Luke 3:23-38  :

Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years old, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Joseph, the son of Judah, the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er, the son of Jose, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonan, the son of Eliakim, the son of Melea, the son of Menan, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Aram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

As you can see here, there couldn't have been billions of years of human history as this is a list of names that actually fit on a blog from Adam to Jesus. Although reading a list like this is difficult to do, there are many treasures buried in it like the length of time between Adam and Jesus one of them being that it challenges old-earth theories.

Jesus was in the line of David through Joseph and because of this He was also in the line of Boaz who was the husband of Ruth. Remember, Ruth was a Moabite and not of Abraham's line. The story of Ruth is the story of one of Jesus' ancestors many years previous.

It is interesting to note that there is a different list in Matthew. It is believed by most that this is Mary's line. You will notice that Mary was also in David's line but that it included a special statement about Boaz's mother who was the Rahab. You will remember her from the Old Testament story of the walls of Jericho. She was the prostitute who believed God and allowed the spies to work from her home. Her house was on the wall and it was the only part left standing when the walls fell.

Jesus had some ex-sinners in his family tree who were saved by their faith in God and it serves as a reminder of what God has done for each of us. It is obvious that the God of the Old Testament is the same one we have today.

Luke 1:51  :

He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

Mary was about to give birth to the Son of God and it is interesting to read this verse and find out what she thinks about God. I have found it interesting over the years that people think that Jesus was passive. There are so many real cases in the Bible in which it was clearly stated that Jesus wasn't passive at all. It is true that He didn't come to judge when He came the first time, but Jesus' character wasn't passive. If it were, He probably wouldn't have had so many enemies.

Mary reminds us here that God has a strong arm and He's not afraid to use it. It is true that God shows mercy to those who respect Him, but He doesn't just show mercy. God also punishes those who are proud.

I have always found it amazing how God is able to punish our pride by using our own imagination. It isn't unusual that when I have a proud moment, I am imagining myself to be much bigger than I am and also imagining my circumstances to be much more secure than they really are.

I talk a lot about evolution and how it doesn't fit with the Bible (even though many try to make to do so). One of the big problems with evolution is that it really is just someone's imagination gone wild. Without the backing of real eyewitness history, all you have are assumptions based on the evidence you happen to have lying around. If you have ever watched a court proceeding, you can see how easy it is to assume that you know what happened based on the evidence you see, but when you hear a witness, you realize that your original concept of what happened was really just your own imagination.

The reason I bring up evolution in this context, is that the evolutionary imaginations have created a real scattering in both the Church and in many Christian nations in the recent past. Evolution and the "big bang", when they are accepted without any Biblical evidence and applied in such a way as to cause assumptions to be made about the Bible, introduces the idea that the Bible may be wrong and our imagination may be right.

Thinking this way puts a society in darkness as it willfully goes into a dark age, leaving behind guidance of the word of God that brought their societies out of the darkness. That is how great societies are destroyed. When they become proud and God allows their own imagination to destroy their own prosperity. I pray that this won't happen to us that that God will continue to save our society us as we trust our lives to His word and stop trying to change His word using our own imagination.

Luke 1:26-27  :

Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

In only 26 verses, Luke records two angelic visitations. Just a reminder, these are historical accounts of supernatural events that were witnessed by people that Luke researched. Many scientists today deny such accounts on based on their own predispositions against accounts of the supernatural. I would like to take a bit more time to discuss the problem with this way of thinking.

It is important to remember that it is only false testimony that can affect the character of the witness. Until the witnesses testimony is proven to be false, the witnesses character should be considered good enough to consider. Scientists today are attempting to discredit witnesses based only on their belief in the record supernatural events. They claim that these events go against science because science is confined to the natural world. A significant problem with this partitioning of science is that it goes against two obvious things.

First, science is based on observation. Most scientists would agree with that statement, but when it comes to evolution, they say the opposite by limiting observed evidence to their definition of science.  They are saying, in the case of evolution, that observation must first be based on science.  Rather than allowing science to learn from observation, they stop learning by disallowing evidence. It shouldn't take long reading this paragraph to understand the madness that takes place when you trying to justify these two opposite positions. When someone promotes circular logic, the are often attempting to deceive the listener into believing something untrue.

