What Was Cain’s Mark Mentioned In Genesis?

blogs.independent.co.uk

The word “mark” in Genesis 4:15 in the King James Version of the Bible is a translation of the Hebrew word “owth.” According to “Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible“, the Hebrew word “owth” may be rendered “mark,” or “signal, flag, monument, sign, or beacon.”

The “owth” — mark or sign — that God made for Cain could have been something to carry on his person, perhaps around his neck — from which the ancient and modern custom of wearing a charm or talisman for protection may be derived. Is it not possible that Cain or his descendants may have begun to look upon this sign — which may have been in the form of a CROSS — as a “good luck” charm and turned it into an item of idolatrous worship? (Compare Num. 21:4-9 with II Kings 18:4 for a similar example.) The various forms of the cross are of pagan origin and go back to earliest antiquity.

The Hebrew word “owth” could also indicate even a boundary marker that God set up to separate or segregate Cain and his descendants from the rest of mankind. Genesis 4:12 shows that God banished Cain to the land of Nod — meaning land of “wandering” — east of Eden or Palestine.

The “Jewish Publication Society” translation renders Genesis 4:15, “And the Lord said unto him [Cain]: ‘Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.’ And the Lord set a SIGN FOR Cain, lest any finding him should smite him.” The original Hebrew conveys both meanings — a mark on the person of Cain, or a sign set up for him to segregate him from others.

Some have thought that Cain’s mark involved skin color. Cain’s mark was NOT the changing of his skin color as some suppose. Cain, in accordance with certain West African traditions, may well have been dark, but his sin was a matter of character, not of heredity.

God created ALL races — white, yellow and black, to serve and glorify Him with their own particular abilities. Racial differences are not due to the “mark of Cain.” God originally planned that humanity be divided into various races so that they might learn to live and work together in their own respective heritages around the world.

 

Source: Plain Truth, 1967

Reconciling Evolution, History And the Bible

guides.wikinut.com

Where do the so-called “Ice Ages” fit in Bible history? Why  did so many forms of animal and human life disappear at the close of  the geologic period labeled “Pleistocene” by scientists?

Most people do not know how a geologist reaches his conclusions. A geologist, of course, is one who makes a study of earth history. He investigates the rock structure of the surface of the earth. Working in the field, he discovers strata of sandstone, or limestone, or silt. Perhaps in them are fossils. He wants to know when the strata were deposited. How does he decide? The answer is: HE DOESN’T!

Being a very careful man — a scientific man — he will go to a paleontologist for the answer. And who is a paleontologist? He is a scientist who makes a special study of fossils. It is his function to explain to the geologist the apparent age of the fossils. And how does the paleontologist know the apparent age of the fossils? From geology? No! How can he learn it from geology when even the geologist does not know the age of fossil strata until he goes to the paleontologist who studies the fossils!! Then how does the paleontologist discover how old fossils are? Simple! He turns to the evolution theory!

Life, the paleontologist tells the geologist, developed from the very simplest cell into the varied complex creatures that inhabit the earth today. “But what is the age of the fossils?” asks the geologist.

“Let me explain that,” replies the paleontologist. “Evolution is a very slow process. It may take millions of years for one species of life to slowly develop into another totally different species. The age of your strata are determined by how long we think it took that particular species of fossils to develop. Of course, we paleontologists don’t all agree on these details. You might get a different answer from another paleontologist! After all, even though we all believe evolution is a fact, we do not know exactly how it occurs — or even the exact order in which various species of life evolved.”

And that, in simple language, is what happens! The age of the fossils is guessed at by the paleontologist. The source of his knowledge (or misknowledge) is not geology, but the evolution theory. He takes it for granted. He assumes the theory is a fact — or reasons as if it were a fact. The geologist then deduces the age of the strata from the assumed age of the fossils.

Is Society Unravelling Before Our Eyes?

news.za.msn.com

It’s been said that many of the people involved in the violent anarchy and looting in British and American cities are likely to have been from low-income, high unemployment estates, and many, if not most, don’t have much of a legitimate future.

What is left out of this equation is that this is the result of a three-decade liberal experiment which tore up virtually every basic social value. The married two-parent family has been virtually dismantled and abandoned.

