A.S. – What are three music principles that can be learned from the book of Psalms?
Dave
Feedback:
Nels F. – Great answer I have Christian music playing all the time at home and in my car!
Melissa H. – This last QA reminded me of a question my dad had asked me several weeks ago about whether dinosaurs did exist. My response was that they did, but I was only basing my reasoning on the skeletons I’ve seen in the museums (I haven’t really researched it). For your study on Genesis 1, you said that birds came before dinosaurs, thus, stating dinosaurs did exist. Dinosaurs were created before man; however, only by one day. So man and dinosaurs were living together on the earth?
Dave – Thanks for your question. If the history of the earth is only 6,000-10,000 years, then man and dinosaurs did co-exist. This is a difficult sell to our society today because it has been thoroughly evolutionized in its thinking rather than what the Bible says. Many think that science has proven beyond any doubt that evolution is true and that earth is billions of years old. We hear this propaganda every where from Barney the kids’ dinosaur to Nova to public schools, Bill Nye, the late Carl Sagan, and unfortunately, many Christian colleges. Indeed, the mantra of “billions of years ago” permeate the very fabric of our society…and it is dead wrong.
For those open-minded enough to see it, there is good evidence for man and dinos living at the same time. In Peru, there are thousands of works of pottery that have pictures of dinosaurs interacting with man. Indian tribes that lived in western US have described the “piasaw” bird and being a pterodactyl. These have been seen in parts of Africa today. “Loch Ness monsters” have been spotted worldwide for many years and I have concluded, based on the consistency of those descriptions, they are plesiosaurs. Young-earth creationists do not have a problem with this issue as do the evolutionists. In recent years, evolutionists were embarrassed when a coelacanth fish, long assumed to be extinct for 70 million years, was caught alive off the coast of Madagascar. If the earth is only thousands of years old, evolution collapses totally, so they will fight to their death maintaining the billions of years paradigm.
Many reptilian “sea monsters” were seen by sailors before the invention of the motor. Sailing ships could approach these dinosaurs quietly, but motors make too much noise, especially through water. I assume sightings were cut sharply once motors took over is due to the noise factor. The things can hear boats coming miles away and get scared off. In addition, most ships know where the sea currents are and now travel in those “lanes.” So modern ships do not even travel in many places of the oceans now. In other words, there is plenty of room for plesiosaurs to frolic and thrive without being detected by humans.
The Bible itself yields fantastic evidence that man lived with dinosaurs. The description of the beast called behemoth in chapter 40 reminds us of the appatasaurus, not an elephant or a hippo as some Bible translators, who had been evolutionized, maintain. The biblical description is so specific, especially the tail, that there is no way it is describing any common animal seen living today. Behemoth was a creature that God said Job could see. It was not some fairy tale He was telling him.
We do not find the term “dinosaur” in ancient historical accounts because the word was not coined until 1841 by Sir Richard Owen. There are many accounts of dragons and sea monsters, however. While some may be folklore and not based on fact, others have credibility.
Finally, in 2005 evolutionist researcher Dr. Mary Schweitzer found soft tissue in a T-Rex thigh bone. She kept on saying she could not believe what she was seeing! If that Dino died millions of years ago, there is no way under the sun that any soft tissue would remain. If it died thousands of years ago, some soft tissue could be found. Evolutionists, however, MUST cling to billions of years because if they don’t, evolution is out and creationism is the only alternative to gravitate toward…and for some scientists that is unthinkable.
I think it is safe to say that most dinosaurs are extinct, but some were able to survive the drastic climatic changes following the Flood of Noah. When the animals got off the Ark, God told Noah that He would put the fear of man into those animals and that mankind could now kill animals for food. So this was probably God’s way of protecting the animals from instant annihilation at the hands of the next couple of human generations. It also could explain why modern sightings are not as common place as we would think. The Congo, the example, has a swamp the size of Florida. Over the years several people have seen what seems to be a smaller version of the appatasaurus. Dr. Roy Mackel, retired professor at the University of Chicago, found footprints that would substantiate this claim. This swamp is so perilous for humans that few venture into it which creates a nice human-free zone for these creatures. In my seminars, I give a lot more time and detail on this issue. It is one that I hesitate to bring up with people who do not believe in the Bible, however. It’s just too far out on the limb for them to accept.
Feedback:
Nels F. – Very interesting thanks for showing me things I didn’t know or understand before–God bless ya!
Alona R. (12/4/13) – Thank you for the concise information. And just in the last few weeks there have
been 2 famous catches that were huge and almost indescribable in terms of any other sea creatures!
Sabbath insights from Isaiah 58:13-14 deal with attitudes toward the 7th Day when God tells us to cease from our ways and words, and delight in Him. In stark contrast, people who seek their own pleasures on the Sabbath Day are dishonoring God. I’ve heard some guys say they feel closer to God on a golf course on Sundays than in church. I’ve wondered if this is during or between using swear words after poor shots. According to Isaiah, the god they worship is not the God of the Bible. Our culture does its best to lure people into doing their own pleasures on Sundays – kid’s sporting events, pro sports (it’s known as “Super Bowl Sunday,” not Super Bowl Saturday), every PGA Tour Final round is on a Sunday, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc., etc. Everything but God’s Day!
