over him and gave the Nobel Prize to his associates 09:52 because he was rocking the boat on evolution issues. 09:55 He was saying he was not sure evolution was that well 09:59 supported, so it is interesting. 10:01 Fred Hoyle, a brilliant man who stepped into the Big Bang 10:06 term that he probably did not believe that the time as 10:11 stick as it did. 10:12 Now this is from a website of people that still believe 10:17 in the steady-state and they are not creationists at all. 10:22 They still believe in the steady-state universe. 10:24 Just noticed that I am only putting this on here because 10:28 I want you to see how another theory is complaining about 10:31 the theory that is winning. 10:33 Just to see some of the things they are saying. 10:57 Notice this: 11:04 This is very important. 11:23 So a model has to have predicted value for it to be 11:28 valid, or validated, it has to guess ahead of time how 11:32 something will turn out. 11:33 And regularly do that, better than just chance. 11:37 It is interesting that the steady-stator's are 11:40 complaining and saying that now in science it seems like 11:43 the typical way of dealing with big issues, big models, 11:46 so you just tweak the existing model and never challenge 11:49 the existing model. 11:51 They are complaining about it, these are not people who 11:53 are creationists at all, just complaining about 11:55 the Big Bang. 11:57 I have already mentioned to you Isaiah 40:22, and there 12:00 is other verses in the Bible that point out that God 12:03 "stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads" 12:07 "them out like a tent to dwell in. " 12:10 That is present tense in Hebrew, the end stretching. 12:13 It is interesting that Bible writers picked up on that. 12:19 Now the thing about the Big Bang is the most popular 12:23 view of how things are going to end has been termed 12:27 The Big Crunch. 12:29 So at some point the expanding universe, which is 12:32 accelerating right now, the assumption is that at some 12:35 point is going to start to come back the other way. 12:38 When it comes back the other way you do not want to be 12:41 around, but I'm afraid somebody will be around. 12:44 That is what's going to happen, it's going to collapse 12:47 back into itself into the little tiny bit of matter that 12:50 started the Big Bang to begin with. 12:52 The Big Bang was an assumption that all matter in the 12:55 entire known universe, every atom, was stuck in a little 12:58 tiny spot and condensed to smaller than a Pea. 13:03 Really, really tiny and then it blew up. 13:06 It blew up and expanded and forces beyond understanding 13:10 just blew up in all the matter expanded and spread out 13:14 and swirling into what we see today. 13:16 The galaxies and so forth and that is the 13:20 Big Bang theory. 13:21 It is basically on this, is Uniformitarianism again, 13:25 in a sense, because if we are expanding like this, well 13:29 at some point in history that we are back like this. 13:32 That is the assumption, so just wind the clock back and 13:35 assume that how small everything must've been, 13:41 as small as you can possibly imagine, and then it blew up. 13:44 As I like to point out, the only thing I know of that 13:48 gets better organized through explosions would be my 13:51 kids bedrooms. 13:54 Anyway that was just a thought. 13:57 It is the organizing theory behind all things, evolution 14:01 from atomic level through living matter. 14:04 Atomic evolution is atoms evolving into more complex 14:08 elements and so on. 14:10 Now the good news, and I know ministers and preachers 14:16 like me should bring good news. 14:18 I'm bringing you good news tonight because we do not 14:20 need to worry about The Big Crunch. 14:22 The reason we don't need to worry about The Big Crunch 14:25 is the earth is going to burn up way before then anyway. 14:28 So that is based on the life cycle of the sun. 14:34 Here we are now four a half billion years and somewhere 14:38 around nine or 10 the sun is going to go red giant. 14:42 As it begins that process it will expand right up to our 14:47 orbit and that's it, we are all fried and that's it. 14:50 So the good news is we do not have to worry about 14:54 The Big Crunch because in the end that is what is going 14:57 to happen, just get really hot on planet Earth. 15:01 That happy article is there in the future. 15:06 Fortunately it is distant. 15:08 Now remember, when we talk about the Big Bang, we are 15:11 talking about suddenly something that does 15:13 have a beginning. 15:15 The theological implications for some are well may be God 15:20 did create this corner of the universe, or this universe, 15:25 or whatever through a Big Bang. 15:27 You have seen the bumper stickers that says, "I believe" 15:29 "in the Big Bang, God spoke and bang it happened. " 15:32 Anyway, the Big Bang. 15:35 So this is the theory held by some, maybe God did use the 15:39 Big Bang as a way of building this part of 15:43 His known universe. 