Struggling with Doubt

Kyle Butt, M.Div.

Existence of Go

 Article in Brief

The Bible never paints doubt about the truths of Christianity in a favorable light. Doubt, like other sins, can cause serious harm and pain. What can sincere people do who feel they have done all that is within their power to believe in God, but still find themselves plagued by doubt? Jesus has the answer they are seeking.

When my oldest son was a about a year old, he began to have a cough. At first, my wife Bethany and I assumed it was a cold, but after several days, the cough did not go away. Not only did it not go away, it gradually grew worse and worse. I remember lying on the floor of his bedroom one night while he was sleeping in his crib coughing all night. As I listened, I timed his coughs that were coming roughly every 3-5 seconds (as I recall), all night long. About 20 coughs per minute, 1,200 coughs an hour, 12,000 coughs in a ten-hour night. It did not stop. We took him to every specialist we could. One doctor thought it might be chronic ear infections, so we put tubes in his ears, which did nothing. We bought a breathing machine and every night gave him a treatment of Pulmicort, a breathing medicine. I remember the little dragon-shaped mask he would wear as he sat breathing deeply from the breathing machine. If we missed only a few days of his treatments, the cough would immediately start again. It did not quit. We would have to explain to people that he was not sick, he just had a perpetual asthmatic cough. We did everything in our power to cure his cough. It took him about five years to grow out of it. Thankfully, it was not life-threatening, mostly just annoying.

I thought about my son as I read the story in Mark 9:14-29 of the demon-possessed boy and his father. In this episode of Jesus’ ministry, He and His three closest followers had been on the Mountain of Transfiguration, and they were rejoining the other apostles. As Jesus drew near, He saw a large multitude of people arguing with the apostles. When He inquired about the cause of the dispute, a man stepped forward and explained that he had brought his demon-possessed son to the apostles in order to be healed, but they could not cast out the evil spirit. When Jesus saw the son, the Bible explains that “the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth” (Mark 9:20). When Jesus asked the father how long this had been going on, the man said it had been happening to the son “from childhood,” indicating that it had been many years. What’s more, the father explained, “And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him” (Mark 9:22).

Let us pause here in the telling of the story and think about this distraught father. What do you think this man and his family had already tried in order to heal their son? No doubt they had visited every doctor and holy man within many miles, grasping at any hope that some new treatment or incantation would at last remove the evil spirit. Notice that this was no mere annoyance. This demon often attempted to kill the boy. How vigilant the family must have been in order to keep him alive this long. What measures had they taken to keep him safe? Did the mother and father alternate staying awake at night to watch and make sure the child did not come to harm? When they traveled, did they make sure the boy was not near water that would allure the demon to throw him in? How many times do you think they had paid a “professional” to heal their son, only to be disappointed? The fact that he still had the demon and was coming to Jesus shows us that all treatments up to that point were ineffective. Can you imagine how many times this persevering father had his hopes set on a cure, only to discover nothing worked? Have you ever tried something so many times, and had your hopes dashed so often, that you refused to get your hopes up because you just did not think you could handle one more failure?

As we jump back into the story, we hear the man say to Jesus, “But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us” (Mark 9:22). We can feel exactly where the man’s “if You can do anything” statement originated. He had most likely been through the drill dozens of times. He heard of a person that might could help. He visited that person and presented his son. The person did everything in his power to help, but the son remained possessed. In fact, that is exactly what had happened to this man earlier in this story. Most likely he had heard of the miracle working power of Jesus. He arrived to find Jesus absent and His followers healing all kinds of sickness and disease. Possibly, he watched other people be healed and even some demons be cast out (since the apostles were astonished that this one gave them trouble and was impossible for them to cast out, indicating that others were not). And yet, with every word and effort from the apostles, this man lost more and more hope. Once again, he had brought his innocent, tortured child to someone who he thought could help, and once again there was nothing that could be done, at least by the apostles. “If You can do anything,” was the most hopeful response he could muster for Jesus, because no one else ever had been able to “do anything” in this child’s case.

