How evolution is driving the clergy to atheism

Ray: The following article at the Creation Ministries website, I find quite informative.

I came to the conclusion after several years of debating in the Atheist community that atheists are simply sceptics that have taken their scepticism to its logical conclusion of either Agnosticism or Atheism. The latter being the most hardened position. I would participate in an Atheist forum and often find myself outnumbered with responses. The ratio could be one Theist to 100 Atheists at times. It was too hard to keep up and wearisome. So I wrote my responses out as tracts and cut and pasted the tracts so I would have less work to do to answer questions. I would state my case and say for more info drill down to a link that I would provide which gave the full answer in the form of a downloadable tract. After awhile that was not enough so I searched the internet looking for other Christians to come help me to debate these folks. I found some Christian websites where discussions were being held and to my shock and horror the Christians were expressing doubts at their website forums. Their doubts were not to the extent of Agnosticism or Atheism but nevertheless how could I enlist the help of Christians who themselves were tainted by doubts?

As I researched this phenomenon further, I discovered that it is mostly the youth and young adults and even Bible school students that are what I would now call Sceptics. From that time forward I redirected my ministry to try to help “Sceptics” to not harden their hearts and become Atheists or Agnostics. I have for various reasons not had time to continue directly debating the Atheist community but I do spend most of my time pursuing goals to reach the sceptics we have among Christendom in the hopes to stop them from fully eating the cyanide pill they are nibbling on. I have also realized that perhaps by giving the “Truth that Matters” message that they be strengthened to assist in helping other Sceptics and even Atheists and Agnostics to turn them toward the Truth which is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ who said “I am the way the truth and the life.” Jesus also said “the Truth will set you free”. Perhaps by dispelling the lies of evolution and other lies that are prevalent today I can accomplish my original goal of reaching the Atheist community will be bolstered as well.  The Bible does warn also that at the end of the age that even the elect if possible will succumb to deception. There is much deception that sounds true but as you carefully investigate the truth claims and if you are willing as part of your searching for truth to consider the truth claims of the Lord Jesus Christ it is a promise that you will find answers. Jesus made a promise when he said “Seek and you will find.” I believe that promise. I hope you will experience that promise fulfilled in your life as I have.

Back to the article at hand. I hope you will follow its link and read the full article. I would encourage anyone visiting this website to offer your comments for discussion here as well.

Abandoning the Bible for ‘science’

by Warren Nunn

Published: 24 April 2014 (GMT+10)

Atheists have fired another salvo in their ongoing assault on the Bible and, in particular, the truth of Genesis and its importance in the creation-evolution debate.

This time it involves the recent publication of Caught In The Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind¹ by Daniel Dennett and Linda LaScola.

And it should dispel any doubts in the minds of Christians about how focused atheists are on highlighting how accepting the evolutionary view of the world is a major factor in people abandoning their faith in the God of the Bible.

The book is an extension of Richard Dawkins’ ‘The Clergy Project’, which has been described as “a confidential online community for active and former professional clergy/religious leaders who do not hold supernatural beliefs”.²

If the evidence before your eyes doesn’t support a belief, you cannot will yourself to believe it anyway—Richard Dawkins

It chronicles the struggles of several mostly Christian church leaders who have become unbelievers, and is another sobering reminder of this not-so-surprising reality.

The authors seem to think they have exposed something that believers are unaware of and that it will bring down Christianity. What they see as a growing church exodus gives them that expectation.

The reality is that there always have been—and always will be—people who ‘lose their faith’, whether they occupy the pulpit or not. Consider, for example, Canadian (and Billy Graham colleague) Charles Templeton, whose spectacular fall from mass evangelist to unbeliever was in no small part linked to his doubts over Genesis.³

What the authors discovered from participants interviewed are several things Creation Ministries International and many thinking Christians have long pointed out. Sadly, many in the church:

• have rejected the historicity of the Genesis account including that Adam and Eve were real people;
• have accepted long ages and evolution as fact;
• now deny Christ’s Deity.

And many seminaries now teach along all of those lines.

….