15:46 It is a possibility I suppose, let's take a look at 15:48 some other things. 15:49 There is a problem in the creationists world. 15:54 The creationists there are always a variety in a scale 15:58 of what all creationist belief. 16:00 They don't agree on absolutely everything. 16:02 They usually hold to some kind of a reasonably literal 16:04 understanding of the Bible. 16:06 Beyond that there is a little room and there are among 16:12 creationist quite a few Young Universe Creationists. 16:17 Young Universe Creationists have the problem of explaining, 16:21 they are tackling this, have the problem 16:24 of explaining how it looks like the universe is billions 16:28 of years old and the length of time it takes from light 16:31 to get from one end of the universe to planet Earth, 16:34 for us to see. 16:36 It would seem to require billions of years unless you 16:39 have the concept of travel of light, and space bending 16:42 on itself, there are different kinds of theories to try 16:45 and deal with that. 16:46 It is a problem and as creationists I think we need to 16:49 admit our problems and our challenges, we don't have 16:52 all the answers. 16:53 But for Young Universe Creationists the issue of 16:56 how old the universe is, is the question. 17:00 Young Universe Creationists often hold to a 6000 year old 17:05 universe, in scientific areas that is a challenge. 17:09 It is perhaps even a bigger challenge than radiometric 17:13 dating is, anyway that is a problem for Young Universe 17:17 Creationists. 17:19 Some will say no problem, we've got it worked out. 17:21 There is some challenges there. 17:24 Now a problem for Old Universe Evolutionist is also when 17:27 we look out the universe. 17:29 When we are looking out we can see almost to the very 17:32 other end of the universe. 17:33 13 billion years is about how old things are, you can see 17:37 about 13 billion years in light-years. 17:39 You should be seeing on the other end, you should be 17:43 seeing young galaxies. 17:45 You are looking at things that started, supposedly 17:48 13 billion years, it took 13 billion years for the light 17:51 in the place of that end of things, to get to you. 17:54 That should be pretty new stuff you are looking at by 17:57 the time the light gets back to you. 17:59 The problem is that most of the time when you see 18:02 galaxies, even the ones that are out there, most of them, 18:05 not all of them, most of them look like what scientists 18:08 consider to be mature looking galaxies. 18:11 Galaxies that seem to be functioning pretty well. 18:13 So there is some challenges for Old Universe Evolutionist 18:16 as well as we look across this vast universe. 18:18 In fact, right here is what is considered to be, this is 18:23 the most recent, is considered to be the most farthest 18:28 object in the universe that has been detected. 18:30 This is thanks to Albert Einstein to be able to see this 18:34 red, do you see within that circle see that little 18:38 red line there? 18:40 That is considered to be a galaxy so far on the other 18:44 side of this that the light bends by gravitational pull 18:48 around these galaxies and therefore it is way, way to 18:52 the farthest, it is 13 billion years out there. 18:58 You don't see very much of it. 19:00 Incidentally, some of these pictures are fantastic. 19:04 Let me back up to the one just before. 19:06 Take a look at that picture. 19:07 Everything is a galaxy except that one star in the 19:11 lower right center. 19:13 These are all galaxies as well. 19:17 You haven't seen anything let's show some more here. 19:20 How about this one? 19:21 This is deep space picture taken by Hubble. 19:24 Hubble telescope is the most wonderful thing. 19:26 Plus the pictures are free. 19:29 Government is your tax dollars at work. 19:32 Here is the current accepted age of the universe. 19:36 13.73 billion years old. 19:40 There is only one star in that picture and absolutely 19:43 everything else is a galaxy. 19:45 What they look for is the absolute darkest place they 19:49 can find in the sky and figure the stars will not get in 19:53 the way of their picture to probe further. 19:55 This is some of the area where they found it to be as 19:58 dark as they can get. 19:59 The longer they leave the exposure going, the more they 20:03 see further and it is just amazing how vast this universe 20:07 is, it is beyond belief. 20:11 What you are looking at right now is a globular star 20:14 cluster in our own galaxy the Milky Way. 20:16 Take a look at that! 20:17 Every single spot there is a star. 20:20 Isn't it amazing? 20:22 If you ever feel like you are dealing with too much ego 20:26 and pride, you're a little too stiff. 20:29 Go take a look, a nice long look at a dark summer sky and 20:34 you will be humbled rather rapidly. 