I am sure Jesus’ response shocked the man. He literally said to him, “If you can” (Mark 9:23, ESV). Think about that response. How much effort had the man put into protecting his son? How often had he tried to get him help? Surely, there was nothing more he could do. He could not heal the son himself! And yet, Jesus’ response forced him to recognize that something was lacking in his attempt. Jesus continued, “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). After all this man had done for his child, was there more he could do? What was Jesus trying to get him to see?

As I read the story again for this article, I can almost feel the man break down. He has come to the end of his rope. He has “believed” in so many people, practices, medicines, incantations, and nothing has ever worked. It is as if he does not have one more “belief” in him—not this time, not to have his heart broken again, not to face the crushing disappointment of going home with a child who will be plagued by this demon his whole life. “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:24). Can you hear the desperation in his voice? I can. I have been reading this story for more than 30 years and for many years missed the feeling of the father’s despair and helplessness, trying to convince Jesus that he was doing all he could do.

“Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

I think this is where all of us find ourselves at one time or another in our lives. There are aspects about the Christian faith that, for some reason or particular circumstance in our lives, strike us as difficult to believe. Maybe it is the college freshman who is sitting at the feet of an extremely well-spoken, highly credentialed atheistic professor who very convincingly (albeit deceptively) argues that modern science has finally done away with the idea of a supernatural Creator in the minds of all those “educated enough to have an opinion on the subject.” Maybe it is the divorced mother who gets another call from the principal of her son’s school telling her that he is in trouble again. What else is she supposed to do? She works a full-time job. She comes home to cook and clean. She takes the kids to church, prays for them, begs God to put someone in their lives that can be a father figure, and yet nothing seems to be working. Or maybe it is the mother and father of the little five-year-old girl who is on her third round of chemotherapy. This time there is only a 10% chance that any of the treatments will work, and the odds overwhelmingly indicate their daughter will be gone in a year. These people believe in God, at least they want to, but their circumstances seem to make it nearly impossible to “really” believe. What is God’s response?

“If You Can!”: Your Doubt Is Your Fault

God has never scrimped on providing evidence of His reality and of His power to accomplish anything and everything that He wants to do. When He sent Jesus into the world, He expected honest-hearted people to be absolutely convinced by the evidence He provided of Jesus’ deity. The Old Testament is filled with predictive prophecy documenting the life of Jesus. Jesus did miracles the likes of which no person had ever accomplished. These mighty works validated His claim to be the Son of God. God the Father spoke from heaven at least twice (at Jesus’ baptism and on the Mount of Transfiguration) and claimed Jesus as His Son. Jesus confounded the false teachers with the truth in a way no other human ever had. He was constantly right about everything He ever said while on Earth, including predicting His own death and resurrection. And yet, when He met the apostles in Galilee after His resurrection, as He repeatedly told them He would, “they worshiped Him; but some doubted” (Matthew 28:17). How is that possible? How could Jesus show all those miracles, fulfill all the prophecies, predict His own resurrection—and some still doubt? “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Mark 9:19). How much more could Jesus have done to bring about faith in those He encountered?

I often think that we look at those “faithless” people in the first century and feel a moral superiority, thinking that if we had lived in that time, we certainly would have understood Jesus was/is the Messiah and would have followed Him right up to the foot of the cross, never flinching. And yet, we have the whole story. We have seen how it ends, but we still doubt. We doubt that God has a plan for the little girl with cancer, even though He tells us such little children are the citizens of heaven. We doubt that God loves the child or her parents; if He did, surely He would not allow them to suffer so much pain and emotional trauma. Yet, we claim to know and believe that He watched as His own Son hung on a cross, having the power to stop His torture, but allowing it to continue because of His great love for His human creations. The college student doubts the credibility of the Creation narrative, yet the entirety of the modern scientific world has not even been able to build a flying machine that would compare to a common house fly. The divorced mother doubts God’s activity in her life, yet she knows He is the heavenly Father Who sees, and watches, and knows. Doubt about God, His ability, His care, or His plan is never God’s fault, and it is not viewed in the Bible in any positive way. When we doubt, it is our fault, and it will do us no good. “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12).