When it comes to punishing criminals, opportunist thugs get a free pass. The riots have been fuelled by moral collapse, with homes and businesses going up in flames, and epidemic looting. And while it is clear that adults were involved, this mayhem has been carried out by teenagers and children also, some as young as eight.

Combined with a lack of intervention from police, looters quickly see that police cannot control the situation, which leads to a sort of adrenalin-fuelled euphoria where there is nothing anyone can do. It seems these youths, or let’s call it what it is – these opportunistic thugs — feel absolutely entitled to steal whatever they want. It seems incredulous that them that anyone should suggest they might be in the wrong.

Worldwide Mammal Massacre: Extinction By Flood, Not Ice Age

Tendons, ligaments, fragments of skin and hair, hooves — all are preserved in the muck. In some cases, portions of animal flesh have been preserved. Bones of mammoths, mastodons, bison, horses, wolves, bears and lions are hopelessly entangled! One author counts 1,766 jaws and 4,838 metapodials from ONE species of bison in a small area near Fairbanks, Alaska, alone.

Archaeologist Hibben saw with his own eyes – and smelled with his own nostrils – the specter of death. North of Fairbanks, Alaska, he saw bulldozers pushing the melting muck into sluice boxes for the extraction of gold. As the dozers’ blades scooped up the melting gunk, mammoth tusks and bones “rolled up like shavings before a giant plane,” The stench of rotting flesh – tons of it – could be smelled for miles around.

Hibben and his colleagues walked the pits for days. As they followed the bulldozers they discovered perfect bison skulls with horns attached, mammoth skin with long black hair and jumbled masses of bones.

Appalling Death in Alaska

But let Hibben continue his grisly account:

“Mammals there were in abundance, dumped in all attitudes of death. Most of them were pulled apart by some unexplained prehistoric catastrophic disturbance. Legs and torsos and heads and fragments were found together in piles or scattered separately” (ibid., p. 97).

Logs, twisted trees, branches and stumps were interlaced with the mammal menagerie. The signs of sudden death were legion.

For example, in the Alaskan muck, stomachs of frozen mammoths have been discovered. These frozen stomach masses contain the leaves and grasses the animals had just eaten before death struck. Seemingly, no animal was spared.

“The young lie with the old, foal with dam and calf with cow. Whole herds of animals were apparently killed together, overcome by some common power” (ibid., p. 170).

Bible Criticism Is Intellectual Idolatry

bible111.blogspot.com

Disbelieving in any God, men with minds swayed by evolutionary thought have attempted to discredit, and virtually destroy Bible testimony. Bible history has come under attack. Bible personages have been called fictitious. Bible events are regarded in circles of “higher critics” as legendary. Bible miracles came soon to be regarded as sheer superstition! Is the Bible mere tradition or ancient myth? What about Bible criticism? Is it honest, reliable? It is time you knew about the double standard used by the critics of God’s Word!

For more than one hundred years, the western world has abounded with highly educated men who have devoted their lives to tearing down and “demythologizing” the Bible. Since the time Darwin shocked the world with his evolutionary theory, Bible scholars and German rationalists have applied his theory to the Bible itself!

According to critics of the Bible, the books of the Bible gradually evolved into existence, and are the legendary writings of an ancient race of men — the Hebrews. Did God inspire the Bible? Of course not, they tell you. The original God of Israel, Himself, they claim, was merely an ancient tribal deity! He was merely the local mountain “god” of the Sinai region, adopted by wandering Hebrews as they passed through.

Location Of The Lost Tribes Of Israel

nassaulibrary.org

The question is often asked: “If the British Commonwealth is Ephraim and the U.S.A. is Manesseh, where are the other tribes of Israel”?

Some contend that the half-tribe of Manasseh, which lived east of the Jordan, is Japan, and that Dan is Germany. All their attempted historical research neglects the Bible as the only guide to interpretation of historical evidence.

We already understand the undeniable identity of Ephraim and Manasseh. By a process of elimination, the other tribes appear quickly–knowing first of all that the Scandinavian peoples and those of Western Europe are Israel. In these nations we have all the required characteristics which we find in no other group. To prove which tribe each is today, we need to prove which country has the identifying signs of each tribe AND prove that no other country has such signs.

