WHEN SATAN COMES TO SCHOOL

 By Dr. M. R. Dowler

An interesting article appeared in the news this week----Satan worship is on the rise around the world. The article cited a satanic group that was recently allowed to offer an invocation prayer at a local government meeting in Alaska. The group of satanists claimed to be members of an organization called The Satanic Temple, founded in 2013 with seven chapters scattered across the US, and claiming a membership of 100,000. One of The Satanic Temple’s stated goal is to eliminate “the preferential treatment” of Christianity in politics in general and public schools in particular.

One particular organization the satanists have taken aim at is the Good News Clubs, a non-denominational after-school Christian program for five to twelve year-old children. Meeting in over 3,500 public schools, the 95-year old Good News Clubs offers Bible studies, games, singing and fun. As a ministry of Child Evangelism Fellowship, the Good News Clubs won a seminal 2001 Supreme Court decision to operate after-hours in public schools alongside the civic-minded Boy and Girl Scouts.

It should not come as a surprise that satanism is on the rise. As the darkness of the end time looms, the world is hurling toward the worship of the Prince of Darkness through his surrogate, the Antichrist (Revelation 13:4). Theologically, Satan and his minions dominate human government and culture (Ephesians 6:12), the enemy of all that is good (John 10:10) and the malignant ruler of the atmospheric heavens surrounding the earth (Ephesians 2:2).

Interestingly, Lucifer was created holy and enjoyed heavenly honors, however through his unfettered pride and arrogant ambition to usurp the power and position of God, he was cast out of his privileged position (Isaiah 14:12-15) and thereafter became known as Satan, meaning “adversary” and “the accuser” (Revelation 12:9-10). In an effort to compete with the Good News Clubs for the hearts and minds of young people, the satanists have organized an alternate organization----the After School Satan Club, whose aim is to present the devil in a positive light to the children. How tragically ironic---prayer is no longer allowed in our public schools, but Satan is invited right in. Think about it.

THE WICKED BIBLE

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

  

The science and technology of printing has evolved over the years from its very primitive beginnings. Consider the case of the 1631 printing of the King James Version, interestingly called The Wicked Bible. When James’ son, King Charles I ordered one thousand Bibles from the royal printer Robert Barker, no one at the time realized the egregious printing error that resulted in the Bible’s infamous moniker.

Only after delivery of the Bibles was it discovered that one small word had been omitted from one of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:14). The omitted word was “not”, changing the verse to say, “Thou shalt commit adultery.”  Needless to say, King Charles was not amused and ordered all the Wicked Bibles recalled and destroyed. He also revoked Barker’s license to print Bibles and forced him out of business by fining him a lifetimes’ wages. Only eleven Wicked Bibles remain today.

Despite our most noble efforts and sometimes egregious mistakes at reproducing God’s Word, there is an important theological principle to be considered---the inerrancy of the scriptures. Infallible and inerrant are terms often used synonymously; however, there is a difference between the two. Infallibility is defined as being incapable of error, while inerrancy means freedom from error. Grammatically, infallibility is a stronger adjective and always carries more weight than inerrancy. The history of the Christian church is built around the infallibility of the holy scriptures.

Theologically, inerrancy is defined as everything that the Bible communicates is true. Simply stated, inerrancy can be understood through circular reasoning---because it is impossible for God to lie (Numbers 23:19; Hebrews 6:18) and He communicated His Word to us through inspired people (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:19-21); therefore, everything God wants us to know through the scriptures is true (Psalm 19:7). Printing errors may occasionally occur, but the message of The Book is pure and infallible (Psalm 12:6). Think about it. 

THE ORDERLINESS OF GOD’S CREATION

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

The 2014 movie Exodus: Gods and Kings fails miserably compared to its 1956 counterpart The Ten Commandments, a truly classic movie. I doubt Moses looked like Charlton Heston, but I still think he did. It’s only natural that many of us get images of biblical events from illustrations, movies and television. And despite the fact that some of these images offer an overall picture of the culture and area of Bible times, few are totally biblically accurate.

On the morning of April 15, 1491 BC, Moses and over two million Israelites marched out of the land they had been held as slaves for 430 years. Interestingly, God’s deliverance of His people was so swift and sudden that the people left bread baking in their ovens. When word reached the Israelites that Pharaoh had released them, how do you suppose they reacted to the news? Did they suddenly begin to pillage and plunder their former masters’ land? The answer is NO. The Passover and Exodus serves as a testimony of the orderliness of our Creator God and Savior (1 Corinthians 14:33).