Just Admit It

The father in the story in Mark did what all of us must do. He admitted that his doubt was his fault and begged that Jesus help him anyway. “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). All too often, we want to blame our unbelief on God. We do not directly point a finger to heaven and accuse God of failing us, but our thoughts and words often veil that sentiment. The college student opines that if God really did create the Universe, why didn’t He show Himself more clearly and give us more substantial evidence. The grieving parents wonder why, if God is so powerful and loves us so much, He let their only son die in a car accident. Why would God do that? The homosexual teen, who grew up in a Christian home, wonders how God could have “created” her to have homosexual desires. If such desires are wrong, why did God create her like this? Why would God give Adam a wife who would tempt Him to disobey? How can a loving God cause the death of innocent children in the Old Testament? How can a loving God send people to hell for eternity? And on and on the list goes.

Many times, questions such as these are not asked with a sincere, “I’m honestly looking for an answer” motivation. Instead, they are posed in a way to challenge God’s righteousness, love, power, and care for us. They are often designed to cause, or are the symptoms of, doubt—doubt about God, His moral perfection, His love, and His power. Until we recognize that any and all doubt about God’s care, love, power, and plans spring from our own weakness, then we will not find a solution to our doubt struggle and it will only grow worse and worse. “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (James 1:13-14). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10). Until we recognize that our doubt is our fault, it is not good, and God is not to blame for it, we will not be able to get over it. 

Interestingly, I have in front of me as I write, a two-page paper written by a young man who says he does not believe in God. He has titled his explanation for his lack of belief: “The argument from Non-resistant Non-belief.” In a rather lengthy syllogism, he attempts to argue that no perfectly loving God exists. He reasons that if a loving God exists, then no human would ever be “non-resistantly in a state of non-belief.” In other words, no person would be an unbeliever who was not actively trying to resist the evidence for God. And yet, he argues, that he has tried all he can to believe in God, to have faith “as a mustard seed.” He demands that he is not trying to resist God, just the opposite, and yet he does not believe in God. Therefore, he concludes God does not exist. Notice the lengths to which a person will go to avoid taking personal responsibility for his own doubt. He challenges the God of the Bible, instead of recognizing that the fault lies in his own weakness and disbelief. Our doubt is our fault. We must admit it if we want to move past it.

Ask God to Help—He Will

As soon as we, as Christians, recognize that our doubt is our fault, and we admit that, we are in the perfect position to begin finding a solution to our doubt struggles. Notice that the father of the demon-possessed child begged Jesus to help his unbelief. And Jesus healed his son. Do you believe it was easier for the man to believe in Jesus after he saw Him cast the demon out that no other person could, not even the apostles? Of course it was. Jesus readily supplied the man with evidence that would lead his humble, honest heart to a stronger faith in the Son of God.

God will do the same for us. Imagine this prayer: “God, I do not see how my daughter having cancer can be something that a loving Father would do. I do not understand how this can help anyone. But, I believe You sent Your Son to die for me and I believe that ‘all things work together for good to those who love God.’ Please help my unbelief and show me how this can be part of Your plan.” Dear reader, do you believe God would answer such a prayer and open the heart and mind of such a humble soul to gradually understand at least some reasons why He would allow that pain? Do you believe He would help such a parent find comfort drawing near the Creator?

