Maurice and "George".
posted by Maurice Sweetsur @ 8:44 PM
Monday, July 21, 2008
Newsletter 68.
Newsletter 68.
New Web site.
If any of you ever wondered what I do when I am not writing these Newsletters, you can check out my newest "Blog' at http://www.unclemaurice.blogspot.com/ This concerns my children's ministry here in Auckland, New Zealand.
A Creation special - Part 2
This month I conclude my teaching on Creation by again drawing together some of my previously published material, plus a couple of 'new' items. I hope that you will find them challenging and helpful to ytour ministry.
Maurice Sweetsur
Contents.
Letter to an atheist - A Birdbox and a tree.
T.T. 20 - Creation and Evolution.
Creation or Evolution? - A comparison.
T.T. 47 - Big bang or big mess?
Your questions answered.
(Taken from "Kidzone - Archives" - http://www.kidzonearchives.blogspot.com/ ).
Who made God?
Is there life elsewhere in the universe?
Why did God make us, and the world?
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
When did God create the dinosaurs?
Why is water essential for life?
Why did God use Adam's rib to create Eve?
After Eden
Letter to an atheist: A birdbox and a tree
by David Catchpoole
New Web site.
If any of you ever wondered what I do when I am not writing these Newsletters, you can check out my newest "Blog' at http://www.unclemaurice.blogspot.com/ This concerns my children's ministry here in Auckland, New Zealand.
A Creation special - Part 2
This month I conclude my teaching on Creation by again drawing together some of my previously published material, plus a couple of 'new' items. I hope that you will find them challenging and helpful to ytour ministry.
Maurice Sweetsur
Contents.
Letter to an atheist - A Birdbox and a tree.
T.T. 20 - Creation and Evolution.
Creation or Evolution? - A comparison.
T.T. 47 - Big bang or big mess?
Your questions answered.
(Taken from "Kidzone - Archives" - http://www.kidzonearchives.blogspot.com/ ).
Who made God?
Is there life elsewhere in the universe?
Why did God make us, and the world?
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
When did God create the dinosaurs?
Why is water essential for life?
Why did God use Adam's rib to create Eve?
After Eden
Letter to an atheist: A birdbox and a tree
by David Catchpoole
Dear ‘open-minded atheist’,
You ask me how I could possibly believe in a Creator given that certain high-profile scientists1 say that no Creator was necessary? Well, let’s take a simple example. Do you see (in the photo at right) the birdbox—where did it come from?
Of course you would say that somebody must have made it, but how do you know that? After all, you didn’t see anyone making it, so how do you know the birdbox had a maker?
(I’m being quite serious—like you, I also realize the birdbox must have been made by someone—but I would like you to ponder how it was that you came to that conclusion.)
Here’s how I would answer. Even though I didn’t see anybody making it, I can see that it has a degree of organization and complexity which, though limited, is never seen to come about by natural processes. Someone must have made it, and attached it to the tree—probably for the purpose of attracting birds so that the maker/owner of the birdbox could enjoy their singing and admire them at close range.
And now, three questions:
Can that birdbox capture the sun’s energy and convert it into useful fuel? Answer: No.
Can that birdbox repair itself if part of it is broken off, e.g. by strong winds in a storm? Answer: No.
Can that birdbox generate copies of itself, which in turn can produce further copies, which in turn can reproduce themselves, and so on? Answer: No!
And yet, the tree, to which the birdbox is attached, can do all of those things—yet you say that the tree had no Creator, that it’s simply the product of time and chance? Where’s the logic in that? When you consider just the ordered complexity of photosynthesis (capturing of the sun’s energy),2 man hasn’t even yet fully described all that’s going on in photosynthesis, let alone been able to duplicate it!3,4,5 If the birdbox had a designer (and it obviously did, as we both acknowledge) then so too did the tree—and whoever designed the tree is obviously one super-Intelligent Designer!
Just as it is written in the Bible:
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
Romans 1:20a (English Standard Version)
Regards,
A Christian friend
Teaching tip 20 - Creation and Evolution.