For the rest of the article go to the following link

http://creation.com/caught-in-the-pulpit?utm_media=email&utm_source=infobytes&utm_content=ca&utm_campaign=emails

Crusaders Choir with Voices of Joy

Ray: I recorded a concert featuring the Crusaders Mens Choir and the Voices of Joy Choir at Springdale Christian Reformed Church this past Friday, Feb. 28th. The scripture says that “the joy of the Lord is our strength”. The Joy of the Lord ought to be our main purpose in life. Some of us have great career opportunities and great wealth. Others lead a meager existence with little opportunity for worldly gain and what the world might call success, but there is one thing that defines our humanity that makes us all equal before God. We are all sinners in need of forgiveness of our sins and we are all headed for a lost eternity if we do not repent of our wicked ways. The thing that we all need desperately is joy in our lives. The kind of joy that will carry us through the death of a loved one, sickness and suffering that this world brings. The kind of joy in which you can rest assured that you will have an eternity with God. The joy that is found when we come to our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen carefully to this concert and see if the joy they express speaks to you. If it does make it your determination to experience that joy first hand and start a dialogue with your God and Saviour, the Lord Jesus.

As you will realize if you watched the video above. The choir “Voices of Joy” features adults who have been affected by learning disabilities. The following video is one that also shows the happiness and joy that these folks can bring into our lives. They are a blessing to us as well as a responsibility.

The Decline and Fall of Canada

Ray: Recently I read glowing reports about how Canada has increased its financial stature when compared to other Countries in the World. I found this odd that we are congratulating ourselves when I know for example that since 2008 we have gone from 470 Billion in National Debt to 600 Billion in debt. An increase of 28%. Also we have more unemployment in the private sector than we did in 2008 (In Ontario at least). Before you buy into the glowing financial position that we are told that we are in, I recommend you view this video which gives you a contrarian view of our economy today as presented by Stefan Molyneaux of http://www.freedomradio.com.

Life after death and Quran vs Bible

Ray: In the first part of this program we discussed briefly near death experiences. (first 16 minutes)

In the second part of our discussion featured a special guest who we are calling Matthew. Matthew specializes in researching the Muslim faith with the purpose of finding ways to convert Muslims to the Christian faith. The Quran and the Hadits are quoted specifically in this portion of the program. (1 hour interview).

We would encourage Muslims to respond and make comments on this program. Please comment if you are such a person. We would like to engage you. We want to state that we love all persons. We might want to argue about beliefs but we wish those that don’t agree with us no ill will.

Related article
http://truthiswhatmatters.com/2013/09/30/escape-from-hamas/

Keep Sharia Law out of Western Nations

Ray: This is a video I found on the internet. The author of this video is Dr. Johnathon Matusits. I welcome all to comment. Especially if you a are a Muslim and you would like to counter this mans view of Islam.

This fellow raises the issue of Polygamy. I am told there are over 100 polygamous Muslim families in Toronto.

This fellow raises the issue of the secularization of the West. The west has to a large extent rejected Christianity.

He did not say this, I say this following statement. The result has been a lowering of moral standards which causes moral degradation. It is our lack of morals in other areas such as the genocide of our unborn that causes Islam to see the imposition of Sharia as a solution to raise the moral standard of our society. Christians in my opinion who are to be the salt of the earth must stand up stronger to protect Judeo / Christian Godly morals in our society. If they do not the void will eventually be filled with foreign laws. God has often used foreigners to chastise the Jew in the past into obedience of His laws. God I believe is allowing the west to be chastised by foreign laws and peoples bringing us their form of moral codes.

Deuteronomy 31 – ¹⁶ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers; and these people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the foreigners of the land, to which they go to be among them, and will forsake Me, and break My covenant which I have made with them. ¹⁷ Then My anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall _(find) them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Are not these evil come upon us because our God is not among us?’ ¹⁸ And I will surely hide My face in that day for all the evils which they shall have worked, in that they are turned unto other gods. – SKJV (Simplified King James Version)

Allah is not just another name for God, Allah is a foreign god. Sharia is not Judeo Christian it is diametrically opposed in many ways to Judeo Christian law which the west has been established upon.

There are three religions currently at play in the west. The largest religion currently is Secular Humanism, The second one is Christianity and now we have Islam raising its head. If you are a secular humanist then you would like to see all other Gods Allah or the God of the Bible eradicated in western thought and laws. The void however you would like to create is making room for the foreign god Allah.