God’s Required Qualifications For Grace!

wjcollier3.wordpress.com

Some Christians believe we should still keep much if not all of the law. Some say that because Jesus fulfilled the law we are not bound at all to any of it. Like most polarizing issues, a right understanding is found in allowing God to guide our Bible study.

.There is a distinction between a birthright and grace we ought to understand. A birthright is normally passed on from father to eldest son. There are no conditions which the recipient is required to meet. The son does nothing to qualify for it. He receives it as his right for no other reason than he happened to be born his father’s son. He has a right to it without earning it or qualifying to be worthy of it. He could however, disqualify himself to keep, or even to receive it.

But the gift of immortality received by grace does have qualifying conditions. It is not your right, or mine, to receive the gift of eternal life. Think what conditions would result if it were. A rebellious, defiant, hostile, God-hating criminal or atheist could shake his fist at God and say:

“Look, God! I hate you. I defy you! I refuse to obey you! But I demand your gift of eternal life! It’s my right! I want to receive all the power of a son of God, so that I can use that power to oppose you! I want to make your family a house divided against itself. I will cause friction, hostility, hatred, unhappiness among all your children. I demand that power, as your gift, as my right, so that I may abuse that power – use it for evil!”

The Mistake Of Multiculturalism

thelunaticarms.wordpress.com

In today’s society, it is shocking how much emphasis is  placed on the cultures and religions of minorities living in our countries. Multiculturalism and political correctness have become the new faith and morality in our nations. In schools, most teachers are either in collusion or individually trying to accommodate each and every little minority culture. It’s gotten to the point that it’s not so much a matter of what the national identity and culture is, but whether or not we even still have one.

The way that we celebrate minority cultures is nothing less than that becoming apologetic about the majority mainstream culture. In that sense, we’ve come to neglect our own culture and we assume that it will always be there. But like anything not cherished, that’s never a given. When we bend over backwards to pay attention to minority cultures, it has a negative effect on white children, making them feel culturally insignificant.

Perhaps the greatest impact, however, is felt in the area of religion. Teachers instruct the children in up to six different religions’ holidays and only give equal, not greater weight, to Christianity. In fact, Christian families seem to be the least religious and their knowledge of Christianity is abysmal. In contrast, the Muslim and Hindu families have religion as the central plank of their entire lives.

Canada’s policy of multiculturalism puts greater emphasis on the “rights of newcomers” than “their obligations to Canada” (Edmonton Journal, March 1). This ideology encourages refugees and immigrants from terrorist-sponsoring nations to treat Canada “as a convenient and generous base from which to engage in or mount support for their favorite conflicts abroad.

Britain also has promoted a multicultural society that shuns the idea of imposing a single British identity on the nation. However, this policy of promoting ethnic and cultural diversity has actually segregated ethnic minorities. Britain is promoting multiculturalism to the point where it is abandoning British culture and not preventing crimes from being committed in immigrant communities for fear of offending someone.

In that sense, multiculturalism is the enemy of a clear sense of national identity and collective strength. Its main thrust is how to help new arrivals grab everything society has to offer—schools, medical treatment, the minimum wage, advice on human or welfare rights. The duties of a citizen are included as an after-thought to these ‘rights.

But citizenship is not about what the country owes to an individual, but what an individual owes to the country. So it isn’t about rights at all. It is principally about obligations—to fellow citizens, to the law and to the nation. Any benefits should derive from first meeting those obligations.

That statement may make some bleeding-heart liberal teachers faint, but it’s the truth nonetheless.

For the ultimate solution to the problems facing our nations, have a look at this free book titled,  The United States and Britain in Prophecy. It is found at The Trumpet.com.

Supreme Court ‘Justice’: Trample Parental Authority, Promote Filth

Editors Comment: The following article is from a website called The Trumpet.com. I visit it daily because it offers insights that you can’t get anywhere else. This article shows another example of the inability of humankind to rule themselves because they have rejected the moral authority of the Bible. Today, society feels free to pursue deviancy with reckless abandon, practicing sodomy, adultery, witchcraft, a number of censorable behavioral expressions and so on. Our society has become morally debased because it has rejected the simplicity of God’s laws as preserved for us in the Bible.

—————————————————————-

gateamerica.blogspot.com

Have you seen the video games children are playing now? You probably know there is some ruckus over violent gaming, but if you dare look into it, you will be horrified. A five-minute Internet search of “violent video games”—if you can make it that long—will leave you feeling sick and sad.

You will read of stalking, abduction, murder, torture, dismemberment, decapitation, impaling, ethnic cleansing and rape, all taking place in realistic worlds populated by hit men, drug lords, psychopaths, zombies, school shooters, war criminals and worse. You will find out that millions of children are immersing themselves in realistic games that not only allow but encourage them to become killers, sadists, mutilators and monsters—human and otherwise—striking with flamethrowers, scythes, meat grinders, syringes, chainsaws, cattle prods and human shields.

It’s bad enough just reading that list. You don’t want to sear your eyes by even glimpsing a screenshot of one of these blood-spattered games—let alone seeing moving pictures of one.

Do You Ignore God The Father?

hoax-slayer.com

What are the two most universal errors in the proclaiming of the “Gospel” by the various sects and denominations of traditional Christianity today?

1) They ignore God the Father

2) They proclaim a false gospel—in which God the Father is mostly ignored. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news that Jesus Christ, as God’s Messenger, brought. In other words, the message GOD THE FATHER sent to mankind by His Son and Messenger (Malachi 3:1) to mankind.

Jesus said plainly, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father . . . for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me” (John 8:38, 42). Again, Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works” (John 14:10).

In the first sermon Peter spoke to gentiles, he said, “The word [Gospel] which God sent. . . preaching peace by Jesus Christ. . .” (Acts 10:36).

What has been proclaimed? MAN’S “gospel” about the Person of the Messenger, but omitting His MESSAGE, which came from God the Father.

Now how else do they ignore God the Father?

They preach Christ—but Him only.

Deviance And Perversity is Normal

Editors Comment: This article is from the Trumpet.com and contains valuable insight into the character of much of today’s anti-god society. It shows the complete lack of moral underpinning required for a stable society to survive and thrive, while also revealing the cause: a lack of God given understanding of law.

————————————————————————————————

klawedkillerkitten.buzznet.com

Back around 35 years ago when I was working for the Australian government in that nation’s capital, Canberra, an academic gave me a research paper purporting to prove that no human behavior can be judged as deviant.

The academic had been a campus child of the ’60s at a prestigious university and had since moved on to become a lecturer at Canberra University and an occasional consultant to the government. At the time, I did not realize that he was part of a deliberate strategy adopted by the socialist left in Western society to penetrate and take over all major institutions of government. We live the results of that takeover to this day.

The one thing I noticed during that six-year tenure in Canberra was the distinct difference between the outlook on life of my contemporaries, born in the war years of the late ’30s and early 1940s, and that of our juniors born in the following decade who hailed from the campus life of the tumultuous ’60s through to the early ’70s.

The most telling difference had to do with morality. Whereas most of my peers working for the government at the time were established family men and women exhibiting a reasonable dose of conservatism in their outlook and demeanor, the younger set were quite overt in expressing a multitude of views geared against the mores of traditional Anglo-Saxon society.

White Lies, Black Truth – Where Do You Stand?

Many things in today’s world just aren’t what they seem. It’s the era of the “sophisticated lie.” Who can you truly believe? What is behind all this lying and duplicity?

The Founder of true Christianity said: “He that is faithful [honest] in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much” (Luke 16:10).

He who would steal a postage stamp would likely steal money or other valuables also — if he got the chance!

A lie often has to be covered by several other lies, which have to be covered by yet more lies. Such an intricate web of duplicity is woven that it becomes almost impossible to discover the real truth.

Lying and stealing often go hand in hand. A person who steals will often need to lie to cover up his crime. Perhaps this is why the eighth commandment — “Thou shalt not steal” — is followed immediately by the commandment against bearing false witness (Deut. 5:19, 20). Elsewhere in the Pentateuch we read: “Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another” (Lev. 19:11).

What Is The Origin Of God?

antifan-real.deviantart.com

We are used to living in a limited world. Everything around us has limitations-beginnings and endings. We are aware of infants being born. We are aware of grandparents dying. We observe animals, plants and insects beginning life. We see their lives come to an end. We speak of the birth and the death of civilizations, of storms, volcanoes and comets. We are accustomed to seeing things get old. Clothing and furniture wear out. Automobiles fall apart. Buildings deteriorate. Our bodies become wrinkled and slow. To mortal man everything has a beginning, a period of usefulness and an end. We mark this progression of events on our clocks and calendars.

To us, only what is measurable by hours, days and years seems to have real significance. So when we hear that God is eternal, that He always has been and always will be, our minds balk. The words tend to be meaningless because we have nothing familiar to relate them to. And that is just the problem: we are trying to relate what cannot be related in physical terms. We are trying to apply the limitations of the physical existence we know to the unlimited spiritual plane on which God lives. The two cannot be compared. Our minds can encompass an hour, a century, a millennium, but we cannot grasp past eternity. They are not big enough to fully comprehend spiritual existence. We can’t even fully comprehend the physical universe! As an illustration, let’s consider for a moment what God has created.

For Evolutionists Only….

hollyforrestteaches.blogspot.com

Most creationists are guilty of the very thing they accuse evolutionists of doing: misinterpreting the evidence!

Actually, the commonly accepted religious concept of creation has changed little since medieval theologians insisted the earth is flat.

Only some six or so thousand years ago, according to this concept, God created “out of nothing” the universe and everything in it.

Not only does this idea overlook the actual biblical account of creation, it also represents a misinterpretation of the physical evidence to support a preconceived and erroneous notion.

One can only wonder how many educated people have rejected the whole idea of special creation merely because they have not heard the true biblical account. The biblical account of creation, as recorded in the first chapters of Genesis, is compatible with the entire body of provable, observable, measurable, recordable scientific data. What this means is that the physical evidence of and by itself does not require choosing between an evolutionary process on the one hand or belief in a universe that is only about 6,000 years old on the other hand.

Can You Believe Both The Bible And Evolution?

http://www.apostolicnews.org

So many are saying today, “You can believe BOTH the Bible and evolution.” But this is emphatically not so! The Century Dictionary and Encyclopedia defines evolution as “opposed to creation” — the only PROOF of God. Huxley said it was “directly antagonistic to Creation,” adding, “Evolution makes it impossible to believe in the Bible.” And, we might add, the BIBLE makes it impossible to believe in evolution.

Sir Oliver Lodge said, “As taught by science, we learn that there has been no fall in man; there has been only RISE.” Another frank evolutionist, Carl Vogt, says: “Evolution turns the Creator out of doors.”

And yet, in high schools and colleges, many teachers and professors are teaching students that there is no conflict between the Bible and evolution. They teach that you can believe BOTH. Some try to teach that evolution was God’s METHOD of creation, and try to harmonize the first chapter of Genesis with the theory of evolution! This is merely crafty, cunning, lying deception, which is deceiving millions of students. They are then taught the “evidences” of evolution, they accept it, and soon become atheists before they realize it!

The Mathematical Impossibility of Evolution

Editors Comment: This article came from The Philadelphia Trumpet, March/April 2002. It has hard facts about the improbability of evolution and should make a logical person think about the childish approach evolutionists take, despite the odds that they could be right.

——————————————————————-

archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com

Since random events within nature are supposed to be responsible for the spontaneous beginning of life and of all living things, let’s evaluate “randomness.” The tool used to evaluate randomness is the mathematical concept of probability.

The basic principle of probability is simple: If you have a coin with two sides, heads and tails, and toss it into the air, each side has a 50 percent chance of being on the top when the coin lands. This is the probability of a random event limited by two possible outcomes.

Now, imagine a pair of four-sided dice. The probability of any certain side landing in the bottom position when one of the pair is tossed is one in four, or 25 percent. Add the second of the pair, and there are 16 possible combinations (four times four). Add a third and there are 64 possible combinations (four times four times four). The probability of getting any certain combination in one toss of three dice would be 64 to one. The more possible combinations, the less the probability of any one specific result.

Evolution is hypothesized to occur when there is an alteration to the genetic material of a plant or animal, and the change produces offspring with a better chance to survive. In animals, the changes take place in the genome, the genetic material of the sperm or egg cells of a parent, and are passed on to the next generation.

Mystery of The Ages: Mystery Of Angels And Evil Spirits

Could anything be more mysterious than the question of the unseen spirit world? Angelic beings have always been a mystery to people on the earth. Do angels actually exist? Is there, in fact, a Satan the devil? Is Satan a literal, immortal being? Did God create a devil?