Or can you hear the humble prayer of the struggling homosexual? “God, I know that You are just and all that You do is right. I know that You have said that homosexual behavior is a sin. I do not understand why I have these feelings, and I sincerely believe that I’m trying my hardest to fight them. I know, however, that You have promised that You will not allow me to be tempted beyond what I can handle. Please help me overcome these temptations and my own sinful desires.” Can you imagine that a prayer such as that prayed by a sincere heart with the motivation to overcome temptation and sin would not be met with help from the Father? “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-11). “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

When we recognize our doubt as the spiritual weakness that it is, admit that it is our fault and that God is not to blame, and we are willing to humbly ask our God to help us through our crippling doubt, what will happen? “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes” (Mark 9:23, ESV).

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Life on Mars?

Trevor Major, MSC, MA

Creation vs. EvolutionExistence of GodIn The NewsDesign in the UniverseDesign in the Universe

A group of scientists believes it has found evidence for life on Mars (McKay, et al., 1996). NASA was ecstatic, and quick to point out that its personnel and funds were behind the project. This could not have come at a better time for the struggling Space Agency. The organization’s multi-billion dollar budget for the proposed orbiting space station—which NASA thinks is essential for manned explorations to Mars—has been the target of deep cost-cutting measures. July 1996 marked the twentieth anniversary of the first Viking landing and, in late 1996, NASA launched the first of two new Mars-bound probes.

However, NASA’s vested interests explain only part of the hype. Most important, we have the first serious claim of life beyond our own planet. For some observers, the ramifications reach even farther. According to NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, the new finding “gets to the foundations of beliefs of the human species.” Supposedly, this speculation about Mars will only trouble “creationists and Christian fundamentalists who adhere to a literal interpretation of Genesis” (Monmaney, 1996). But should Bible believers be disturbed by these findings? Let us take a look at the evidence.

In 1984, a geologist picked up a 4½ pound rock from the icy wastes of Antarctica. The sample, ALH84001, was very unusual, but it had all the physical and chemical signs of being a meteorite. Ten years later, a scientist identified this rock as belonging to a rare group of meteorites, apparently blasted in our direction by impacts on the Martian surface. [Eleven other meteorites have a similar composition to ALH84001. One of these meteorites, EET79001, has crystallized “bubbles” containing gas matching the atmosphere of Mars as measured by the Viking landers. The inference, therefore, is that all these meteorites have a common origin, i.e., Mars.] Also, researchers suggest that ALH84001 came from a rock formed in the planet’s earliest geologic era.

In their paper, David S. McKay and his colleagues offered several clues that, they believe, add up to evidence for life on ancient Mars:

• ALH84001 contains relatively high concentrations of polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. Converting organic matter into coal, or grilling a hamburger, are just two ways of creating PAHs on Earth. The authors suggest that the meteorite’s PAHs resulted from the chemical alteration of organic matter in the original rock.
• The sample contains carbonate globules with magnetite crystals and iron-sulfide minerals, both of which are produced by, or contained in, certain bacteria on Earth.
• The globules show tiny egg- and tubular-shaped features that may be the fossilized remains of bacteria. The authors speculate that the bacteria grew in calcium-rich waters that had penetrated the cracks of the rock, and were preserved as the fluid hardened into carbonate.

However, each of these clues, taken individually, is not unique to life. For example:

• Completely inorganic processes can form PAHs. Astronomers have detected these compounds in interstellar space, and in the atmospheres of cool stars.
• Magnetite, iron sulfides, and carbonates commonly form by inorganic processes.
• Several researchers believe that the globules in ALH84001 formed at high temperatures inhospitable to life (Harvey and McSween, 1996).
• Apart from their external appearance, the bacterium-like shapes on the globules show no cell walls or other features unique to living organisms, and are hundreds of times smaller than any such fossils found on Earth.
• The proportion of sulfur isotopes in another Martian meteorite suggests the absence of organic activity.