Part 1

Part 2

See Related Article: http://truthiswhatmatters.com/2012/07/01/the-truth-about-islam-mohammedism/

Seeking for Truth

Ray: The search for truth is the core purpose that we have started our website. Jesus said “Seek and you will find.” We believe that truth is not elusive that it may be found but we might have to do our part to do some home work and put some effort in, in order to find it. Once you know the target is there the next step is to figure out how to hit the target.

I worked during my career as an Management Information Systems Consultant. In my travels I was made privy to the Business rules used to make money by some of my financial clients. In the late 90’s I worked for one client that was a private corporation in which the owner had 5 Billion net worth invested in the company and his salary was 5 Million per year. He was the richest Canadian and wasn’t interested in any one knowing it. I asked how he became so rich? I was told that in the 60’s he discovered that he could consistently average 100% return on his investments in the stock market. I was told that eventually he had this whole company put together and that his wealth skyrocketed continually. The company didn’t double its value every year but this particular stock broker who owned the company continually showed this kind of performance to the rest of his staff in his own portfolio within the company. I was told he wouldn’t share the information even with his own staff. I was told he didn’t have a particular rule other than he switched his tactics continually and that he spent a lot of time researching the market. More than most.

What I learned from this is if one man can do it, I can do it. I subsequently did quite well in the market myself averaging 40% return for 5 years running. One of those years I reached 100% return but that year was averaged against one year that I lost 8% and the overall average for me was around 40%. I don’t do the stocks now. I may again. I have switched to other less high yield investing but that allows me to pursue some of my other pursuits with my limited time available to me. But the reason I tell this story is to relate that Once I knew that someone could be successful in the stock market then I also knew it could be done again. But I had to then do a lot of seeking to find the secret of that mans success. I believe I partially found some of what he knew and partially repeated his success. I had to do a lot of seeking to accomplish what I did accomplish. I was rewarded for my seeking to the level that I was willing to seek.

There is vastly more treasure to be had in seeking the truth from the Absolute God who can reveal Absolute truth to us. Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life”. The reward we are seeking is eternal life. That is a wealth far beyond earthly riches. Even after accomplishing that there is further treasure to unearth if we are seriously devoted seekers of Truth.

Seeking truth, if I am to accept that the Bible is the place to find it involves seeking to know Jesus. (Look for our topic Prophecy proves the Bible for the reason that I believe truth is to be found in the Bible.

http://truthiswhatmatters.com/tag/prophecy/

)

Jesus said,

John 8 – 31 the Truth shall set you free.

The Apostle Paul said,

1 Timothy 2. 3 … God our Saviour; 4 … desires all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

I believe that for some the seeking of truth will lead them to salvation and for those already led to salvation it is Gods desire that they continue on to seek to know the truth. A starting point in that venture is to come to realize that there is truth. Once you realize this then how can you help but seek it to its ultimate end.

Sean McDowell: Why Truth Still Matters
Read what Sean McDowell has to say about the importance of seeking truth.
http://www.churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-how-tos/155091-sean-mcdowell-why-truth-still-matters.html

Pride?

Ray: The First time pride is mentioned in the Bible, it is mentioned in reference to the Jews. God warned them that if they did not obey his commandments incredible calamity would befall them and that they would be dispersed among all nations.

Leviticus 26 – 14 “But if you will not listen to Me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 and if you shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you will not do all My commandments, but that you break My covenant:” 16 “I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning fever, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set My face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies; those who hate you shall reign over you; and you shall flee when no one pursues you.” 18 “And if you will not yet for all this listen to Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your power; … 33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

Proverbs 16:18 also warns;

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

It seems that pride is a warning in the Bible that there is something wrong with us.

Original sin came to the earth as a result of pride. It started with the pride of Lucifer.

Isaiah 14 – 11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: The worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

This sin was followed by the sin of Adam in eating of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. The temptation that Adam respond to was the offer to become like God. (Eve was tempted first). (Gen 1-3) Mankind would never have experienced death if we had not succumbed to pride.

We in Canada have a lot to be ashamed of. We are involved in a holocaust of killing of babies in their mothers wombs. Many more have been exterminated than Hitler is credited for. One of the ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not murder”. How blind we are that we do not consider this murder when we violate the womb.