20:37 When you look at how vast this universe is. 20:40 Now there is a very interesting parenthetical statement in 20:44 Genesis when it talks about the 4th-day creation when God has 20:48 placed the sun and the moon in its proper perspective, 20:50 in the sky and so forth. 20:52 It said He made the stars also. 20:54 It is interesting how that is dropped into the creation 20:58 account, now it is dropped in such a way in Hebrew that 21:03 we would consider it a parenthetical statement. 21:06 It should be in parentheses, like incidentally God 21:10 created the stars also. 21:12 Now the question would be for some, does that mean He 21:15 created them on that fourth day? 21:17 Or did He simply create them at a earlier time and 21:20 they just wanted you to know that that was also 21:23 created by God? 21:24 Incidentally, the Hebrew, I can say this the Hebrew 21:27 allows either way, so I will leave it to you to decide. 21:30 But nevertheless the main point is this, God made the 21:33 stars according to Scripture. 21:36 How many stars did He make? 21:39 He made, the latest count is, on average a galaxy has 21:45 almost 100,000,000,000 stars. 21:48 The current count we have over 100 billion galaxies. 21:52 Some galaxies have as many as a trillion. 21:55 I think I read as many as 10 trillion stars in one 21:58 galaxy, that is 10 million, million stars in one galaxy. 22:04 He made the stars also. 22:06 Then again if you want to be humbled take a look. 22:10 It should bring from our hearts, comments like the 22:14 Psalmist said, when he looked at the stars. 22:25 What are we living on this little tiny dust, in this neck 22:29 of the universe, that you should show any interest in us 22:32 at all given how great your universe is. 22:35 The good news is that God is very interested in us. 22:38 But, nevertheless, the universe is interesting. 22:41 Do you remember that Carl Sagan said, 22:48 so I think were getting his worldview very clearly. 22:52 Here is another happy thought. 23:18 This is pretty much the view of science, or at least when 23:22 you leave God out of the picture. 23:24 That we are not much in this vast universe. 23:27 A happy thought! 23:30 So in the end, what happens in the end? 23:34 The Big Crunch, the sun burning us up, or what? 23:39 What is happening in the end? 23:41 I told you at the very beginning of this week, that I 23:45 have the potential somewhere in this week to step on 23:50 every toe, and now I am going to challenge my religious 23:55 friends here today on a deeply held theory of theology 24:00 and see if I can just tweak it a little bit. 24:04 Or at least to give you something to think about, 24:06 if I can do that that will be fine and I will 24:07 run out this door. 24:11 talk about a controversial subject of hell. 24:17 Do you know who this man is? 24:19 This man was at one time expected to be Billy Graham's 24:23 successor, Charles Templeton, a very famous evangelist 24:27 who became an atheist and among other things he was 24:31 bothered by the doctrine of hell. 24:41 There is more. 24:44 Bertrand Russell, the famous American atheist said: 24:57 more, Charles Darwin himself said this: 25:22 said Charles Darwin. 25:24 It was Clarence Darrow, remember at the Scopes trial. 25:28 The monkey trial, remember he was the defense attorney 25:31 for John Scopes, and he said: 25:45 these are the words of Clarence Darrell. 25:47 So you see we are having a consistency here of people 25:51 who at least have a problem with hell. 25:54 This was raised in the book, The Case for Faith, maybe 25:57 some of you are aware of this book by Lee Strobel. 26:00 One of the great questions he asked, one his chapters 26:02 was based on this question. 26:15 And this was the question that he raised and he put it 26:19 to a theologian, and the theologian's answer was, 26:23 I thought inadequate, but let me explain to you why. 26:28 The idea of hell has very much colored Christianity for 26:33 hundreds of years, made itself into art work that has 26:37 been fairly scary by most standards. 26:40 The images of hell were very vividly painted in churches 26:44 all through Europe. 26:45 Here is one of those portraits and you can see at the top 26:48 armor clad angels making sure no one gets away. 26:52 There are demons carrying people down to another world 26:55 where they are being tormented and in agony. 26:58 You do not see fire particularly in this one, but you 27:01 certainly see people suffering. 27:04 And there's angels making sure they stay there. 27:06 There are other images throughout the world that depict 27:11 the commonly held beliefs on hell. 27:14 Some of them are quite nightmarish. 27:17 I'm sure that many of these were painted and sculpted in 27:20 ways which they intended very good purposes, they were 27:24 intended to keep people on the straight and narrow and 27:28 make sure that they didn't fall off their path with God. 27:32 I understand that, but I would like to talk to you about 27:35 that, remember many people think of the devil like this. 27:38 In fact, the Scripture says that one of his problems was 27:42 he was so gorgeous it got to him. 27:45 It caused him problems. 