Obviously, the claims are very tenuous. William Schopf, who was present at the NASA conference, voiced many of the objections listed above (see Grady et al., 1996). “The biological explanation,” he said, “was unlikely.” Another critic was John F. Kerridge—lead author on a paper advising NASA on a strategy for finding life on Mars. Although impressed with the science in the paper, Kerridge concluded that it “fell far short of establishing the case for evidence of biological activity.” Even McKay, as the project’s team leader, denied having found the “smoking gun” of life, let alone “absolute proof ” of life, either past or present. “We’re just saying we have found a lot of pointers in that direction” (as reported by Kerr, 1996). With regard to more complex organisms, Goldin insisted that there is “no evidence or suggestion that any higher life-form ever existed on Mars.”

This is not the last we will hear of such research; scientists will continue to offer less ambiguous evidence for extraterrestrial life. Of course, Bible believers have every right to be as skeptical of the Martian-rock claims as anybody else. Ken Ham offered the following response in light of Scripture:

The Bible does not say whether or not life is found elsewhere in the universe. However, because the Earth was created first and the Sun, Moon, and stars were made on the fourth day, it seems likely that because the Earth was center stage in the Creation, everything else was created for the Earth. We can’t be dogmatic about this, but it is most likely that only Earth has life (1996, 3[9]:3; for a slightly different viewpoint, see Jackson, 1996).

Given the current evidence, there is no reason to conclude that intelligent life exists anywhere except on Earth (Thompson, 1991). Ham, and others, also point out that if there ever was life (or at least, the remains of life) on Mars, then perhaps it was carried there by the solar wind from Earth’s outer atmosphere. Life, wherever we may find it, owes its ultimate existence to the Creator-God (Exodus 20:11).

Evolutionists believe that this latest discovery might help them understand how life can come from nonliving chemicals. Certainly, from their perspective, if life can arise by purely natural means once, then it can arise many times. This would suggest that there are universal principles at work. Surely these should be so obvious, and so pervasive, that we would have some experience of life’s appearing from nonlife. But this is not the case, and there is no reason to think that life on Mars will solve this most intractable problem of materialistic evolution.

REFERENCES

Grady, Monica, Ian Wright, and Colin Pillinger (1996), “Opening a Martian Can of Worms?,” Nature, 382:575-576, August 15.

Ham, Ken (1996), “Life in the Rock?,” Answers in Genesis Newsletter, 3[9]:1-3,7-8.

Harvey, Ralph P. and Harry Y. McSween (1996), “A Possible High-Temperature Origin for the Carbonates in the Martian Meteorite ALH84001,” Nature, 382:49-51, Nuly 4.

Jackson, Wayne (1996), “Has Evidence of Primitive Life Been Found on Mars?,” Christian Courier, 32[6]:21-23, October.

Kerr, Richard A. (1996), “Ancient Life on Mars?,” Science, 273:864-866, August 16.

Kerridge, John F. (1996), “Mars Media Mayhem,” Science, 274:161, October 11.

McKay, David S. (1996), “Search for Past Life on Mars: Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian Meteorite ALH84001,” Science, 272:924-930, May 17.

Monmaney, Terence (1996), “Launch Pad for Flights of Wonder,” L.A. Times, Saturday, August 31.

Thompson, Bert (1991), “Is There Intelligent Life In Outer Space?,” Reason & Revelation, 11:37-40, October.

[See related article: “Mars Rock Update”]

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The Orderly Design of the Universe

Wayne Jackson, MA

Misc.

A recent article by Kathy Sawyer, which appeared originally in The Washington Post, stated: “For some time, astronomers have been seeing hints of an orderly design in the universe. This is a surprise because the leading theories of cosmic evolution say the distribution of the galaxies should be random.” The article concluded by suggesting: “If their findings hold up,…scientists may be forced to look for some hitherto unknown physical process that has, from the beginning, imposed an order on the universe.” Question: Why not search instead for a spiritual cause for the obvious design of the Universe?

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How Humanity Should Serve God

AP Staff

Misc.