When released, the Israelites did not scatter like mice; they marched out in an organized, orderly parade of five people abreast with flags and banners to distinguish the twelve tribes (Exodus 13:18). Interestingly, the word “about” [KJV] in Hebrew means “five in a rank.” Conversely, Jesus commanded over 15,000 hungry people to sit down "in ranks" (rows) of fifties and hundreds. Organizing the crowd into rows made it much easier for the disciples to pass among the people to distribute the food in an orderly fashion (Mark 6:39-40).

In 1948 cosmologist George Gamow introduced the Big Bang Theory to the world; a theory that all physical matter was encapsulated in a ball about the size of a marble. In a nano-second around 15 billion years ago the ball exploded throwing all matter out into an empty space from which all life supposedly began. The Bible tells us that it wasn’t a Big Bang that started it all, it was a Big Voice (Psalm 33:6, 9). Theologically, our marvelously complex and scientifically precise universe was created by a God of order and purpose (Psalm 8:3). Think about it.

THE CANCER OF PANTHEISM

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

C S Lewis was one of the ten most influential Christians of the twentieth century. As a popular radio broadcaster, Christian apologist and author, Lewis’ is best known for his seven-volume Christian anthology The Chronicles of Narnia series, as well as the theological classic Mere Christianity. Over 100 million copies of the Narnia books have been published since 1956. But C S Lewis came to Christianity late in life; he was in his mid-thirties when he accepted Christ after initially rejecting God at age fifteen because of the death of his beloved mother of cancer.

Calvin Staples Lewis spent many years on a spiritual journey back to God; as an academic rationalist, an evolutionary pantheist and then a full-fledged atheist. It was through his many conversations with fellow Oxford University professor and close friend J R R Tolkien did Lewis began to see the validity of the Christian faith. C S Lewis readily embraced the truths of the scriptures, and only spoke of his belief in pantheism in his book Miracles many years after his conversion.

The word pantheism comes from two Greek words, pan, meaning all, and theos, meaning God. It is the ancient belief that everything, seen or unseen is a god. Many in the modern New Age movement have adopted this strange idolatry. But pantheism has a big problem explaining evil and suffering in the world. Strange as it may sound, to the pantheist, all sickness, suffering, disease, and evil are also a “god.” Ironically, the cancer Mrs Lewis suffered from was in essence a god to her then grossly-misguided teenage son.

Theologically, God is omnipresent, meaning He is all-encompassing and in every place (Psa 139:7-10; Jer 23:23-24), but the Creator separates Himself from His creation. The God who created the trees is not a tree (Heb 11:3). The universe is not God, but rather the works of His hand (Psa 8:3). Polytheism and pantheism is similar; polytheism believes there are many gods; pantheism believes everything is a god. Both are extremely dangerous, as C S Lewis came to realize. Think about it.

ROCKY THE TALKING ORANGUTAN

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

Did you hear about Rocky? No, not Rocky Balboa, the movie boxer. The Rocky I’m referring to is Rocky, the eight-year old orangutan and native of the Indianapolis Zoo, who scientists are drooling over because of his supposed ability to speak like a human. Recent international news reports states that Rocky has produced sounds “similar” to words in human “conversational context” (whatever that means) by comparing these sounds to a database of wild and captive orangutans.

But there more to this story than meets the eye (or ear). The project’s chief researcher, Dr. Adriano Lameri, of the University of Durham (UK) admitted to tricking Rocky into mimicking the pitch and tone of the human voice. Seems Lameri, like most evolutionally scientists is looking for that ever-elusive missing link between and the noble ape. Dr. Lameri’s words reveal his motive---“It’s not clear how spoken language evolved from the communication systems of the ancestral great apes.”

One of the unique characteristics that separate humans from animals is the ability to communicate in an intelligent language. Interestingly, the act of communicating in a language of coherent, intelligent words is divided into three categories--private---the language you speak--- colloquial---the language of communication, generally understood within a cultural group (slang, euphemisms, etc); and formal---a strict, precise, scientific, numeric, or symbolic language understood by all. Rocky’s achievement is certainly laudable, but hardly miraculous.

A miracle of creation often overlooked in the sweeping panorama of the story of our origin is Adam’s ability to speak in an audible, coherent language immediately after creation. Theologically, language is important to God. He speaks (Genesis 3:1, 9; Psalm 85:8) and created us with the ability to speak (Genesis 2:19-20). The first recorded words of a human man were not the grunts and groans of an ape-like creature; but rather, they were the words of love and tenderness of a man to his wife (Genesis 2:23). Our Creator speaks (Job 38:1), and likes to hear us speak to Him. Try it sometime. Think about it.