--------------------- <BrethrenVoice> --------------------- [which seeks to be guided solely by the NT Biblical pattern, facilitates free flow of Christian info. To God be the glory!] [eMail Moderator: brethrenvoice-owner@...] [<GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> archives/read online: http://associate.com/digests/brethrenvoice/ezmlm.cgi] <GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> <1 November 2002> Contents: --------- 1) <Devotional> "Opthalmadoulian: visible and spiritual"-Ravi Zacharias 2) <Science> "Are we alone in the universe?" (Pt-4/5)-Dr. Ray Bohlin 3) <Prophecy> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-68)- A.W.Pink 4) <Poem> "The anvil?, God's Word" - Author unknown 1) <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY> OPTHLMADOULIAN: VISIBLE AND SPIRITUAL Ravi Zacharias Are you opthlmadoulian? Excuse me for asking you a question using an Ancient Greek word, but opthlmadoulian is such a powerful word-it means a slave to the eyes. Are you one? Are you a slave to the eyes? Consider one especially seductive form of sight enslavement: servitude to the notion that only the visible is real-the belief that all that is real is visible, and all that is invisible is unreal, or maybe just a fairy tale. Take an example of something both invisible and real to help you demolish this false assumption that reality is exhausted by what you can see with your eyes. Consider truth-something both invisible and real. If you don't believe me, tell me where you last saw truth or, for that matter, logic. You can't because we don't see truth or logic with our eyes. We know truth as we correctly ascertain the nature of reality. Our experience of truth is an outworking of our minds interacting with the world. Matter by itself does not have truth. Mind must come along and make judgments about matter, and these judgments are true or untrue to the degree that they correspond with reality. You see, if the universe were devoid of a conscious being, even though some things would be true about that universe, it would need a mind to ask the question of truth. Without a mind, such a universe would just exist without there ever being an experience of truth. Truth requires a mind to ask truth questions, and the mind transcends the visible to make judgments. Now ponder another invisible category: the spiritual. Hear the words of A.W. Tozer, the great Christian mystic: "Our uncorrected thinking influenced by the blindness of our natural hearts and the intrusive ubiquity of visible things, tends to draw a contrast between the spiritual and the real -but actually no such contrast exists. The antithesis lies elsewhere -between the real and the imaginary, between the spiritual and the material, between the temporal and the eternal; but between the spiritual and the real, never. The spiritual is real." (Footnote 1: A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Camphill Penn., Christian Publications, 1982) pp. 56.) Let me take you one step further than that. It is not enough to justify something by saying it is spiritual. The truly spiritual (listen carefully now) must also stand the test of truth. For that you need the mind, not just the eyes --- Copyright (p)(c) 2001 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. A Slice of Infinity is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. _______________________________________________________________________ 2) <SCIENCE> ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE? (PART-4 OF 5) PROBLEMS WITH CHEMICAL EVOLUTION ON EARTH Dr. Ray Bohlin .... The statistics given above mean that we are really alone in the universe and that there is no hope of finding intelligent civilizations as in the television program Star Trek. While it means there is no one out there to threaten our survival, there is also no one out there to save us from our own mistakes. This observation highlights why I believe the scientific community and the media became so excited about the possibilities of life on Mars. Efforts to determine how life could have evolved from non-living matter have been so fraught with problems that it makes the possibility of life elsewhere extremely remote. But if it could be proved that life evolved elsewhere, then it would demonstrate that life springs up rather easily, and we just haven't found the right trick here on Earth to prove it. But this just leapfrogs the problem. But is the evolution of life from non-living chemicals really that impossible? The difficulties fall into three categories, the Chemical Problem, the Thermodynamic Problem, and the Informational Problem. These issues are presented comprehensively in a book by Thaxton, Bradley, and Olsen titled The Mystery of Life's Origin{4} and in a chapter in the edited volume by J. P. Moreland, The Creation Hypothesis.{5} Chemical Problems are illustrated by the difficulty in synthesizing even the simplest building block molecules necessary for life from inorganic precursors. Amino acids, sugars, and the bases for the important nucleotide molecules that make up DNA and RNA were all thought to be easily synthesized in an early Earth atmosphere of ammonia, methane, water vapor, and hydrogen. But further experiments showed this scenario to be unrealistic. Ammonia and methane would have been short-lived in this atmosphere; the multiple energy sources available would have destroyed the necessary molecules and water would have broken apart into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen was scrupulously avoided in all prebiotic scenarios because it would have poisoned all the necessary reactions. Thermodynamic Problems arise from the difficulty in assembling all these complex molecules that would have been floating around in some prebiotic soup into a highly organized and complex cell. To accomplish the task of achieving specified complexity in life's molecules such as DNA and proteins, the availability of raw energy for millions of years is not enough. All systems where specified complexity is produced from simple components requires an energy conversion mechanism to channel the energy in the right direction to accomplish the necessary work. Without photosynthesis, there is no such mechanism in the prebiotic Earth. The Informational Problem shows that there is no way to account for the origin of the genetic code, which is a language, without intelligent input. Informational codes require intelligent preprogramming. No evolutionary mechanism can accomplish this. Life requires intelligence. So you can see why evolutionists would get excited about the possibility of finding evolved life elsewhere. It's because life is seemingly impossible to evolve here. So, if it did happen elsewhere, maybe our experiments are just missing [To be concluded] --- [Copyright © 2002 Probe Ministries. This document is the sole property of Probe Ministries. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation as "freeware," without charge. All reproductions of this data file and/or document must contain the copyright notice and this Copyright/Reproduction Limitations notice Copyright]__________________________________________________________________ ___ 3) <PROPHECY> "THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-68) THE CHURCH-WARD RESULTS OF THE REDEEMER'S RETURN Arthur W. Pink .... What will take place when our Lord comes back again to receive His blood-bought people unto Himself? What will be His portion and what will be their portion in that happy day? What will be the results of Christ's second advent insofar as they affect the Church? We say "the Church," though it would be more accurate to speak of the saints, for Old Testament believers equally with the New Testament believers, will share in the wondrous blessings and glories of that glad occasion. How then will the Redeemer's return affect the redeemed? We leave for consideration in our next chapter the question of the worldward results of Christ's second advent. For the present, we confine ourselves to the results, Chruchward, of the Saviour's appearing. What will these be? What will be the order of events? Surely these questions are of entrancing interest and profound importance. And blessed be God, they are not left unanswered. It is true that the Holy Scriptures were not written to gratify an idle curiosity, and that many questions which engage our minds are passed over in silence; nevertheless, upon everything that concerns our vital interests sufficient has been revealed to satisfy every trusting heart. Were we to attempt an exhaustive reply to the questions asked above, we should be carried far beyond the limits of a comparatively brief chapter. All we shall now essay will be to present to our readers an outline which sets forth the most prominent features of this phase of our subject as they are unfolded in the Word of God. Seven items will engage our attention, namely:--The descent from Heaven of the Lord Himself, The Resurrection of the sleeping saints, the Translation of living believers, the Transformation of every saint into the image of our glorified Saviour, the Examination and Rewarding of our works, the Presentation of the Church by Christ unto Himself, and the Manifestation of the Church with Christ in glory. May the One who has been given to take of the things of Christ and shew them unto us, illumine our understandings and draw out our hearts in adoring worship. The one Scripture which sets forth more fully than any other the order of events which shall occur at the Redeemer's return for His saints, is found in 1 Thess. 4. In the course of these pages we have had occasion to refer to this passage a number of times in various connections, but we would ask our readers to bear with us while we quote it once more. "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). In this passage three things claim special notice: first, the descent of the Lord Himself; second, the resurrection of the sleeping saints; third, the translation to heaven of those believers which shall be alive on the earth at that time. Before we enlarge upon these, we would first call attention to the close relation the above passage bears to our Lord's words as recorded in the opening verses of John 14--"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that were I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:1-3). There is a fourfold correspondence between these two passages: the Saviour said, "I will come again;" the apostle wrote, "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven." The Saviour avowed, "I will receive you unto Myself;" the apostle declared that the saints shall be "caught up together to meet the Lord in the air." The Saviour promised, "Where I am, there ye may be also;" the apostle assures us, "So shall we ever be with the Lord." The Saviour prefaced His gracious promises by saying, "Let not your heart be troubled;" the apostle concludes by saying "Wherefore comfort one another with these words." To borrow the language of T.B.Baines, "There can surely be no question that these passages, running so closely parallel, relate to the same event." How wonderful is the verbal agreement of Holy Writ! How the comparison of one passage with another, brings out the unmistakable unity of the Scriptures! And how this demonstrates for fact that behind all the human amanuenses there was One superintending and controlling Mind! Verily our faith rests upon an impregnable rock! But to return to 1 Thess. 4. Let us view. To be concluded] _______________________________________________________________________ 4) <POEM> "THE ANVIL? GOD'S WORD" Author unknown Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith's door And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime: Then looking in, I saw upon the floor Old hammers, worn with beating years of time. "How many anvils have you had," said I, "To wear and batter all these hammers so?" "Just one," said he, and then, with twinkling eye, "The anvil wears the hammers out, you know." And so, thought I, the anvil of God's word, For ages skeptic blows have beat upon; Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard, The anvil is unharmed . . . the hammer's gone. ---------------------------<BrethrenVoice>--------------------------- Subscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-subscribe@...> Unsubscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-unsubscribe@...> FAQs/Faith Statement, eMail: <brethrenvoice-faq@...> <BrethrenVoice> Home: http://associate.com/digests/brethrenvoice/ <eFellowship> Home: http://groups.msn.com/BrethrenChristiansForum/ "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith." 2 Cor 13:5 "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Jn 8:32 _________________________________________________________________ Choose an Internet access plan right for you -- try MSN! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp