vendredi 21 décembre 2012

I Predict Again: This Is Not The End of The World

Section of stucco frieze with a prominent human face in the centre, surrounded by elaborate decoration.I have been reading here and there, as well as watching Youtubes concerning the end of the world 2012 for quite a while. It never cease to amaze me, how people who would doubt the Biblical prophecies which has shown time after time to be accurate with regards to historical event - will believe on other form of end of the world stories coming from exotic sources. This is really bizarre.

Since the year 2000, when folks around kept predicting the end of the world, i have been informing those around me what a joke that was. I remember last year i wrote on a yahoo forum about the predicted end of the world of 21 May 2011 and then of the 21 October 2011 by Mr Harold. I still think that my response then is as relevant today:
"Now just as i have said in 1999 before the supposed end of the world l'an 2000, Jesus ain't gonna come on the 21st May 2011. He could have come before the 21st or after the 21st but not on the 21st of May 2011. The logic i am using is simple. He said His advent would be (He'll come as a thief) at an hour when He is less (or not) expected. And just like for l'an 2000 and this new funny date, His return is just too much publicized for Him to come and produce the intended surprised effect. Everybody i.e skeptics, believers and deniers (like myself) of this rapture date, are focused on this date of the 21 May 2011. There is just too much attention on this day related with His person for Him to show up. 
So sorry guys, if you were growing your wings and taking flying lessons to rival superman in the air during rapture, you can remove your feathers because you ain't going anywhere!
And for the sons and daughters of the blessed new covenant in Christ, we won't be surprised by his return since we live everyday of our lives in expectation of His blessed return as we walk in the light of His love. We are after all supposed to be faithful servants that the master of the house will find performing his/her duty as s/he should be even in the absence of the master, right? (Math 24: 45-47 '"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.')
"Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness." 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5. So enjoy the craziness ... as for me, i'll be waiting to hear the explanation of Mr. Harold Camping, the promoter of this fury, on Sunday 22 May 2011. Something tells me that it is going to be fun to watch and hear the concocted explanation! I can't wait for tomorrow. lol"
Remember, Jesus informed us that his coming and the end is supposed to be a surprise! A highly profile date such as the 21st December 2012 will definitively not do the trick, it won't  help the surprise. Hence, as you forgot about the 21st May or 21st October 2011; forget also about the 21st December 2012 of the supposedly Mayan prediction.

I have read this somewhere on the net an i found it also interesting:
The numeric predictions of the Mayan calendar are based on the computation of the Mayan value of pi whose value is possibly more reliable than any European pi. This makes the Mayan calendar remarkably accurate. However, it does not predict the end of the world in 2012. To some the assumptions of world ending events is just another doomsday prediction on the level of Y2K born out of the human need for a cosmic change or a solution to human suffering on this planet, and revenge against those who impose such sufferings. So what are the Christians response to this doomsday prediction? Christians can be classified as the group most likely to believe in such doomsday predictions based on their understandings and acceptance of end time events as described in the book of Revelation. However, most mature Christians conclude that this is just another bogus assumption born out of a lack of Biblical knowledge. They cite one text from the Bible to justify this position which is found in the book of Matthew 24:36. “But of that day and hour knows no man, neither angels of Heaven nor the Son, but my Father.”
December 21, 2012 will definitely be an interesting day...and so will December 22, 2012 when the earth will rotate around the sun - just as it has being doing for over six billion years - give or take a few centuries.
So Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2013 to you and your loved ones.
P.S: Don't forget to check out my book - Help Me Understand Jesus. Check My Book by clicking here or more here.



samedi 15 décembre 2012

The Argument For God's Existence From Creation


This conversation started on a Facebook page where someone got stuck with logic in his effort to write a defense for God's existence. So with a lady acquaintance we exchanged a bit on that long post and this below is what i essentially told her.
...............
Hi A.,
Hope you doing well in this festive season. Well, this is an interesting argumentation but it is poorly done. It sounded more like an excuse for God's existence or a plea of exception for the existence of God than a well argued case for His existence. The mistake the writer made is easily found in his introductory statement: 
"Everything comes from something. Every effect has a cause. This is a law of logic and a fact of science." 
This isn't neither true nor a law of logic. The better formulation of it is found in premise one of the Kalam cosmological argument as presented by Dr. William Lane Craig: "Everything that BEGINS to exist has a cause for its existence". Now this makes more sense - it is true and logical since it is a recurrent observable fact.
Now that we have made this important correction, we can proceed. 
The first thing we need to prove is the claim that everything that we know of in the universe begun to exist. With the Big bang model and the evidence of physics from the cosmic microwave background radiation - it is believed now that the universe begun to exist. Hence if the universe begun to exist, it then needs a cause for its existence.
Step two. What could reasonably be its cause? Logic dictates that whatever the cause of the universe is, it should have properties that transcends those of the universe. For example, if the universe is made of matter, and that the universe begun to exist - then matter also begun to exist. And if matter begun to exist, then whatever the cause of matter and the universe is - it can not be made of matter. It is by necessity non material in nature/property. We call it spiritual because it is non corporeal and cannot be quantified like matter.
Second, Time and Space also came into existence at the Big Bang according to the logic of the model - hence the cause must then also be non-temporal and spaceless in its property/ by nature. We call it Eternal because it is not subject to time and space.
Third, since the universe Cause existed prior to creation in an eternal state as per the argument above and that the effect (creation) did not exist in the eternal state but begun to exist at a given moment 'in history' - it implies that the Cause chose to bring its creation at such a given moment - hence giving the universe Cause the property of choice making. Since the reaction of the effect is not automatic to the existence of the Cause, it means that the Cause is not an automatic entity. If the universe Cause was not imbued with a choice to cause to universe but was automatic, then the the universe would have existed simultaneously with its Cause for all time (infinite).  But the universe begun to exist - hence the universe existence is not a necessary effect of its Cause. The Cause of the universe hence has a personality to make a choice to make or not to make a universe. Hence, the Cause is a conscious entity and not an unconscious entity.
Fourth, by the engineering of the universe (including biological life) and the specific laws that govern it, we can deduce that the Cause of the universe is an intelligent entity.
If we only take these few line of arguments above, we can come up with these attributes for the Cause of the universe: 1) The Cause is eternal (spaceless and timeless), 2) The Cause is spiritual (non-material), 3) The Cause is a conscious being (with obvious capacity of choosing to create at any given moment), 4) The Cause is intelligent (this is also called the teleological argument of God's existence). 
These lines of arguments are far from being called a proof but it can be called evidences and reasons of God's existence.
All these evidences point to what theologians and philosophers refers to as GOD. We are far from proving the existence of the Christian God because these attributes above is shared by believers of other religions - monotheist religions that is.
However, the arguments above can also be equally applicable to the Christian God, but not exclusively applicable to the christian God. If we assume the existence of the christian God then these arguments are also valid. The follow up question would be how do we move from the God of natural theology to the God of Christian theology? 
The easiest books that helped me to understand the transition from natural theology to christian theology are the excellent books of Drs. Norman Geisler and Frank Turek 'I dont Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist" as well as the more technical one by Dr William Lane Craig 'Reasonable Faith - 3rd edition'. C.S Lewis also does have quite an insightful approach in his book "Mere Christianity". These literatures help make a case for the Christian faith from Natural Teology.

Happy New Year in Jesus' name.
P.S: Don't forget to check out my book - Help Me Understand Jesus. Check My Book by clicking here or more here.