Second, disallowing the supernatural breaks natural law. Most people know without going to school that there is a natural law of "cause and effect." We know based on our own lives that in order for something to happen, something bigger has to cause it. The thing that causes the the thing to happen is more greater than the thing that get's effected. When we are talking about evolution, we are talking about all of nature. This law of cause and effect would lead us to believe that if all of nature is the "effect", then cause and effect would tell us that something greater than nature had to cause it. If something "super" to nature caused it according to natural law, then I would have to say that belief in the "super" natural would be clearly scientific. Purposely avoiding a natural law in order to believe something you want to believe is not science, it's stubbornness.

We can sum this up by saying that the reason people put themselves through such logical misery in order to believe something as crazy as evolution, is because that way they can believe what they want to believe without having to worry about the facts and they can teach others to do the same.

There is another angel that fell to evil that is also willful and deceitful and he is called the god of this world, but those who believe in evolution will continue to allow this angel to do whatever he wants because they don't believe in him... yet.

Luke 1:18-20  :

Zacharias said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”

The angel answered him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God. I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. Behold, you will be silent and not able to speak, until the day that these things will happen, because you didn’t believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

For the last few days we have been going over the wonderful things that Zacharias was being told by the angel. Zacharias' response here demonstrates the depravity of humanity. Think about this for a moment.

Zacharias was visited by an angel in the temple of God after praying for who knows how long. Even with all of these obvious "signs" Zacharias still asks: "How can I be sure of this?" That is an amazing demonstration of faithlessness, but isn't that the way we are sometimes? Perhaps this explains why God had taken so long to answer. Read what James says about this:

James 1:5-8  :

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Faith is extremely important to God. We tend to focus on good works and think that God responds when we do good things, but God is very clear that it is faith that He wants from us. This means that He wants us to believe what He says and that's exactly what Zacharias wasn't doing here.

I want to make it clear that there is kind of healthy doubt. After all, Satan is angelic too and is not to be believed. This, however, wasn't what was bothering Zacharias. He was concerned about God's ability to make him have children, which represents a lack of faith in the supernatural power of God. This is an important thing to understand today this very kind of faithlessness is being practiced in the church concerning Evolution.

The Bible clearly states that God created the world in six literal days. The Evolutionary Model requires billions of years to get from molecules to man. Christian leadership today is questioning God's ability to create in six days because of an assumption that "facts" must modify our understanding of the Bible. The problem with this is that "facts" originate from the word of God according to the Bible. It is inconsistent to think that a fact would ever go against the Bible, leaving the Bible unharmed. I believe that this is what is fueling the atheist movement today. We should not be fooled into attempting to assume that there is any Biblical consistency with Evolutionary Model when the Bible has to be modified in order to do so!

Back to the story, Zacharias ended up getting a sign from God as He would be unable to talk until it happened. Let's not be too quick to ask for more signs. Let's start by reading and believing the signs that we have already been given. If God's people don't show respect for the word of God in regard to Evolution, it would not be inconsistent if God decided to "shut up" scientific discovery until our faith problem is dealt with.

Luke 1:1-4  :

Since many have undertaken to set in order a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us, even as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write to you in order, most excellent Theophilus; that you might know the certainty concerning the things in which you were instructed.

History is about those who have witnessed past events with their own eyes. Christianity makes some pretty amazing claims about history and it is important that we all know what really happened; what people really saw. If we pay attention to what really happened, we will gain certainty about our Christianity.

That's the purpose of this book. Dr. Luke was a friend of Paul's and evidently a friend of "most excellent Theophilus" who must have been a leader of the people at the time. Luke, himself, witnessed quite a bit of what happened during this period of time and made the effort to carefully document Jesus' life for us today. This work provides one of the most accurate historical ancient accounts that we have of that time. This isn't a surprise to those of us who believe in Jesus and in the accuracy of God's word, but it is interesting that this book is respected by many who don't believe as well.

Christianity is unusual in that it roots itself in history. Because of this, it sets itself up for scrutiny in that incorrect history could prove Christianity false. Truth is basic to Christianity and history woven together with it, so much so that without historical accounts like this we wouldn't "know the certainty concerning the things in which" we were instructed.