Some religions worship gods they believe to be evil spirits. Some of the great cathedrals of the Christian religion are embellished on their exterior with gargoyles, ugly and grotesque carved faces, which are supposed to frighten evil spirits away.

All the evils and troubles in the world are caused by minds clashing with minds. But what is the real cause of clashing of minds? Is there any connection between contentious attitudes and the unseen spirit world? It is a mystery to almost everybody, but the Bible reveals a very real but invisible world—another dimension, as some choose to call it—existing along with our own, absolutely indiscernible to our five senses. It is the spirit world.

In the first chapter of Hebrews, we read of angels serving as God’s secret messengers, sent forth to minister to those God has called to salvation and eternal life.

In Ephesians 6 it is stated that our contentions and strivings are in fact not with other human people, but against “principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness [evil spirits] in high places.”

How can this be? Why is the world filled with such clashings and contentions between human minds?

In Ephesians 2:2, humans have been walking “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air [Satan], the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” People simply do not realize that there is an invisible spirit power injecting into their minds these hostile attitudes.

Even to professing Christians, these scriptures have been a mystery. Why?

This invisible spirit world (Col. 1:15-16) is very real but because it is invisible it has been a mystery. The fact that holy angels and evil spirits are invisible does not negate their existence. In truth the invisible spirit world is more real than the material and the visible. In fact, most people do not know what electricity is but are well aware of its reality. The Bible explains: “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (II Cor. 4:3-4). Satan is the god of this world.

The time of UNDERSTANDING has come.

Mystery Of The Ages: Who And What Is God?

I was returning to my hotel in New Delhi some years ago from a private conference with the late Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India. Ever since arriving in India I had noticed cows and oxen wandering through the streets. I had never seen such animals straying loosely through city streets in any other country.

“Don’t these cattle stray quite a distance from home?” I asked of the car driver.

“Oh yes,” he answered.

“But when,” I asked, “they wander all over the streets so far away, how do their owners find them, to drive them back home for the night?”

The car driver smiled. “The owners don’t. But the cattle and oxen know their owners and where they live. They find their own way home in the evening.”

Immediately I thought of the scripture in the first chapter of Isaiah, which I had never understood so perfectly before this living explanation.

“Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord…they are gone away backward” (Isa. 1:2-4).

And this was spoken of ancient Israel, a nation to which God had revealed himself by many evidences and miracles. How much less do other nations know about God — about who and what God is!

Nevertheless, other nations are human beings just like the nation Israel. It is important at the very outset of this chapter that you notice God calls these humans his own children. Many people say, “God just doesn’t seem real to me.” God is a great mystery to them. Their own human fathers don’t seem like a mystery. They seem real.

 Why Does God Seem Unreal? (p 32)

In this chapter I hope we will help make God as real to you as your own human father. God does reveal himself to us in the Bible, if we will just understand it, so that he will seem real to us.

Hypotheses, Intellectual Curiosity And Controversy = Scientific Truth?

shangaoma.com

Never has there been an age like this one. An avalanche of scientific information is pouring down on us and few can keep up with the torrent of new knowledge. But is man the wiser for all this new knowledge?

Are the latest conclusions of geology, of archaeology, or history any nearer the truth? Or are we being crushed by the sheer weight of new ignorance — new superstitions, this time garbed in the respectable clothes of Scientific Knowledge?

It would seem this ought to be the wisest, most knowledgeable generation that has ever lived. But it is not! And there is a reason. Never in the history of the world have so many been speculating so much. Speculation, hypothesizing, intellectual guessing have become the lifeblood of the sciences — especially the social sciences. The result is an age typified by a chaos of ideas.

The reason? Only those facts which fit an hypothesis are concerned! The purpose of hypothesis is not eternal truth — only intellectual curiosity to see whether the hypothesis be so! No wonder the scholarly world is in confusion? That the genuine history of man has been rejected and forgotten. That Scripture is labeled “unscientific” and “myth”

WHY HYPOTHESES?

Scientific and historical journals are filled with “learned” conflicts and controversies. These conflicts are not due to a lack of factual material. There are often “too many” facts. Controversies in philosophy, in science, in education are the direct result of hypothesizing. Theories and hypotheses by their very nature breed controversy. What is needed is a true view of the factual material already available. Present material is more than sufficient to solve every one of the primary questions regarding Man, his origin in time, and the record of his experiences.