The world wide flood would not have occurred if it were not for mans pride. God gave a symbol of his wrath in the flood that still exists today. It is the rainbow. God told us that he would never again in his wrath against us apply a worldwide flood. We are reminded of both God’s wrath against our pride whenever we see a rainbow and we are also reminded of his promise but he linked to that promise that he would instead destroy man with fire. So the rainbow reminds us also of future judgment by fire whenever we see the rainbow.

The bible gave us a picture of monogamous marriage between a man and a woman as something that helps us to understand our relationship with Him. God offers us the opportunity to be the Bride of Christ in the New Testament. Similarly In the case of the Jews they are offered the opportunity to be the wife of God in the Old Testament. But we are guilty of Adultery and Fornication in our society. Again we violate one of the ten commandments. “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. Jesus said to even look upon a woman with lust is to commit adultery in our heart. Fornication is a catch all phrase for sexual acts outside of marriage. By Jesus’ definition all of us have violated this commandment.

The Bible is emphatic in its message that all have sinned.

Romans 3 – 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

It is not right to single out any one single type of sin over any other. The Bible is clear that anyone that breaks any of God’s commandments is guilty of sin. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God. The Bible gives a comprehensive list to make it clear that we have all sinned and fall short.

1 Cor 6 – 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals (Gk: arsenokoítēs, men in coitus), 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor those who verbally assault, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

As you can see. No one escapes God’s judgment. Anyone that wishes to point the finger at one sin in that list has several fingers pointing back at themselves.

But God gave the solution to sin in the very next verse of 1 Cor. 6. If you continue reading it says the following;

1 Cor. 6 – 11 And such were some of you: but you are washed, and you are sanctified (made holy), and you are justified in the name of the LORD Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

You have a choice. You can celebrate PRIDE and wave a rainbow banner that reminds us of God’s judgment (God created the rainbow to remind us of his judgment in the world wide flood and that His next judgment would be by fire.) or you can chose to humble yourself to the one that humbled himself even to the point of death. The Lord Jesus Christ both knew no sin and he did not exhibit pride. Rather than joining in, in Pride celebrations which are occurring in Canada this time of the year you could humble yourself and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and to come into your life and to make you the kind of person he wants you to be.

The Holocaust of children being killed in the womb.

Ray: We haven’t discussed this topic so far on our website. I thought I would repost a youtube video that was recommended to us which is a documentary styled video with the interviewer Ray Comfort. I would welcome your comments on this video. Perhaps we can start a discussion of our own about this. Do you think that Ray Comfort is correct in his analysis? Do you think he should approach people the way he does to ask them personal questions the way he does? In Canada if you are a Canadian, do you think that Christians should have the right to approach people the way that Ray does to ask them about their beliefs? Do you think that if your beliefs are challenged in this way that a “Hate Crime” has been committed? I ask this because our Land in Canada is filled with Hate / Think crime tribunals and kangaroo courts currently who think it is their business to protect your rights against the rights of others, including the rights of unborn children.

Please watch this video and give us your comments.

The cut off Messiah

Ray: In this post Brad and I discuss the cut off Messiah prophecy of Daniel and we discuss the Sabbath.

I went on to a long rabbit trail but the information about the Messiah I covered and our relationship to Him is important. The short answer however to Brad’s question about whether it is possible that the Antichrist is alive today is “YES it is possible”. Because all the pre-requisites for Christ’s calling the Church out of this world prior to his raining judgments on the earth have already been fulfilled. The primary one being that the Jews have once again become a Nation.

A Radio Chat with Ray & Brad in 2010

 Ray: We have been quiet at this blog. We hope at some point to increase our activity. I thought I would post a radio show that was aired on Blog Talk radio in 2010. Brad and I met in 2008 when I ran in the Canadian Federal Election as a candidate for the Newmarket-Aurora riding, representing the Christian Heritage Party of Canada. Brad interviewed me on a local Newmarket Radio station and on Internet radio several times over the following two years. (We have lost our archives of most of these interviews.) It was after this last radio show that Brad and I began to talk about sharing a blog site to present some of the things that we discussed on his show.

We spoke about a book which tells the truth about global warming in that program by an author named Glenn McKerron.  We hope to have Glenn on our YouTube show soon to revisit the topic of Global Warming.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/outandabouttown/2010/08/18/author-and-publisher-ray-luff-live-with-brad-snell/scrub/0

Listen to internet radio with Out and About Town on Blog Talk Radio