I don't usually mention the theory of evolution in my classes, concentrating instead on just teaching Creation from God's Word. Sometimes, however, an older child may raise the subject. Then I will proceed along the following lines. I explain the basics of special creation by God and evolution, and then state that there are two ways we can test which one is more likely to be true.
1. Ask "Is evolution happening today?" The answer is obviously "No." We never observe one kind of creature changing into a different kind. Thus, cats always give birth to cats, dogs give dogs, potatoes give potatoes and carrots give carrots etc. etc.
2. Is there any evidence to show that evolution ever happened in the past? Again the answer is "No." Fossils are a collection of 'dead things' - creatures and plants that lived and died in the past. But the fossil record shows clearly defined species, with no evidence of one type of creature changing into a different type. If evolution were true, we would expect to find billions of transitional forms. But they are just not there.
There have been a number of claims that 'intermediate' forms have been found (e.g. ape-men), but on further inspection they have proved to be false. So-called ape-men, for example, have subsequently been shown to be really either apes, men, or fraudulent hoaxes (e.g. Pilkdown man).
Science is concerned solely with what is happening in the present. It cannot tell us anything about what happened in the past. So when it comes to the origins of things, we move into the realm of speculation and personal faith. Ultimately, the question is "Who are we going to believe? Fallible men who weren't there in the beginning, or God who is the only one who was there?"
Creation or Evolution? - A comparison.
Some people try to reconcile Creation, as revealed in Genesis, with the theory of evolution which some scientists believe is the way everything came into existence. Basically these people say that "God used evolution." However, a brief look at these two belief systems show that they contradict each other in too many areas. They cannot both be true. Consider the following :-
God's record of creation in Genesis Evolutionary long-age theory
Earth before sun and stars Sun and stars before earth
Earth covered with water at first Earth a molten blob at first
Oceans before dry land Dry land before oceans
Life first created on the land as plants Life started in the ocean
Plants created before the sun Plants formed after the sun
Fish and birds created together Fish formed long before birds
Birds created before land animals Land animals formed before birds
Whales created before land animals Land animals formed before whales
Man and dinosaurs lived together Dinosaurs died out long before man
Creation completed in six days Evolution going on into the future
Some people say "God could have used evolution." True, but the point is not what God could have done, but rather what did God say he did? The question then is:- Do you believe God's word, the Bible, or do you believe an unprovable theory devised by fallible men? However, if you don't believe the beginning of the Bible, what justification do you have for believing any of it's other parts?
Teaching tip 47 - Big bang or big mess?
People who deny the existence of God have therefore to believe that the Universe created itself out of nothing. (To believe that actually requires a lot more faith than I have got!). So how then do atheists explain how the Universe formed? Most use the idea of a 'big bang', even though none of them were there to see what actually happened.
They say that first of all there was absolutely nothing. But then, they claim, all the energy and matter contained in the billions of stars in the universe was somehow there, separated into a single point, which suddenly 'exploded'. This somehow formed lots of hydrogen gas, which spread out and filled the universe. Then the clouds of hydrogen gas started to pull themselves together by gravity. These clouds got hotter and hotter until they each formed a star. Then these stars exploded and formed all the other elements like carbon and oxygen, that made up all the stuff in the universe, including you and me.
But where did the first energy come from? How could it all have been contained in a single point? What made this point explode? And who ever heard of an explosion making order and design? What happens when fireworks explode? You certainly get a bang, but all you have left is a big mess!
There are lots of sound scientific reasons why the big bang idea is wrong, could not work, and simply did not happen.
It is far easier, in fact, to believe that Almighty God made the sun, the moon, the stars and everything in the universe the way He says He did in the Bible.
Your questions answered.
Of all the hundreds of questions that children have asked me over the last 28 years of teaching them 'Bible', I would say that well over half of them concerned creation. Here are a few of them.
Who made God? (Kidzone 1).