27:47 He was a beautiful created being at one time called 27:51 Lucifer, the Morning Star and he became the adversary. 27:55 It was he that said to Eve, "you will not surely die. " 27:59 You will exist always. 28:04 Well some of you may know who this man is. 28:06 This is John RW Stott, a wonderful British minister who 28:10 just retired, a great theologian and writer. 28:13 Probably the best evangelical mind in Great Britain. 28:18 It was John RW Stott who agrees with some of my thinking 28:23 on this when he took this verse fairly seriously. 28:26 Where it says: 28:34 John RW Stott also has questions about the traditional 28:37 view of hell, as we generally have heard it throughout 28:40 the centuries. 28:42 He sees in this apparently perishing is the end and not 28:49 everlasting life in a different way. 28:53 Everlasting life is not for everybody. John 3:16 28:57 So if you take a look at the book of endings you will 29:02 see where everything ends. 29:04 Remember this is In the Beginning and In the End, 29:07 our subject for tonight. 29:09 According to Scripture fire comes down on those who are 29:12 trying to take new Jerusalem by force. 29:15 As that fire does its job it says that that is the end 29:19 of Hades and death. 29:20 All of this has to do with our image of God, doesn't it? 29:24 I want to ask you this question, just on a logical level. 29:32 I know that I'm going to get, I feel the toes around me 29:36 as I am stepping here. 29:38 How much of heaven would be enjoyable to you if you 29:44 believed, and you were aware of, conscious of, 29:49 your mother, your child, or best friend burning? 29:56 And in agony for every single day of the rest of 30:02 your eternal life? 30:04 What would you begin to think about God? 30:07 Is that what is going on? 30:10 Would you at some point say enough, isn't that enough? 30:15 Is God trying to keep you in line with that thinking 30:21 to make sure to keep you humble and afraid? 30:24 Or what ever, fearful of Him? 30:26 Because I don't see Scripture revealing a God that 30:29 somebody should be afraid of, especially Jesus, 30:32 as a prime example. 30:36 I'm just placing that in your mind because it seems like 30:41 Scripture says that at some point death and Hades, which 30:45 is the Hebrew word, I mean the Greek word, for the grave. 31:00 I assume that hell is a painful place, as a common view. 31:10 That is why God wipes away tears because there will be a 31:14 time when we shed tears for those that weren't ready to 31:18 meet God, there will be however an end. 31:23 I just want to place it in your thoughts, and this will 31:27 be my final point to make on that. 31:29 Jesus paid the price for repentant sinners, isn't that 31:36 right, on the cross? 31:38 Jesus accepted the punishment, if there was a punishment, 31:42 God let it fall on Him. 31:45 Not on us. 31:47 Now my question for you is, did Jesus burn for eternity? 31:54 Obviously not! 31:56 Did He experience the wrath of God, what ever that is? 31:59 What is the wrath of God? 32:01 I would suggest you that the wrath of God is God stepping 32:05 away and saying, okay I now accept your decision, 32:10 and I will be out of your life. 32:13 That is what Jesus experienced on the cross. 32:17 "My God, my God, why have you left me?" 32:21 It killed Jesus because the source of life pulled away. 32:27 But did He burn for eternity? 32:31 If He didn't burn for eternity, 32:34 then He didn't pay full price. 32:39 That is a thought. 32:40 I appreciate the quietness as you contemplate these 32:44 things, let's keep going. 32:48 Scripture says that as we talk about these things in 32:52 these last days, that the Bible actually predicts what 32:57 the message will be to the world just before the end. 33:02 There is a picture in revelation of an angel flying over 33:07 the world with a message. 33:09 Now you know the word angel literally means messenger. 33:12 "Aggelos" means messenger. 33:13 This messenger flies with a message. 33:16 What does he have to say to the world? 33:18 He says this: 33:49 Worship God as Creator, this is the message that this 33:52 angel brings to the world just before the end comes. 33:55 Come back to God as Creator. 33:57 Come back to that original and most basic of 34:01 relationships, Creator to creature. 34:04 Come back and relate to Him again in that way. 34:08 That will prepare you for the end. 34:12 Now where else does it say who made heaven and earth and 34:17 the sea, in that order just, like that? 34:20 It is a reference to one of the 10 Commandments. 34:29 The same order same terms, it is a reference to the 34:31 memorial of creation which was the Sabbath. 