Keeping the Sabbath Day holy is becoming rare, even for Christians. This issue has nothing to do with salvation, but does have something to do with respecting what God has said, and it’s even for our own benefit. Just like soil needs to be left fallow every 7th year (before modern chemical fertilizing) so the nutrients can be replaced, so too, human bodies need rest and a change of pace one day out of seven.
The Old Testament Sabbath was Saturday. The early Christians celebrated Jesus’ resurrection on Sundays so that day became “the Lord’s Day.” Years later, the Roman Catholic Church officially changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday believing it had the power from God to do so. The idea of change via that Church stemmed from Emperor Constantine, who, in 321 AD, made the change mainly because he was a sun worshiper. To this day we wonder if his conversion to Christ was real or just a political angle working in his favor for power.
Under the New Covenant, no day is holy or holier than any other day (Romans 14:5). We are to walk in the spirit each day as Christians. Every day is Christmas and Easter morning for us. I recall a person walking by my classroom during my break and she heard Christmas songs from my CD player in the month of March. This struck her as being odd, so she stopped and commented. I simply said that every day is Christmas and Easter for me. She thought about that (and hope she is still thinking about it).
I do see a need, however, to honor God’s Word by being aware of what we do on Sundays, since this is the day we consider the Sabbath. We should not become legalistic about this and begin to draw rigid lines about proper and improper behavior or activities for Sundays. Certainly attending a church should be part of the day. When possible, we should also take it easy the rest of that day. Sometimes work is not avoidable, but when it can be, it should be. When it comes to kids’ sports, playing on Sunday morning should be avoided unless it is a rare occurrence. So, to allow a child to play a sport, especially tournaments, once in a while on Sunday mornings is reasonable to me, but not if it is every Sunday for a long period of time. What’s better for the child, valuing sports (doing what he/she wants to do) or valuing growing in Christ by putting Him first?
Now the Seventh-Day Adventist Church contends that Saturday is the Sabbath and it was wrong for anyone to change that. I say honoring God on Saturday is fine, as long as they grasp my comments in the previous two paragraphs. Honoring God one day out of seven is a good thing, but it does not make anyone holier than others and should never turn into a legalistic mindset. Colossians 2:16-17 says, “Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day; things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”
In today’s culture, we need to be ever aware of the things that this world offers us that will vie for our affections and take our hearts away from loving Jesus and serving Him. Beautiful, sunny golf courses may cause us to think about the Creator, but they do nothing to cause us to grow spiritually. Let us delight in Him each day and celebrate Him with others on that one day out of seven, and keep church attendance as the priority on Sundays (or Saturdays).
Feedback:
T.L. – An excellent tool in the world’s attack on attending church is the “swing shift.” One of every 3 Sundays is literally working. The second Sunday one has just worked all night and is ready to sleep – not stay up to go to church. And by the time the 3rd Sunday comes around it is easy to be out of the habit of going.
C.L. – This concept is so important that it is one of the 10 Commandments. Jesus made it clear that the Sabbath was for made for man (not the other way around) so I feel there are many layers of truth concerning even ‘health” reasons to know God’s heart – He could start being very specific with us if we determine to hear and obey…Jesus IS our Sabbath – that’s another scriptural concept or implication – there’s probably a lot to this – more than we’ve acknowledged in this present day culture. Great topic. I need to meditate on this one more!
J.A. – After hearing a message about the Sabbath, I decided to avoid any shopping or eating out on Sundays. The difference was remarkable. No more struggling to find a parking space – no standing in long lines – no groceries to unpack and put away, etc. I remember when life was so much less stressful because everything was closed on Sunday. That day was reserved for church, dinner, watching your father fall asleep in his favorite chair and hanging out with family and friends. Now Wegmans and most restaurants do their biggest business on Sunday. How sad.
R.E. – For 20 years Bob & I were very strict about not working on Sunday – e.g. no homework or housework, no shopping, etc. (I got my entire master’s degree without ever once doing homework on a Sunday). And we were often given a hard time about it. There were a lot of put-downs, a lot of mockery, a lot of trying to force us to do something on Sunday that really didn’t need to be done then, as if we didn’t have the right to decide what would and wouldn’t be done in our own house. To our amazement, however, 99% of that was from Christians! Unbelievers usually (tho not always) acted like, “We don’t agree, but we’ll respect your beliefs.” Christians were far more likely to act offended. I sometimes got the impression that they assumed we looked down on them for not doing the same thing we did, no matter how hard we tried NOT to give that impression.
At one point, however, a Christian couple said, “This rule of yours causes a lot of tension at times. We’d like to respectfully request that you ask the Lord if you’re handling the Sabbath the right way.” And by searching the Scriptures, we did indeed realize that in our efforts to honor the Lord, we had become rather legalistic. Note that one respectful request did what 20 years of mockery could not do!
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