"If I told you the answer to that, I know what your next question would be. You would say "Who made the person who made God ?" Then, if I told you that , you would ask "Who made the person who made the person who made God ?" Then, if I told you that, you would ask "Who made the person who made the person who made the person who made God ?" etc. etc.
No, the answer is NOBODY made God. God is eternal. That means He has no beginning or end. He has always existed. In fact, there was a time when there was no matter (solid things), no space, and no time, only God Himself. Then God spoke and by His power brought everything in the Universe into existence. The exciting thing is that although we have a beginning, God has made each one of us eternal as well. That means the "real you" - your Soul and Spirit will never die.
I know this is hard for us to understand, because we are used to living in time, with beginnings and endings. But let us consider the alternative. If there is no God (or Creator), that means that everything in the Universe must have created itself - beginning with nothing. Our common sense tells us that nothing can make itself - it has to have a maker or creator. That is why most people in the world believe in a Creator (God). It requires far, far too much faith to believe that everything made itself out of nothing. It is far easier to believe that there always has been a loving God who created everything.
Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? (Kidzone 2).
Surveys in a number of countries indicate that the majority of people believe that there is other life in the Universe, apart from on earth.
We now know that the Universe is absolutely enormous, with countless billions and billions of stars (our sun is a star). People reason that because there are so many stars, there are probably billions and billions of planets associated with them. And the chances are that millions and millions of these planets will be similar to earth, and therefore capable of sustaining life.
Unfortunately, some people believe that life can form itself by chance processes, and if it has happened on earth - then why not on other planets as well? However life CANNOT form itself. A creation needs a Creator. A design needs a Designer. The only One who can create life is God.
So the question we should really be asking is "Has God created life on other planets?"
The only Person who knows everything about everything is God. And God has written us a book called the Bible, which tells us everything we really need to know about life. Therefore the first place we should go to find out if something is true or not is the Bible. Unfortunately, the Bible doesn't say if there is life somewhere other than on earth, so we cannot know for sure. However, by studying the Bible, it does seem that life (certainly intelligent life) outside of the earth is extremely unlikely.
The Bible makes it clear that our earth (small as it may be) is THE most important place in the Universe. It was on earth that God created the first man, Adam. It was here that Adam sinned and brought God's curse on "the whole of creation." thus bringing it into "bondage to decay" (see Romans 8. 21). If there were extraterrestrials (ET's) on other planets, it would hardly be fair that their world was adversely affected because of Adam's sin here on earth!
It was on our earth that God's Son, Jesus Christ, died for our sins "once for all" and redeemed (bought back) the "whole of creation" to Himself. If Jesus died on earth "once for all", that seems to exclude the possibility of Him then going off to other planets to die all over again!
And it will be to here on earth that Jesus will one day return for those of us who are trusting in him. The Bible talks about us (the Church) becoming "the Bride of Christ". And I can't imagine Jesus having more than one bride!
Although we cannot therefore know for certain that there is not life elsewhere in the Universe, if it does exist, we can know three things about it :-
1. It is younger than life on earth, because God didn't create the sun, moon, stars, and consequently any planets that may be associated with them, until Day 4 of the Creation week, whereas He made the earth on Day 1.
2. There is no need to be worried that the earth may be invaded by ET's who are able to take control because they are more advanced and/or intelligent than we are. No. Any other life forms, if they exist at all, cannot be superior to us, because we humans are made in God's image - and you can't get better than the best!
3. It is not important to us on earth. God tells us in the Bible everything that is really important for our lives. Therefore, as it doesn't mention life outside of earth, it cannot be important to us, if it exists at all. If it were important, the Bible would have mentioned it.
Your Questions Answered - Why did God make us, and the world? (Kidzone 6).
We are all on a journey through life, but some people live all their lives without ever finding out why they are here on planet earth in the first place. It is such a shame. Would you get on a train or a bus without knowing where it was going? I don't think so. But for some people, life is rather like being on a journey without knowing where they came from, why they are on the journey, or even where they are going!