34:35 You know what is interesting about the 10 Commandments? 34:38 However you believe the rest of the Bible came to be, 34:41 this is the only part of the Bible, this is my image, 34:45 Moses, I have some important things to write down. 34:49 Say: Thou shall have no other gods, no, I'll do it. 34:53 And God writes it down Himself, it's the only part of the Bible 34:57 where God literally writes it Himself. 35:00 in stone with His own finger. 35:02 It seems to be important. 35:03 "For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, 35:06 and the sea. " 35:07 This is apparently a harkening back to worshiping the God, 35:12 who told us things way back when? in the beginning. 35:16 The God who created. 35:17 Then that last little phrase is important. 35:22 "Worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and" 35:27 "the springs of water. " 35:29 Now what is that a reference to? 35:31 Springs of water, what is that? 35:33 That is not in the fourth commandment, 35:35 what is that a reference to? 35:39 It is apparently a reference to: 35:47 what is that referring to? It's the flood! 35:50 Now wait a minute, let's think about this. 35:53 It is a call to come back to God, which God? 35:57 The God who made, the God who made all things. 36:01 The Creator God for the hour of His judgment is 36:04 about to come. 36:05 Judgment, did God ever bring judgment before to planet 36:11 Earth? Oh yes He did. 36:13 When the waters were sprung, and He used the waters 36:18 to flood the Earth. 36:19 So worship God seriously because He is about ready to 36:25 do another flood like event on planet Earth. 36:29 The Creator God is about ready to step in again to the 36:33 history of planet Earth, to the lives of man to what is 36:37 going on here, He's going to step in again. 36:40 That seems to be the message, the fountains of the great 36:45 deep are broken up. 36:47 Now what is interesting in this revelation 14 reference, 36:50 is another angel comes right after the first Angel that 36:54 calls us to worship God, the Creator God. 36:57 He says that Babylon has fallen. Babylon, where's Babylon? 37:01 How did Babylon get in this? 37:13 Come out of Babylon, where do we see language like that? 37:17 Well we see it in the book of beginnings. 37:19 We go back to the book of beginnings where 37:22 Israel, Babylon and the nations, and disunity 37:25 started on planet Earth. 37:27 We see Babylon mentioned in the story of the Tower of 37:29 Babel, the founding of the Babylon empire and 37:33 religion and world view, I would even suggest as we take 37:35 a look at this in just a few slides. 37:42 In that birth we see several things. 37:45 It's apparently the birth of languages. 37:48 Incidentally, evolutionists have a difficult time 37:52 explaining all the variety of languages we have because 37:55 they don't seem to come from like this, they seem to be 37:58 different origins for all the different bodies of 38:02 languages, but anyway. 38:04 Here's an explanation where languages came from, nations. 38:09 Were false religion comes from, false worldviews, 38:13 ideas of man's importance. 38:15 And perhaps even naturalism, because it has been 38:18 suggested that one of the reasons the Tower is that 38:21 they may be looking for a study into the heavens, 38:25 perhaps looked for this water and how it all happened. 38:27 Maybe to understand naturalistically. 38:31 I would like to quote from a woman by the name of Ellen 38:35 G. White, who is a famous Christian author of the 19th 38:38 century, in fact no one more wrote more words than 38:41 this woman, 16 million words. 38:44 But look what she wrote: 38:49 we are talking about the Tower of Babel experience. 39:01 Why is it that all these ancient civilizations are big 39:04 on building pyramid and Ziggurats, getting off the 39:07 ground a bit. 39:09 There are also an observatory type, they are looking 39:12 at the starry heavens. 39:29 The purpose of the builders of the Tower of Babel. 39:32 Incidentally if you have questions about historicity 39:35 of the book of Genesis and what we call the patriarchical 39:38 period, the time of Abraham. 39:40 I like the reference of W. F. Albright, whom I consider 39:44 to be the greatest biblical archaeologist of all times. 39:47 He said: 40:03 He bases that on a number of things that happened in 40:06 Abraham story, some of the words that are fairly 40:09 technical to the period itself. 40:12 The second millennium. 40:14 We believe there were a number of people that saw the 40:17 Babylon empire begin and they were probably a number of 40:21 true worshipers of God and felt awkward to be there. 40:24 One of those would have been Abraham. 40:26 The call comes to Abraham, founder of the Hebrew nation, 40:30 and the faith: 40:37 Chaldeans is another word for Babylon. 40:40 Leave Babylon Abraham, get away from there, get a way 40:43 from that religion, get away from the worldview and come 40:46 and be a separate people. 