Can the facts of geology, of archaeology, of human history and the Bible be reconciled? Not if the method of study now in vogue in the educational world is used! Crowning the heap of discarded theories with another hypothesis will not resolve the problems.

Yet a solution is possible. The facts of geology, of archaeology, of human history and the Bible are reconcilable. It is the hypotheses and theories of Science and Theology that are not! No one, caught up in the vicious cycle of intellectual guessing, finds it easy to divorce facts from hypotheses. But once one is willing to do that, the gnawing questions of science and history find answers.

Why haven’t men been willing to face facts, and forget hypothesizing? The answer is simple. Facts do not automatically organize themselves into clear and unmistakable answers. There is always the need of some kind of yardstick, some standard, to guide man in organizing the myriads of facts lying mutely before him.

A geological stratum by itself does not answer when? or why? A potsherd by itself does not reveal who? or when? Even a written record by itself often fails to convey motive, proof of accuracy, or history of transmission.

Scholars and scientists must of necessity resort to some external framework or yardstick by which the recovered facts may be judged. Only two choices are available — hypothesis or Divine Revelation. The educated world has chosen the former. It has, without proof, rejected the latter. Hypotheses appeal to human vanity, to intellectual curiosity, to the desire to hear of something new. Divine Revelation requires acknowledgement of a Higher Power, the subjection of human reason to the revealed Mind of the Creator. But human reason revels in its own superiority. By nature it opposes and exalts itself against Higher Authority.

No wonder educators take for granted that the facts of geology, of archaeology, or human history contradict the Bible. Not until human beings are willing to acknowledge God, to acknowledge His Authority, His Revelation, will they ever come to a satisfactory — and satisfying — explanation of Man and the Universe. Not until human reason is conquered will the scholarly world enjoy the privilege of understanding the meaning of geology, of archaeology, of history and the Bible.

Why don’t today’s educators know the answers to these problems? Because they have discarded the key that would unlock the answers. That key is God’s revelation of essential knowledge for man — the Bible. But men don’t want God telling them anything authoritatively. They therefore refuse even to test whether the Bible is authoritative.

Source: Compendium Of World History, Volume 2, by Dr. Herman Hoeh

Ice Ages And The Sin Of Cain

lyricsfever.net

Where do the so-called “Ice Ages” fit in Bible history? Scientific and historical journals are filled with “learned” conflicts and controversies. These conflicts are not due to a lack of factual material. There are often “too many” facts.

Controversies in philosophy, in science, in education are the direct result of hypothesizing. Theories and hypotheses by their very nature breed controversy. What is needed is a true view of the factual
material already available. Present material is more than sufficient to solve every one of the primary questions regarding man, his origin in time, and the record of his experiences.

Why don’t today’s educators know the answers to these problems? Because they have discarded the key that would unlock the answers. That key is God’s revelation of essential knowledge for man — the Bible. But men don’t want God telling them anything authoritatively. They therefore refuse even to test whether the Bible is authoritative.

Cain, History And Geology

Cain is an important figure in theology. He is equally important to history and geology. As a result of the sin of Cain the entire history of human society — and the earth’s surface — changed. Notice the Biblical record:

“And now art thou cursed from the earth … when thou tillest the ground”

Cain, says Josephus, sought to gain his livelihood by farming methods which depleted the soil:

“It shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive (or wanderer) and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth” (Gen. 4:11-12).

God put a stop to Cain’s way — the way of getting. If Cain and his heirs had been allowed to continue their agricultural pursuits, soils all over the world would long ago have been rendered unfit for
cultivation. Human life might well have been snuffed out by mass starvation.

The geological record tells us what God did to save the soil from utter depletion. Mountain chains arose where there were none before. Seas dried up. The balmy semi-tropical climate of the world rapidly shifted into torrid and frigid zones. Wherever Cain wandered his agricultural pursuits came to naught. When it should have rained, the weather turned dry. Just as he was about to reap the ripening crop, a storm blew in. Nothing turned out right. Cain was forced to turn to hunting and gathering the sparse wild fruits and berries. He and the generations who followed him eked out a wretched living. All this is recorded in geology and archaeology.