The answer to the question is quite easy. God created us to be His friends, so He can enjoy us, and we can enjoy Him, both now and forever. Therefore, we came from God - he created us, He did so to be His friends, and, if we are trusting in Jesus, we are on our way to heaven.
God made the world (in fact the entire Universe and everything in it) for our benefit. He wants us to enjoy it, and to look after it on His behalf. What a wonderful, privileged position God has given us human beings.
Your Questions Answered - Which came first the chicken or the egg? (Kidzone 8).
People like asking this question because there appears to be no answer to it. If someone answered 'the chicken', they would say "But the chicken must have come from an egg!" But if someone answered 'the egg', they would say "But the egg must have come from a chicken!"
The answer to the question is - The Chicken. God made the first of each type of creature fully formed. For example, He created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve as mature human beings. God made the first of each type living form, each with seeds within themselves so that they could then reproduce after their own kind. And this is what we find in nature today. Thus oak trees (their seeds are called acorns) produce oak trees, carrots produce carrots, cats produce cats, dogs produce dogs etc. etc. And chickens have seeds, (contained in their eggs) which produce chickens.
Your Questions Answered - When did God create the Dinosaurs? (Kidzone 9).
The Bible tells us that God created all the land animals, including dinosaurs, on the sixth day of the creation week. He also created the first people (Adam and Eve) on the same day.
Some people may try and tell you that dinosaurs lived and died millions of years before people were on the earth. But there is absolutely no evidence to support that claim. I choose rather to believe God who, unlike people, was here in the beginning, knows everything and cannot lie.
The word 'dinosaur' (meaning terrible lizard) cannot be found in the Bible, but that is because it was only first used about 165 years ago after bones from these reptiles began to be discovered. However, a dinosaur-like animal called Behemoth is described in Job 40. 15-19. This fits the description of what is called today a Brachiosaurus. And a sea-going monster called Leviathan is described in Job 41. Thus from the Bible, it is clear that man and dinosaurs once lived together.
Dinosaurs were reptiles. The major difference between them and other reptiles, like crocodiles, was the position of their limbs. These came out from under their bodies, rather than from their sides. This gave them a fully erect posture, similar to mammals. Some dinosaurs were small (about the size of a chicken) and some were very large, weighing an estimated 80 tons and standing over 10 metres high. Like many creatures which once inhabited the earth, dinosaurs are now (probably) extinct. Many would have been drowned at the time of Noah's flood. But the few that were saved on the ark may not have been able to survive the dramatic changes in climatic conditions after the flood.
Your Questions Answered - Why is water essential for life? (Kidzone 10).
God certainly made us a lot of water. In fact 70% of the earth's surface is covered with it, although only about 1% of it is ready to drink.
The vast amount of water on the Earth's surface helps keep Earth's temperature fairly steady. This is because it takes a lot more of the sun's energy to warm water than it does to warm land. So the land heats up during the day and cools down during the night more quickly than the ocean does. This gives different air temperatures over the land than over the sea, and this generates winds. Winds keep the air we breathe fresh, as well as bringing clouds and rain to the land.
Without water we would die in a few days. This is because it plays a part in almost every process that occurs in our bodies. Our bodies are mainly water, and water is a major part of our blood.
One of the most important things about water is that it can dissolve many other substances. Because of this, the water in our blood can carry vitamins and minerals from the food we have eaten to the rest of our body, where they are needed for growth, repair and energy.
Water also flushes our bodies of waste products, one of which is carbon dioxide produced by our cells. The water in our blood dissolves this and carries it back to our lungs where we breathe it out. When water evaporates, it absorbs heat from its surroundings. This is why sweating cools us down.
Water contains dissolved oxygen from the air, enabling fish and other water-animals to live in it.
One of the most unusual but important properties of water is that it expands when it freezes (other liquids contract). This is why icebergs float, and why ice forms first on the top of water instead of on the bottom. This means that fish can swim underneath the ice. Otherwise, all the water in a river or lake could freeze and the fish would be killed.
God certainly knew what He was doing when He designed water to be the way it is.