In His manifold dealings with mankind, God consistently has reiterated the fact that, as Sovereign of the Universe, He alone is worthy to be worshipped. When He provided the Israelites with their cherished ten commandments, for example, He reminded them in no uncertain terms:

I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them; for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God (Exodus 20:2-5).

It was not enough, however, for man merely to worship God. Through the millennia, God provided specific instructions concerning not only the fact that He was to be worshipped, but the manner in which He was to be worshipped. A straightforward reading of the Scriptures reveals that apparently these instructions were set forth very early in human history. The author of the book of Hebrews substantiated this when he commented on events that transpired shortly after Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the subsequent birth of two of their children, Cain and Abel. The inspired writer observed that “by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had witness borne to him that he was righteous, God bearing witness in respect of his gifts” (Hebrews 11:4).

Whatever else might be gleaned from the Bible’s statements about these two brothers, one thing is certain: Abel’s worship to God was acceptable; Cain’s was not. The conclusion, therefore, is inescapable: Abel had obeyed whatever instructions God had given the first family regarding their worship of Him, while Cain had ignored those same instructions.

These two brothers are not the only siblings from whom such a lesson can be drawn. In the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, the story is told of two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab, his first born, and Abihu. Leviticus 10 presents a chilling commentary on the two boys’ ill-fated attempt to worship God according to their own desires, and not as God had commanded.

And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took each of them his censer, and put fire therein, and laid incense thereon, and offered strange fire before Jehovah, which he had not commanded them. And there came forth fire from before Jehovah, and devoured them and they died before Jehovah (Leviticus 10:1-2).

The key to understanding the account, of course, is found in the fact that they offered “strange fire” that God “had not commanded.” Aaron’s two sons suffered a horrible, painful death because they ignored Jehovah’s specific commands relating to how He was to be worshipped.

In referring to the Old Testament, the apostle Paul commented: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). From the accounts of Cain and Abel, and Nadab and Abihu, we can learn a critically important lesson regarding how God views man’s worship of Him. That lesson is this: God places a premium on foundational knowledge, proper understanding, correct mental attitude, contrite spirit, and reverent obedience in matters relating to worship offered to Him!

A New Testament example not only bears this out, but also brings the matter more clearly into focus. In Matthew 6:1ff., Jesus condemned the Pharisees for their public display of ritualistic religion when He said:

Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward…. And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites: for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward…. Moreover, when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward (Matthew 6:1-2,5,16).

Consider the Pharisees that Christ used as an example of how not to worship God. They gave alms; they prayed; they fasted. Under normal circumstances, would each of these acts be acceptable to God? Indeed, they would. But the Pharisees performed them for the wrong reason—“to be seen of men.” In other words, although the act itself was correct, the purpose for which they did it, and the attitude with which they did it, were wrong. Hence, God would not accept their worship!

Consider additional New Testament passages that bear on this issue. In 2 Corinthians 9:7, Paul discussed a person’s giving of his means to the Lord, and stated that “each man” was to “do according as he hath purposed in his heart; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” The purpose of the act, as well as the understanding and attitude of the worshiper, were all critical. Further, in Luke 22:19, in speaking of the memorial supper that He was instituting, Christ commanded: “this do in remembrance of me.” The Scriptures make it clear, however, that it is possible to partake of the Lord’s supper in an incorrect way (see 1 Corinthians 11:27-29), thus making it null and void in its effects. In other words, the foundational knowledge, proper understanding, correct mental attitude, contrite spirit, and reverent obedience are all vitally important. And when they are missing, the act of worship is vain.

An additional point needs to be examined as well. Sincerity alone is not enough to make an act pleasing and acceptable to God. In 2 Samuel 6, the story is told of a man by the name of Uzzah who was accompanying the Ark of the Covenant of God as it was being moved from one place to another at the command of king David. The Ark had been placed on an ox cart, and the text says simply that “the oxen stumbled” (2 Samuel 6:6). Uzzah—no doubt believing that the precious cargo was about to be tumble from its perch on the cart and be damaged or destroyed—reached up to steady the Ark (2 Samuel 6:6). But God had commanded that the Israelites were not to touch the Ark or any other holy thing of God (Numbers 4:15). And so, the moment Uzzah touched the Ark, God struck him dead (2 Samuel 6:7).