40:48 I have a promised land to take you to. 40:50 Come and leave Babylon. 40:53 Here in Genesis we have the same message that the angel 40:56 is telling us about at the end of time. 40:59 Leave Babylon, well what is he leaving? 41:01 Well in Babylon there is a fabulous story in the book of 41:05 Daniel where we see this encounter of two world views. 41:09 Daniels worldview, the world view of the Hebrews, and 41:13 the world view of the Creator God. 41:15 And the Babylonian worldview of religion. 41:17 Here we see a story where there is handwriting on the 41:19 wall, do you know this story? 41:21 It is found in Daniel chapter 5, and in this story there 41:24 is a hand that appears and writes some words before the 41:27 Babylonian king who is feasting and having a good time. 41:30 It is a judgment message, it is basically that is it for 41:34 Babylon, Babylon is done. 41:36 It is interesting because the king cannot 41:39 interpret this written word of God. 41:41 The word of God is written by hand all wall in front of 41:44 him and he can't make any sense of it. 41:45 I would like to suggest to you that that is typical for 41:48 Babylon, they cannot understand the written word. 41:50 The revelation, the narrative, the worldview doesn't allow 41:53 for the narrative to be there. 41:56 The effect of the Babylonian worldview is this, 41:58 the authority of God's Word goes down and the authority 42:01 of man's word goes up. 42:03 It trumps God's word whenever there is a question or 42:07 an issue, this is the Babylonian worldview. 42:09 It is exactly what Abraham was told to leave and now 42:13 we are told in the final days to come back to the God, 42:17 the world view that includes the word of God, and the 42:21 reference to God as Creator. 42:23 It says: 42:36 here's a prediction as we have talked before that these 42:39 issues will be forefront in the last days. 42:52 Please note this, the key is the scoffers especially make fun of 42:57 the flood story, absolutely scoff at the idea that God 43:01 stepped into history, again the Babylonian worldview is 43:05 that God does not step into history. 43:07 Mankind is his own creator, and his own god, his own 43:12 intellectual deliver from all the problems and so forth. 43:17 That is in conflict with the worldview, scoffing takes 43:21 place when those come into play with each other. 43:25 Speaking of Abraham and the patriarchs of old that were 43:28 told to leave Babylon and so on it says: 43:58 talking about what happens in the end! 44:01 People like Abraham didn't get it in this world, but were 44:05 looking forward to something in the end. 44:07 A city that God has prepared. 44:09 Can I tell you how important hope is? 44:12 Hope helps us deal with any problem that we face. 44:16 If we believe that the story ends on a happy note, 44:20 we can deal with problems on the way, can't we? 44:24 Hope has power, and if you believe the Big Bang that 44:28 goes to a Big Crunch and the Earth burns up in the sun, 44:33 there is not a lot of hope that message is there? 44:39 I'm just thinking that hope is critical. 44:42 Why do people with religious faith live longer? 44:45 You know there are studies now. 44:47 Studies done not by Christian institutions, 44:49 but by mostly health organizations that are studying 44:52 why is it that Christians do better after operations 44:55 and simply live longer? 44:59 Again the emphasis might be on hope, they have hope 45:03 and can deal with things. 45:05 Hope has a powerful effect on healing processes. 45:09 It is very interesting. 45:22 So God wants us to have hope and to look toward the 45:26 future with good thoughts. 45:29 God wants to give us a future and a hope. 45:31 You know what? I'm going to throw one little thought in 45:35 here about who Jesus is in this whole creation story. 45:39 Apostle John, when he wrote the Gospel of John, in the 45:42 first Chapter you might see that he plays around with 45:46 wording that sounds similar to Genesis 1. 45:49 "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God" 45:53 "and the Word was God. " 45:54 And things like that in John one. 45:56 But he also says in John 1:3: 46:03 and the Greek is very clear, how is your Greek? 46:22 All things through Jesus became so. 46:27 They began the were genesis through Jesus. 46:30 Now that gives us an interesting slant as we look at 46:34 the man Jesus. 46:35 It is Jesus that is the hope for a disunited world. 46:41 Because he has a promised for this, He has a place 46:46 prepared for us in the new Jerusalem. 46:49 We will be united as one people again. 47:04 This is the reverse of the Tower of Babel, when the 47:08 nations were split and people went different ways with 47:12 different languages. 47:14 This is the promise of reuniting. 47:15 In the book of endings we see how the things that started 47:18 in the book of beginnings come to a good conclusion. 