Some preachers today would like to disconnect the Bible from history, claiming that it is only a book of religion. That's one reason why I want to talk only about these first four verses of Luke today.

Doesn't it make sense that the true religion would be based in reality? This dedication to truth and history is one thing that makes Christianity so amazing. You'd think that after all these years the story would unravel like all the other stories of long ago. Instead, Christianity becomes more believable as time passes. We shouldn't be fooled by people who try to say that "the Bible shouldn't be taken literally." I find this amazingly unhelpful because if you can't read literature literally, then how can should you read it? It sounds like an excuse to ignore it to me rather than a way to help me understand.

Some of the Bible is symbolic and poetic, but some of it is clearly intended to be taken historically as we read here today. The point is not whether the whole Bible is to be taken literally, the point is: what did the writers intend to communicate when they wrote the message? That is what we will continue to concern ourselves with as we go through the Bible, and since so many people today are struggling with the historic aspect of Christianity, I think this book is especially important for us to look at carefully.

Where does science fit with all of this? Well, it should be easy but there much foolishness in this area today. You see, science is collected history. If you unpin science from history, you don't really have science anymore. Science carefully records history that can be repeated, such that you can actually do it yourself if you follow the record. Science requires history and as such cannot replace it but must always be subservient to it. I wish more people would realize the absurdity of placing "scientific knowledge" over what you are actually seeing. Scientists often think too highly of their own assumptions these days and there's nothing like a little reality to bring them down to earth! Believing in a scientist just because he is smart is not science, its Scientistism. Just because someone is smart, doesn't mean that anyone actually witnessed anything they are talking about. Dr. Luke was different. He was smart and he carefully documented eyewitness accounts as every responsible scientist should.

Galatians 6:8  :

For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

The environment you choose to do your farming in depends on what you plan to grow. The other way around it can be said that the land that you have been given to work with determines what kind of things you can plant. You can't grow bananas in Alaska for instance. Also, how you tend the plants will be different. Some things need water, some need pruning. Some need more or less light.

I find this principle is even easier to illustrate in terms of genetics and cloning. When you are cloning a sheep, for instance, you can't take the sheep DNA and put it into a cow. Only a female sheep can create a new sheep clone. The womb you put the DNA in must be the one that can interpret the kind of animal being made and then make it.

You are probably wondering why I'm talking about cloning on a Bible study blog about Galatians. Well, it so happens that since DNA is information about growing something it is like a seed and follows the same principle as this verse. If you plan on growing something in your flesh, you will go and get flesh DNA information or a fleshly worldview and plant it in your flesh so that it can grow the things that the information produces. If you plan on growing Spiritual things, you will go and get Spiritual information or Spiritual a worldview and open up to Him so that He can grow the things that the faith in that worldview produces. It is good to understand that seeds are information packets because it demonstrates the importance of God's word and reasoning. We are to understand the truth and believe it so that, by faith, the Holy Spirit can do His work in us.

When living by faith in this world's belief system, it eventually turns into corruption and death. When Spirit's worldview grows, it produces eternal life. Isn't that amazing? It may be easy to sow to the flesh because of how available the information is in this world, but it is not the way to go if you want to live forever. When a person really believes in Jesus, they will sow to the Spirit because they understand that the flesh can't make it to heaven and trying to sow to the flesh, no matter how "good" the works are, will lead only to corruption.  Isn't that what we see in other "gospels" that attempt to combine law with grace?

Science: Cloning is not as mysterious as it sounds. It's actually a natural occurrence in humans. That's what identical twins are. When you have an identical twin, you have a clone for a brother or sister! That's why it is very bad to use human cloning as a means of doing experiments. It's like experimenting on a twin. It's every bit as bad as abortion. Cloning animals is not a problem, but man is not that good at it and when we try to do it they often have problems that make them not last long. It's easy for us to get a bad copy (corrupted version) of the DNA program. When God's human program naturally does the human cloning, it works out quite nicely.

Creationism/Evoloutionism: When Creationists talk about God creating separate "kinds," it has a very practical application in cloning. Kinds grow their own kind and you can see this clearly in genetics. It is difficult to "evolve" to another kind using any time at all if it requires a male and a female of a specific kind in order to produce offspring. The Bible really is a book that fits our modern world and scientific discoveries.