As liquid water is essential for life, that is why space probes have been sent to other planets to search for it. They haven't found any yet, but even if they did, that would not mean that there was life there. Water cannot produce life. Rather, life is the result of a special creation by God.
Your questions answered - Why did God use Adam's rib to create Eve? (Kidzone 12).
To make the first woman, God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. Then He took one of Adam's ribs and built Eve from it. Eve was to become Adam's helper and wife. The name 'Eve' means 'life', because she would become the mother of the whole human race. Everybody who has ever lived since then has descended from her.
God chose to use a rib rather than one of Adam's other bones because this is the one bone in our body that will grow back if it is removed. Thus Adam would not have to go through life with one rib short. If he had done so, this world would not have been perfect. And God clearly tells us that His creation was indeed perfect in the beginning, before Adam and Eve's later rebellion in the garden of Eden which spoiled everything.
Some people mistakenly believe that because God removed one of Adam's ribs, all males now have one less rib than females. This is completely untrue. We all have 24 ribs each, 12 on each side of our rib cages.
God blessed Adam and Eve and told them to have many children and fill the earth. So it was God who designed marriage of a man and a woman, and the family unit, way back in the beginning.
Of course you would say that somebody must have made it, but how do you know that? After all, you didn’t see anyone making it, so how do you know the birdbox had a maker?
(I’m being quite serious—like you, I also realize the birdbox must have been made by someone—but I would like you to ponder how it was that you came to that conclusion.)
Here’s how I would answer. Even though I didn’t see anybody making it, I can see that it has a degree of organization and complexity which, though limited, is never seen to come about by natural processes. Someone must have made it, and attached it to the tree—probably for the purpose of attracting birds so that the maker/owner of the birdbox could enjoy their singing and admire them at close range.
And now, three questions:
Can that birdbox capture the sun’s energy and convert it into useful fuel? Answer: No.
Can that birdbox repair itself if part of it is broken off, e.g. by strong winds in a storm? Answer: No.
Can that birdbox generate copies of itself, which in turn can produce further copies, which in turn can reproduce themselves, and so on? Answer: No!
And yet, the tree, to which the birdbox is attached, can do all of those things—yet you say that the tree had no Creator, that it’s simply the product of time and chance? Where’s the logic in that? When you consider just the ordered complexity of photosynthesis (capturing of the sun’s energy),2 man hasn’t even yet fully described all that’s going on in photosynthesis, let alone been able to duplicate it!3,4,5 If the birdbox had a designer (and it obviously did, as we both acknowledge) then so too did the tree—and whoever designed the tree is obviously one super-Intelligent Designer!
Just as it is written in the Bible:
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
Romans 1:20a (English Standard Version)
Regards,
A Christian friend
Teaching tip 20 - Creation and Evolution.
I don't usually mention the theory of evolution in my classes, concentrating instead on just teaching Creation from God's Word. Sometimes, however, an older child may raise the subject. Then I will proceed along the following lines. I explain the basics of special creation by God and evolution, and then state that there are two ways we can test which one is more likely to be true.
1. Ask "Is evolution happening today?" The answer is obviously "No." We never observe one kind of creature changing into a different kind. Thus, cats always give birth to cats, dogs give dogs, potatoes give potatoes and carrots give carrots etc. etc.
2. Is there any evidence to show that evolution ever happened in the past? Again the answer is "No." Fossils are a collection of 'dead things' - creatures and plants that lived and died in the past. But the fossil record shows clearly defined species, with no evidence of one type of creature changing into a different type. If evolution were true, we would expect to find billions of transitional forms. But they are just not there.
There have been a number of claims that 'intermediate' forms have been found (e.g. ape-men), but on further inspection they have proved to be false. So-called ape-men, for example, have subsequently been shown to be really either apes, men, or fraudulent hoaxes (e.g. Pilkdown man).