Was Uzzah sincere in what he did? Undoubtedly. But his sincerity counted for nothing because he disobeyed. Note specifically the Bible’s statement that “God smote him there for his error” (2 Samuel 6:7b). God does not want just sincerity; He wants obedience. Jesus Himself said: “If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Furthermore, the way of the Lord is both restrictive and narrow, as Jesus made clear in His beautiful Sermon on the Mount (read specifically Matthew 7:13-14). In fact, Christ observed: “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Jesus later commented on the attitude of the people of His day when He said: “This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men” (Matthew 15:8-9).

These people of whom Jesus spoke did not have the foundational knowledge, proper understanding, correct mental attitude, contrite spirit, or reverent obedience God demands of those who would worship and serve Him as He has commanded. There is a valuable lesson in each of these accounts for those of us today who seek to worship and serve God. That lesson is this: we must do exactly what God has commanded, in exactly the way He has commanded that we do it. Nothing can take the place of simple obedience to the law of God. Neither sincerity nor good intentions will suffice. Only the person who reverently obeys because of adequate foundational knowledge, a proper understanding, a correct mental attitude, and a contrite spirit will be acceptable to God. That being the case, let us all strive not only to worship and serve God, but to worship and serve Him in a scriptural fashion.

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Published January 31, 1997

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Proof for God – 6 Proofs for God's Existence Video 6 min

https://apologeticspress.org/video/proof-for-god-6-proofs-for-gods-existence-video-5706/ 

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Fruit Fly Mutation: Evidence for Evolution?

Jeff Miller, Ph.D.

Creation vs. Evolution

Human pregnancies, on average, last 38-40 weeks—approximately nine months. This makes potential genetic change in the human race relatively slow. Not so with Drosophila melanogaster: the fruit fly. If you were to make a short list of creatures that could serve as examples to prove neo-Darwinian evolution to be a legitimate theory, the common fruit fly would probably be on the list.1 Female flies can lay about 500 eggs in their lifetime, and each fly can grow from egg to adult in about a week2—translating to about 50 generations per year. After only a century of testing, scientists have been able to observe over 5,000 generations of fly reproduction. Thus, the fruit fly has been considered an ideal candidate for studying evolution in action. If mutations are the mechanism that would allow for molecules-to-man evolution as evolutionists suggest, then watching mutations, and even causing mutations in fruit flies to speed things up, could provide strong evidence to support that contention.

That is precisely how fruit fly evolutionary studies have been viewed for over a century. In 1910, Science magazine first published a paper on mutations in fruit flies.3 Since then, observing fly reproduction and mutation has been a popular past time. The result after a century? Flies are still flies. Humans stepped in to “help nature” by carefully inducing various mutations (and trying to keep the flies alive afterwards). To be sure, thousands of different mutations have been documented, including flies without eyes, flies with different colored eyes, flies with their legs growing out of their heads instead of antennae, extra pairs of wings that do not function, different colored flies, flies with big wings, flies with useless wings, etc.4 The result of such tampering was summarized well by Colin Patterson, the late paleontologist who served as the editor of the professional journal published by the British Museum of Natural History in London: “The spectacular effects of homeobox gene mutations were first seen in Drosophila, early in the history of genetics. Carriers of some of these mutations certainly qualify as monsters—though without much hope.”5 Such directed mutations have not resulted in evolutionary progress for fruit flies—rather, they have created monstrosities. And in spite of making such monstrosities, the mutated fruit flies are still understood to be fruit flies.