47:21 When we all come together again. 47:23 We are told that Jesus prepares a place for us in His 47:27 Father's mansion, in His Father's house. 47:29 It also says in the other parts of Scripture that we will 47:33 be able to build homes in the country. 47:35 I like that. 47:52 I suspect that our understanding is not. 47:55 We probably should be humbled as we look at the great 47:59 things in creation and imagine who God is. 48:04 Who am I? Why am I here? Where my going? Am I alone? 48:08 Same questions I asked at the beginning of the first night. 48:11 Remember George Harrison's answer as to how important it 48:15 was to him to find answers to this. 48:17 Who am I? What does science answer? 48:19 Science answers this way: 48:24 This is harsh on my interpretation but: 48:41 I'm not sure if that resonates well with you. 48:46 Or if the evidence even points that way. 48:50 Are we alone? Or are we? 48:56 Thank you so much for hanging in there from this week of 49:01 discussions and I hope you enjoyed it. 49:03 Thank you again. 49:11 We just looked at the conclusion of our series, 49:15 In the Beginning and In the End. 49:17 Let's recap where we have gone for these seven programs. 49:22 In our first program, In The Beginning, Hydrogen Or God? 49:26 We talked about the great debate itself on origins. 49:29 The history of the debate. 49:31 How centuries ago it was not unusual for most scientists 49:36 to believe in the biblical account, 49:38 like Sir Isaac Newton. 49:39 He believed in the biblical account of how we got here. 49:41 Six days at the hand of God. 49:45 As humanism entered in Western culture, there was a more 49:50 openness to other explanations as scientists began to 49:56 look and observe more of nature. 49:58 They began to look for naturalistic explanations for 50:01 how things operated and where they may have come from. 50:04 They began to see longer age as they took a look 50:08 at nature and over a period of time Western science has moved 50:13 away from a biblical, or theistic worldview into an 50:18 atheistic worldview, or the worldview where nature is 50:23 is entirely driven by law and is without the hand of a Creator. 50:27 That seems to be the popular belief right now among 50:30 scientists and it is what is taught in our public school 50:35 systems and is nevertheless a debate that most Americans 50:39 actually do not believe. 50:42 In the areas of creation we took a look at how 40 to 45%, 50:46 according to some polls, of Americans believe in the 50:49 biblical account. 50:50 There is still this controversy, this conflict between 50:53 the two great world views as to how we got here 50:56 In the Beginning, Hydrogen or God? 50:59 In our second program we took a look at Where Did God Go? 51:04 The great question that evolutionists bring up as to if 51:08 there is indeed a creator God, a loving God, then why is 51:12 their pain and suffering in the world? 51:14 Why do we see death? Why do we see things falling apart? 51:19 What is the explanation for that if God is truly a loving 51:23 God, why is there evil operating on this planet? 51:26 We took a look at that and the importance of the 51:29 additional information that Scripture brings. 51:32 The concepts of two books of God, the book of nature 51:37 and the book of Revelation. 51:39 How you need both of them to get a complete picture of 51:42 how the universe is operating, and the history of this 51:46 planet, so we took a look at that in where did God go? 51:49 Of course we ended with a hopeful thought that God has 51:52 not gone far, in fact He is making plans to come back. 51:57 On program number 3, we took a look very specifically 52:01 the origins of man 52:03 In the Beginning, Pond Scum or Divine Hand? 52:06 We took a look at the Neanderthal 52:09 discoveries in Europe. 52:11 We looked at Darwin's views of perhaps how man evolved 52:16 from a branch of primates, monkeys, the Simiada, from 52:20 the old world that he believe that man evolved from. 52:23 What impacts that might have on our view of 52:28 ourselves and society. 52:30 How sometimes Darwinistic thinking has affected, not 52:34 everybody, but some into some very radical views like 52:38 eugenics, and some of the views that Adolf Hitler adopted 52:41 in his plans for Europe. 52:45 We saw a number things that came with social Darwinism 52:50 as we have talked about before. 52:52 That was in program number 3, 52:54 Pond Scum or Divine Hand? 52:56 Program number 4 we looked at a very popular subject 52:59 of Dragons and Dinosaurs. 53:01 Everybody likes dinosaurs, young and old seem to be 53:04 curious about that subject. 53:06 A question people often ask is, does the Bible have any 53:10 hint as to whether or not there were dinosaurs? 53:14 We took a look at a few verses that may be hinted at 53:17 large reptiles that God could have created. 