Science is concerned solely with what is happening in the present. It cannot tell us anything about what happened in the past. So when it comes to the origins of things, we move into the realm of speculation and personal faith. Ultimately, the question is "Who are we going to believe? Fallible men who weren't there in the beginning, or God who is the only one who was there?"
Creation or Evolution? - A comparison.
Some people try to reconcile Creation, as revealed in Genesis, with the theory of evolution which some scientists believe is the way everything came into existence. Basically these people say that "God used evolution." However, a brief look at these two belief systems show that they contradict each other in too many areas. They cannot both be true. Consider the following :-
God's record of creation in Genesis Evolutionary long-age theory
Earth before sun and stars Sun and stars before earth
Earth covered with water at first Earth a molten blob at first
Oceans before dry land Dry land before oceans
Life first created on the land as plants Life started in the ocean
Plants created before the sun Plants formed after the sun
Fish and birds created together Fish formed long before birds
Birds created before land animals Land animals formed before birds
Whales created before land animals Land animals formed before whales
Man and dinosaurs lived together Dinosaurs died out long before man
Creation completed in six days Evolution going on into the future
Some people say "God could have used evolution." True, but the point is not what God could have done, but rather what did God say he did? The question then is:- Do you believe God's word, the Bible, or do you believe an unprovable theory devised by fallible men? However, if you don't believe the beginning of the Bible, what justification do you have for believing any of it's other parts?
Teaching tip 47 - Big bang or big mess?
People who deny the existence of God have therefore to believe that the Universe created itself out of nothing. (To believe that actually requires a lot more faith than I have got!). So how then do atheists explain how the Universe formed? Most use the idea of a 'big bang', even though none of them were there to see what actually happened.
They say that first of all there was absolutely nothing. But then, they claim, all the energy and matter contained in the billions of stars in the universe was somehow there, separated into a single point, which suddenly 'exploded'. This somehow formed lots of hydrogen gas, which spread out and filled the universe. Then the clouds of hydrogen gas started to pull themselves together by gravity. These clouds got hotter and hotter until they each formed a star. Then these stars exploded and formed all the other elements like carbon and oxygen, that made up all the stuff in the universe, including you and me.
But where did the first energy come from? How could it all have been contained in a single point? What made this point explode? And who ever heard of an explosion making order and design? What happens when fireworks explode? You certainly get a bang, but all you have left is a big mess!
There are lots of sound scientific reasons why the big bang idea is wrong, could not work, and simply did not happen.
It is far easier, in fact, to believe that Almighty God made the sun, the moon, the stars and everything in the universe the way He says He did in the Bible.
Your questions answered.
Of all the hundreds of questions that children have asked me over the last 28 years of teaching them 'Bible', I would say that well over half of them concerned creation. Here are a few of them.
Who made God? (Kidzone 1).
"If I told you the answer to that, I know what your next question would be. You would say "Who made the person who made God ?" Then, if I told you that , you would ask "Who made the person who made the person who made God ?" Then, if I told you that, you would ask "Who made the person who made the person who made the person who made God ?" etc. etc.
No, the answer is NOBODY made God. God is eternal. That means He has no beginning or end. He has always existed. In fact, there was a time when there was no matter (solid things), no space, and no time, only God Himself. Then God spoke and by His power brought everything in the Universe into existence. The exciting thing is that although we have a beginning, God has made each one of us eternal as well. That means the "real you" - your Soul and Spirit will never die.
I know this is hard for us to understand, because we are used to living in time, with beginnings and endings. But let us consider the alternative. If there is no God (or Creator), that means that everything in the Universe must have created itself - beginning with nothing. Our common sense tells us that nothing can make itself - it has to have a maker or creator. That is why most people in the world believe in a Creator (God). It requires far, far too much faith to believe that everything made itself out of nothing. It is far easier to believe that there always has been a loving God who created everything.
Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? (Kidzone 2).
Surveys in a number of countries indicate that the majority of people believe that there is other life in the Universe, apart from on earth.
We now know that the Universe is absolutely enormous, with countless billions and billions of stars (our sun is a star). People reason that because there are so many stars, there are probably billions and billions of planets associated with them. And the chances are that millions and millions of these planets will be similar to earth, and therefore capable of sustaining life.