Further, notice that the above listed mutations that have been documented in fruit flies are all variations of already-existing information in the fly genome. The fly did not evolve fingers or fins, for example. Wings, antennae, eyes, and legs—all fly body parts affected by the mutations—were already part of the genetic code of the fruit fly. Nothing new was created, but evolution requires the generation of new genetic information since, according to evolution, a simple, single-celled organism had to eventually give rise to humans over time.

Finally, if evolution were true, after observing 5,000 generations of fruit flies in the last century, the fruit fly should have become the common ancestor of other creatures. In fact, we should not only see new species, but creatures that are transitional between the original fruit fly common ancestor and the new species. Instead, we continue to see flies—albeit, tortured flies. (Where are the animal rights people?)

Richard Goldschmidt was a famous geneticist who studied mutations in fruit flies. Goldschmidt is considered to be the first to integrate genetics, development, and evolution. Years ago, upon studying fruit fly mutations extensively, he concluded that, in spite of the mutations that had been generated to that point, fruit flies were not providing the long sought proof of neo-Darwinian evolution. Publishing an article in Scientific American, Goldschmidt admitted major issues that existed in evolutionary theory (problems that still exist today). At the beginning of the article, titled “Evolution, As Viewed By One Geneticist,” Goldschmidt quoted the famous inventor Orville Wright: “[I]f we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.”6 He then proceeded to concede that, while scientists who are “entitled to judgment” agree that evolution is a fact, “in spite of nearly a century of work and discussion there is still no unanimity in regard to the details of the means of evolution.”7 In other words, though evolutionary scientists believe that evolution is true, they do not know how it could actually happen. Is it through mutations, as the consensus among evolutionists attests? Later in the article, Goldschmidt specifically responded to that question in discussing the studies that had been done on mutations and evolution:

It is true that nobody thus far has produced a new species or genus, etc., by macromutation. It is equally true that nobody has produced even a species by the selection of micromutations. In the best-known organisms, like Drosophilia, innumerable mutants are known. If we were able to combine a thousand or more of such mutants in a single individual, this still would have no resemblance whatsoever to any type known as a species in nature.8

Bottom line: experimentation with fruit fly mutations does not provide the desperately needed evidence for Darwinian evolution. Rather, studies on fruit flies provide experimental evidence that effectively falsifies evolutionary theory.

Endnotes

1 The Microbiology Society points out that “[w]hen conditions are favourable such as the right temperature and nutrients are available, some bacteria like Escherichia coli can divide every 20 minutes. This means that in just 7 hours one bacterium can generate 2,097,152 bacteria.” [“Bacteria” (2016), Microbiology Online, http://www.microbiologyonline.org.uk/about-microbiology/introducing-microbes/bacteria.] Bacteria, therefore, would be ideal candidates for studying asexual evolution. After one century of studying bacteria, scientists have seen over 2,600,000 generations of bacteria produced—the equivalent of over 78,000,000 years of human evolution (assuming a 30 year human generation). In spite of all of that time for evolution, bacteria are still bacteria.

2 Michael F. Potter (no date), “Fruit Flies,” Entomology at the University of Kentucky, https://entomology.ca.uky.edu/ef621. [NOTE: The rate of fruit fly production is heavily dependent on temperature.]

3 T.H. Morgan (1910), “Sex Limited Inheritance in Drosophila,” Science, 32[812]:120-122.

4 “Homeotic Genes and Body Patterns” (2016), Learn.Genetics: Genetic Science Learning Center, University of Utah, http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/hoxgenes/; Elizabeth Service (no date), “The Wonderful Fruit Fly,” HHMI, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, https://goo.gl/gSEZ8H.

5 C. Patterson (1999), Evolution (Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press), second edition, p. 114, emp. added.

6 Richard B. Goldschmidt (1952), “Evolution, As Viewed By One Geneticist,” Scientific American, 40[1]:84, emp. added.

7 Ibid., p. 84, emp. added.

8 Ibid., p. 94, emp. added.

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