Part 3
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Q: Please reconcile some timelines. You talked about eyewitness descriptions of dinosaurs in the books of Job and Ezekiel, who lived in the thousands of years before Christ. Yet scientists would have us believe that dinosaurs roamed the earth hundreds of thousands of years or more in the past. Were they around for all those eons before God made Adam and Eve? Thanks for clearing this up!
A: The secular dinosaur timeline begins about 220 million years ago and has them going extinct about 65 million years ago. The Biblical timeline, however, places them at the very beginning of creation, about 6,000 years ago, with almost all of them going extinct about 4,400 years ago in Noah’s Flood. Dinosaur fossils reveal their rapid burial, and the preservation of the original organic material from dinosaurs.
Fourteen biomaterials found in dinosaur bones and horns reveals that they died out thousands and not millions of years ago. They have even found soft tissue in some dinosaur bones.
As for carbon dating placing the dinosaurs millions of years back in history, radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating has traditionally been done with assumptions outside the Biblical framework, namely this: Interpretations have been without any consideration for the possibility that the Flood of Genesis was an actual event. When we consider the worldwide flood of the Old Testament as part of actual history, the raw data will be seen to be highly inflated for the ages of living things further back in time.
For more extensive reading on this I would refer you to the website https://www.floodofgenesis.com/pterosaurs/?p=3156.
Notes
Q: Genesis 9:22-25
“And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
‘Cursed be Canaan;
a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.’”
What did the youngest son do to Noah?
A: This event took place following the flood and is the first mention of drunkenness in the Bible. Noah had planted a vineyard. Apparently some of the grape juice he collected fermented. There is no reason to believe he intentionally got drunk. His drunkenness resulted in disrobing and essentially passing out in his tent. What Ham did wrong was to mock his father’s condition. Rather than respectfully cover him, he immediately went out and derided Noah to his two brothers.
Note how Shem and Japheth went into the tent backward and covered Noah. It says “their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.” The reaction of the two boys compared to Ham’s reaction is stark.
Proverbs 10:12 ESV
“Hatred stirs up strife,
but love covers all offenses.”
Notes
Q: I was brought up to believe you are physically buried when you die. Does the bible say anything about cremation? Is there anything wrong with being cremated?
A: One rule of Bible interpretation is to never speak where the Bible is silent. There is no Bible verse condemning cremation. We find the OT patriarchs and NT saints practicing burial, but no Bible verse condemns other options. If you think about it, cremation only accelerates the process of what happens to bodies that have been buried. We say at funerals: “Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust,” which is exactly what happens with time to all bodies. We return to dust; dust that Jesus will resurrect into a brand new, glorified body at his return!
Notes
Q: What did Jesus mean in Matthew 5:29-30, when he said, “If your eye causes you to sin pluck it out, and if your hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away?”
A: Jesus would often use exaggeration to make a point, as He did here. For instance, He said that we could speak to a mountain and it would be removed. That is not literally going to happen. He was making the point that large obstacles can be moved by faith in God. In the same way, these verses are not to be acted upon literally. Jesus is illustrating the need for us to sometimes be very severe with sin.
Notes
Q: Is there a measure of sin to God?
A: I assume this person is asking whether some sins are worse than others. Although all sin merits the death penalty (“the wages of sin is death”—Romans 6:23), and all sin requires the blood of Christ for forgiveness, God’s Word reveals that some sins are indeed worse than others.
First, some sins have greater consequences to the sinner, as well as to those their sin affects. If a person loses his or her temper and says things hurtful to another, it is a sin. But it is not nearly on the same level as if he or she loses their temper and kills someone. THAT level of sin will bring far worse consequences in every way.
1 John 5:16 NKJV
“If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death: I do not say that he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin: and there is sin not leading to death.”
Isaiah 59:2 WEB
“But your iniquities have separated you and your God,
and your sins have hidden His face from you,
so that He will not hear.”
Notes
Q: If there are no tears in Heaven how can that be if you have family members that might not be there?
A: The Bible does not reveal what we will know or not know, remember or not remember in heaven.
Revelation 21:3-5 TLB
“‘Look, the home of God is now among men, and he will live with them and they will be his people; yes, God himself will be among them. 4 He will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. All of that has gone forever.’ 5 And the one sitting on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new!’”
Notes
Q: Can you speak to a decreased loved one. Can you communicate with them?
A: The Bible issues grave warnings about attempting to literally communicate with the dead. It warns against consulting with mediums and psychics in several instances.
Deuteronomy 18:10-12 NASB
“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.”
Leviticus 19:31 NASB
“‘Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.’”
When a medium claims to have contacted the spirit of a deceased loved one, you can be sure that:
- They’re phony and are manipulating you.
- They have contacted a demon spirit masquerading as the loved one.