Unfortunately, some people believe that life can form itself by chance processes, and if it has happened on earth - then why not on other planets as well? However life CANNOT form itself. A creation needs a Creator. A design needs a Designer. The only One who can create life is God.
So the question we should really be asking is "Has God created life on other planets?"
The only Person who knows everything about everything is God. And God has written us a book called the Bible, which tells us everything we really need to know about life. Therefore the first place we should go to find out if something is true or not is the Bible. Unfortunately, the Bible doesn't say if there is life somewhere other than on earth, so we cannot know for sure. However, by studying the Bible, it does seem that life (certainly intelligent life) outside of the earth is extremely unlikely.
The Bible makes it clear that our earth (small as it may be) is THE most important place in the Universe. It was on earth that God created the first man, Adam. It was here that Adam sinned and brought God's curse on "the whole of creation." thus bringing it into "bondage to decay" (see Romans 8. 21). If there were extraterrestrials (ET's) on other planets, it would hardly be fair that their world was adversely affected because of Adam's sin here on earth!
It was on our earth that God's Son, Jesus Christ, died for our sins "once for all" and redeemed (bought back) the "whole of creation" to Himself. If Jesus died on earth "once for all", that seems to exclude the possibility of Him then going off to other planets to die all over again!
And it will be to here on earth that Jesus will one day return for those of us who are trusting in him. The Bible talks about us (the Church) becoming "the Bride of Christ". And I can't imagine Jesus having more than one bride!
Although we cannot therefore know for certain that there is not life elsewhere in the Universe, if it does exist, we can know three things about it :-
1. It is younger than life on earth, because God didn't create the sun, moon, stars, and consequently any planets that may be associated with them, until Day 4 of the Creation week, whereas He made the earth on Day 1.
2. There is no need to be worried that the earth may be invaded by ET's who are able to take control because they are more advanced and/or intelligent than we are. No. Any other life forms, if they exist at all, cannot be superior to us, because we humans are made in God's image - and you can't get better than the best!
3. It is not important to us on earth. God tells us in the Bible everything that is really important for our lives. Therefore, as it doesn't mention life outside of earth, it cannot be important to us, if it exists at all. If it were important, the Bible would have mentioned it.
Your Questions Answered - Why did God make us, and the world? (Kidzone 6).
We are all on a journey through life, but some people live all their lives without ever finding out why they are here on planet earth in the first place. It is such a shame. Would you get on a train or a bus without knowing where it was going? I don't think so. But for some people, life is rather like being on a journey without knowing where they came from, why they are on the journey, or even where they are going!
The answer to the question is quite easy. God created us to be His friends, so He can enjoy us, and we can enjoy Him, both now and forever. Therefore, we came from God - he created us, He did so to be His friends, and, if we are trusting in Jesus, we are on our way to heaven.
God made the world (in fact the entire Universe and everything in it) for our benefit. He wants us to enjoy it, and to look after it on His behalf. What a wonderful, privileged position God has given us human beings.
Your Questions Answered - Which came first the chicken or the egg? (Kidzone 8).
People like asking this question because there appears to be no answer to it. If someone answered 'the chicken', they would say "But the chicken must have come from an egg!" But if someone answered 'the egg', they would say "But the egg must have come from a chicken!"
The answer to the question is - The Chicken. God made the first of each type of creature fully formed. For example, He created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve as mature human beings. God made the first of each type living form, each with seeds within themselves so that they could then reproduce after their own kind. And this is what we find in nature today. Thus oak trees (their seeds are called acorns) produce oak trees, carrots produce carrots, cats produce cats, dogs produce dogs etc. etc. And chickens have seeds, (contained in their eggs) which produce chickens.
Your Questions Answered - When did God create the Dinosaurs? (Kidzone 9).
The Bible tells us that God created all the land animals, including dinosaurs, on the sixth day of the creation week. He also created the first people (Adam and Eve) on the same day.