53:19 We took a look at the book of Job and some other things. 53:22 We did a survey in the history of dinosaur discoveries 53:25 in Western Europe and how some of the very first bones 53:28 that were found, were found in England. 53:30 They were identified as reptile bones, a tooth and a 53:34 backbone that seem to be of some reptile that was much 53:38 larger than anything they had ever seen. 53:40 For example they found a dinosaur tooth that was in the 53:44 shape of a iguana's tooth except it was much, 53:47 much larger. 53:48 This is the beginning of the discovery of 53:51 Iguanodon dinosaur. 53:54 They also found a vertebrae like this, this is from 54:00 England as well, also from an Iguanodon. 54:03 They start to think what kind of animal lived that had 54:06 this kind of a backbone? 54:10 So we took a look at dinosaurs and dragons in program number 4. 54:13 In program number 5, we took a look at what I 54:17 consider to be the very best scientific argument 54:20 against creationism and that is the subject of 54:23 how old things are. 54:25 In the beginning, when was that? 54:26 We took a look at radiometric dating and how it seems 54:30 if those fundamental beliefs on the system of dating 54:34 things through radio active decay, if those principles of 54:38 assumptions are correct, it is a difficult challenge 54:42 for creationist to answer. 54:44 There are dates of rocks between fossil layers that seem 54:47 to indicate the world has been here millions of years. 54:51 We offered some insight to perhaps how some of that might 54:54 be explained, it still remains a big issue. 54:56 We took a look at the book of Genesis and how Genesis 55:00 seems to indicate great interest in chronology and how 55:03 the seven day creation week is still existing in our 55:07 weekly calendars today. 55:09 There was no other great explanation for the origin of 55:13 the weekly cycle than the creation accounts. 55:16 It seems to be a holdover from those early days. 55:20 In program number 6 we took a look at, 55:23 In the Beginning There Was Water. 55:27 We talked about the importance of water and the formation of 55:30 the earths crust and it seems like a fossil record is a record 55:34 of water deposit. 55:36 The limestone and sandstone that we see in the Geologic 55:39 Column, the stratus of rocks that are in the earth's crust 55:42 seems to indicate the presence of water action over time. 55:46 Did it happen quickly as the creation account of Noah's 55:49 flood would say, or did it happen through millions of years 55:51 as evolutionists would say. 55:53 We took a look at that as well. 55:55 We looked at what we considered to be the second good 55:58 question that evolutionists pose to creationist. 56:01 That is if you believe in creation, and even if you 56:03 believe in Noah's flood, then how can you explain 56:06 that the fossils are always seemingly organized 56:09 in a certain order. 56:10 The dinosaurs are always at this layer and so on. 56:13 It seems to be a consistency in the fossil order. 56:16 On the other hand the other problem for revolutionists is 56:19 the missing links between the supposed evolution of one 56:23 kind of animal into another kind. 56:25 Like let's say, a mouse into a bat. 56:27 Why are there no fossil records of half mice, half bats, 56:32 and so forth, we took a look at those issues in 56:33 program number 6. 56:35 In the Beginning There Was Water. 56:38 As you just saw, we conclude with program number 7. 56:42 In the Beginning and In the End. 56:45 What happens now before planet Earth? 56:49 We took a look at some of the scientific models that guesses 56:51 what takes place in the future here on planet Earth. 56:55 Does the sun burn out and the planet with it before the 57:00 Big Bang contracts back on itself into a Big Crunch? 57:04 Those are the theories so stating. 57:06 We want you to leave with a hopeful view and that is that 57:09 not necessarily the one that Darwin thought that 57:12 creationist were espousing, like the Biblical concept of 57:16 like hell burning for ever. 57:18 We took another look at the Bible verses about hell and 57:20 whether or not it was eternal and we suggested 57:23 that maybe we ought to take another look at that. 57:25 Instead God has a plan for us that is a positive future, 57:30 a hopeful future, something we can look forward to. 57:33 In the Beginning and In the End, God always intended for 57:38 it be a joyful planet for us to live on. 57:40 In the beginning He created a wonderful world with a 57:44 garden in the middle of it that Adam and Eve lived in. 57:47 He is looking forward to the day that He can restore this 57:51 planet to its original perfection and place us, 57:55 with Him, in a perfect, perfect creation. 57:59 That is what God's plan is. 58:01 He plans for you to be there and for me to be there. 58:05 Let's make sure we are there. 58:07 Thank you |
Revised 2014-12-17