Tag: The Curse

Categories
Creation/evolution Uncategorized

My health journey: part 3

In June last year I wrote a post indicating that I had eradicated h. pylori bacteria (finally) from my gut and I believed I was on a healing journey from thereon out. Well that it seems now was only the start of the journey and I had still a long way to go. Here I will try to document some of my journey after June 2018.

At that time I was following the Dave Hompes h. pylori diet which meant eating regular small meals always including some animal protein with each meal. This was to keep your blood sugar stable.

At that time I still would get acid reflux and gastritis due to the damage done to my body but eventually, by eating low acidic foods, my stomach healed and I was largely relieved of reflux and gastritis.

My journey continued

The problem I learned from what followed is that h. pylori bacteria are opportunistic and only succeed when the environment is weakened as mine was. I was left at this point with a weakened immune system, along with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and overactive bladder, or possibly interstitial cystitis (I.C.). I really needed to find a cure but my doctors told me it is incurable. I also had a recurrence of prostatitis and I wasn’t going back to taking pharmaceutical drugs.

Also I soon developed gastroparesis, where you are nearly always nauseous because the food in your stomach does not leave soon enough. The only way to counter it is eat again and the new food in the stomach pushes out the old lot and you get relief for awhile.

I sought out medical help, though I did not want to take drugs. I was offered Iberogast, a herbal tonic, which is supposed to help but it didn’t. I found an integrative doctor who gave me some herbal pills but they didn’t work either.

Continue reading “My health journey: part 3”
Categories
astronomy Cosmology Creation/evolution Physics

The effects of the Curse visible in the cosmos present another biblical creationist starlight travel-time problem

Abstract: The notion that the Curse was applied to the whole universe creates another light travel-time problem for biblical creation. Even if we assume that God supernaturally instantly cursed all parts of the universe how do we see those effects now? Any biblical creation cosmology that assumes the ASC is the language of the Bible, which includes an infinite one-way speed of light to the observer on Earth, has an answer to this question. Yet, any cosmology that assumes the ESC is the language of the Bible, which includes the speed of light limited to c (approximately 300,000 km/s), appears to not be able to answer the question. This alone would appear to rule out all cosmologies that rely of the ESC as the language on the Bible.

Introduction

The Curse is an event that many Bible reading Christians know something about. We read in Genesis 3:14-17 that God cursed the earth after Adam and Eve sinned against Him by eating of the tree which He commanded them not to eat of. Their sin brought on them the serious consequence of death. God also cursed the creation, bringing about various forms of corruption, which resulted in life being much more difficult for Adam and Eve and the rest of all life on Earth. The Scriptures tell us that God cursed the whole creation—the whole universe. We may conclude this from Romans 5:12:

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world [Greek kosmos] through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men  because all sinned” (ESV, emphasis added)

The Greek word kosmos meaning ‘orderly arrangement’is translated ‘the world’ in this verse, but meaning the whole universe. (Incidentally, it is the word from which we drive our English word ‘cosmos’.) Thus it was not only humans that were cursed but the whole universe. This is standard biblical creationist doctrine. This conclusion is strengthened when we read Romans 8:19-23:

“For the creation [Greek ktisis] waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (ESV, emphases added)

In this passage the Greek word ktisis meaning ‘original formation’ is translated as ‘the creation’. From the context it has the meaning of the entire creation—animate and inanimate—with the exception of two sets of beings. From verse 23 we can conclude that the creation here does not include the saved children of God. Also it would not include the unbelieving humans as they are not eagerly waiting for the adoption as sons of God. It also cannot include the angels, because the good angels are not subject to futility and therefore the Curse. The bad angels ‘fell’ sometime before the Curse itself and many are kept in chains in prison (2 Peter 2:4) until the final judgement.  So the meaning is all other living creatures and all the physical universe.

Continue reading “The effects of the Curse visible in the cosmos present another biblical creationist starlight travel-time problem”

Categories
Bible prophecy Book of Revelation hermeneutics

Revelation 22

72cffdb67e3da61b046785d335eab44f

The chapter opens with a description of the river of life that proceeds or flows from the throne of God inside the city where Christ is on the throne (v.1). On either side of the river was the tree of life (v.2). This is the same tree that was in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2:9  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is river pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

There also was a river that ran out from Eden.

Genesis 2:10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became into four heads.

The correspondence is very strong. You can see the connection between the paradise of the initial creation and the paradise of the final heaven on earth.

I believe also that the tree of life is symbolic of Jesus Christ, who is the source of life to all who believe. “In Him was life” (John 1:4).

Proverbs 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that wins souls is wise.

Christ is the fruit of the righteous, as only God is righteous. In Christ is the only way we can be fruitful to win souls. The Lord also says:

Continue reading “Revelation 22”
Categories
Creation/evolution God Meaning of life Science

Why is it so hard for many to understand God’s truth?

Adam-and-EveIn the beginning God created two people who were perfect in all ways. They were Adam and Eve, made in the image of God. Then they rebelled against the living God by disobeying the one commandment he had given them—eating fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I don’t think the fruit was poisonous, since there was nothing in the creation that was, but this was a test of their obedience to the Creator. For without a choice Adam and Eve would have been just ‘robots’.

As a result of their action they were cursed, as was the whole creation (Romans 8). One result of the Curse (the Fall) was degeneration in humans. This would have included errors in the genetic code, not corrected for when copies were made every time cells are replaced in our bodies. (Before the Curse God sustaining power would have corrected any thermodynamically induced copying errors.) As a result the offspring of Adam and Eve, of which there were many, would have in many ways been less than perfect, physically and mentally. They then passed these inferior traits down to all their offspring, which includes all the human race, to us.

Continue reading “Why is it so hard for many to understand God’s truth?”
Categories
Testimonies Trials and temptations Witnessing

All that God does is for our good

Every mercy should be thankfully acknowledged. Whatever does us good comes from God. He is the only source of all good and to Him our praises should daily ascend. The Lord has brought us through many dangers; He has delivered us out of many difficulties; He has bestowed on us many favours; let us therefore … thank God and take courage. — Daily Remembrancer November 7th Evening

MY_BORX

We arrived in Kuching, the capital of the state of Sarawak, East Malaysia, in September 1978.  We had taken a boat from Miri in the north down to Kuching. We had to get settled quickly because we knew our second child would be born within only a matter of several weeks.

Here I was alone now in a strange city, with a very pregnant wife, and a 21 month old daughter, with no place to go. But God did not fail us.

Continue reading “All that God does is for our good”
Categories
Creation/evolution hermeneutics History Physics

Age as a quality factor of human life after the Flood

The concept of decreasing human life spans after the Flood is considered by analogy to a quality factor that one observes in physical systems. It is found that the concept is not inconsistent with what we observe from the decreasing life spans of the Patriarchs listed in Genesis. (This article is a bit mathematically technical. It is really just speculation but I found very interesting. Edited from an article first published online here.)

In physics we define the quality factor (or Q-factor) of a system using the time it takes for it to dissipate 1/e of its energy. If we then look at human life spans in terms of a quality factor we would all have to agree that length of life or age at death defines a sort of a quality factor.

One researcher examined entropy of living systems and concluded that essentially we die because we come into thermal equilibrium with our environment at senile old age.1 This is where we can no longer generate enough heat to sustain life in the body and we die.  So to live a long time means we have some sort of higher quality factor and it takes longer for the state to arrive where the cells in the body can no longer generate enough heat. This is of course what entropy is all about. Living things are complex systems and while functioning properly are highly complex low entropy systems.

Continue reading “Age as a quality factor of human life after the Flood”