Some people may try and tell you that dinosaurs lived and died millions of years before people were on the earth. But there is absolutely no evidence to support that claim. I choose rather to believe God who, unlike people, was here in the beginning, knows everything and cannot lie.
The word 'dinosaur' (meaning terrible lizard) cannot be found in the Bible, but that is because it was only first used about 165 years ago after bones from these reptiles began to be discovered. However, a dinosaur-like animal called Behemoth is described in Job 40. 15-19. This fits the description of what is called today a Brachiosaurus. And a sea-going monster called Leviathan is described in Job 41. Thus from the Bible, it is clear that man and dinosaurs once lived together.
Dinosaurs were reptiles. The major difference between them and other reptiles, like crocodiles, was the position of their limbs. These came out from under their bodies, rather than from their sides. This gave them a fully erect posture, similar to mammals. Some dinosaurs were small (about the size of a chicken) and some were very large, weighing an estimated 80 tons and standing over 10 metres high. Like many creatures which once inhabited the earth, dinosaurs are now (probably) extinct. Many would have been drowned at the time of Noah's flood. But the few that were saved on the ark may not have been able to survive the dramatic changes in climatic conditions after the flood.
Your Questions Answered - Why is water essential for life? (Kidzone 10).
God certainly made us a lot of water. In fact 70% of the earth's surface is covered with it, although only about 1% of it is ready to drink.
The vast amount of water on the Earth's surface helps keep Earth's temperature fairly steady. This is because it takes a lot more of the sun's energy to warm water than it does to warm land. So the land heats up during the day and cools down during the night more quickly than the ocean does. This gives different air temperatures over the land than over the sea, and this generates winds. Winds keep the air we breathe fresh, as well as bringing clouds and rain to the land.
Without water we would die in a few days. This is because it plays a part in almost every process that occurs in our bodies. Our bodies are mainly water, and water is a major part of our blood.
One of the most important things about water is that it can dissolve many other substances. Because of this, the water in our blood can carry vitamins and minerals from the food we have eaten to the rest of our body, where they are needed for growth, repair and energy.
Water also flushes our bodies of waste products, one of which is carbon dioxide produced by our cells. The water in our blood dissolves this and carries it back to our lungs where we breathe it out. When water evaporates, it absorbs heat from its surroundings. This is why sweating cools us down.
Water contains dissolved oxygen from the air, enabling fish and other water-animals to live in it.
One of the most unusual but important properties of water is that it expands when it freezes (other liquids contract). This is why icebergs float, and why ice forms first on the top of water instead of on the bottom. This means that fish can swim underneath the ice. Otherwise, all the water in a river or lake could freeze and the fish would be killed.
God certainly knew what He was doing when He designed water to be the way it is.
As liquid water is essential for life, that is why space probes have been sent to other planets to search for it. They haven't found any yet, but even if they did, that would not mean that there was life there. Water cannot produce life. Rather, life is the result of a special creation by God.
Your questions answered - Why did God use Adam's rib to create Eve? (Kidzone 12).
To make the first woman, God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. Then He took one of Adam's ribs and built Eve from it. Eve was to become Adam's helper and wife. The name 'Eve' means 'life', because she would become the mother of the whole human race. Everybody who has ever lived since then has descended from her.
God chose to use a rib rather than one of Adam's other bones because this is the one bone in our body that will grow back if it is removed. Thus Adam would not have to go through life with one rib short. If he had done so, this world would not have been perfect. And God clearly tells us that His creation was indeed perfect in the beginning, before Adam and Eve's later rebellion in the garden of Eden which spoiled everything.
Some people mistakenly believe that because God removed one of Adam's ribs, all males now have one less rib than females. This is completely untrue. We all have 24 ribs each, 12 on each side of our rib cages.
God blessed Adam and Eve and told them to have many children and fill the earth. So it was God who designed marriage of a man and a woman, and the family unit, way back in the beginning.
posted by Maurice Sweetsur @ 8:25 PM