Galatians 6:7  :

Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

Here we have the seed principle. This is why the bizarre idea of biological evolution (goo-to-you-by-way-of-the-zoo) is so ridiculous. I have to admit that I almost thought that this verse was a bit simplistic, but after seeing how hard mankind strives against this principle, it is easy to see why God wanted to make it abundantly clear.

The chink in the armor of evolution is the problem of information. Information is corrupted by random change not produced by it. When we "scramble" a hard drive, we ruin the information there by mixing it up. Randomization is to information as water is to fire. Now, the reason I bring this up is that a seed is information. If you sow a specific kind of software program you will reap what that program produces when executed.

You see, a seed holds the DNA that makes the thing that you are trying to grow. The information you sow defines the product you will get. As much as we may wish to be able to sow bad information and get good product, life never works that way. This law of God stands against our laziness, ignorance, and pride.

Evolutionists would like to believe that if you sow a corn seed enough times you could make a apple tree or something, but that is never how it works in operational science. Psychologists tell us that one sign of insanity is when a person expects the same cause to produce different effects. Isn't that what evolution is suggesting only in a much more grand way? I think so. The concept is not a sane one even though it might be persuasive at when certain facts are omitted and evidence is hidden.

As a programmer, I understand this insanity well. I do it in moments of weakness. I see it when I am "debugging" a program. There is a mental block that can happen to a programmer when he is trying to find a problem in which he can run the same program over and over and say to himself "but it should work." Clearly the computer isn't working, but because of my pride in my own knowledge, I want to believe that I completely understand what I am doing. Obviously, I don't and that can be hard to deal with as a sinful human. When I finally come to grips with the fact that it isn't working at all, then I am able to seek the truth in order to learn what is really happening. Then I find out why I was wrong. It is never the seed's fault. It's the one sowing the seed. No missing link will ever prove that I was right. I must come to grips with the fact that I was wrong or else I will simply go insane because it is obvious to everyone that the computer isn't working.

The point here is that when you set a program into motion by your own hand, then, by your own hand, you will get what that program produces. It is our fault when we run our lives by the wrong program and we will get the results that the program produces. It goes two ways and that's why it is also a good thing. If you sow a good program in your life, you will get good results. This law of God is a blessing or a curse. You decide, but God won't be the one mocked.

Galatians 6:3-5  :

For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each man test his own work, and then he will take pride in himself and not in his neighbor. For each man will bear his own burden.

Here we have science in the Bible. God tells us by Paul's letter that we should test our work before we take pride in ourselves.

This is a very interesting passage in that God is not against taking pride in work well done. What God doesn't like is self deception. It isn't good when we think we are bad when we are actually good or think we are being good when we are actually bad. This is where science is very helpful.

Science sets up a test and measures the result. Then you can assess yourself based on an objective or outside measure rather than on a subjective or internal one. We should test ourselves to see if we are really helping others with their burdens as I mentioned yesterday. Set up a test for yourself and see if you do anything for anyone else. Then think of yourself based on your actual behavior not on how you feel.

Notice that Paul speaks of two burdens in two very near verses. One burden is the one that someone cannot carry without help from someone like you as indicated by the Law of Christ, and the other is the burden of helping others with their burdens. This is one that we all can carry if we trust in Jesus to give us the power.

Notice that God is not a big fan of competition. He is more interested in an accurate assessment from His perspective. God gives each of us ability as He sees fit and it isn't necessarily beneficial to compare yourself with another person who hasn't been given as much as you! If you compare yourself to your neighbor, and God has given you a different task, you are taking pride in your neighbor's inability! That's just puffed-up self-promotion at another's expense. If your neighbor bears your shame well, he will probably get a great reward in heaven at your expense!

Science: A good place to observe self deception is in some of what is called "science" today. God does believe in objective measure. He is not at all against science. In fact, the evidence of history indicates that Christianity helped science to become a benefit to mankind. What is passing as science in some areas today is not based on objective measure as you might assume. One such area is the biological evolution of life from non-living matter. This cannot be directly observed, is not a part operation science and must rely on interpretation of evidence. To make matters worse, many modern "scientists" reject some of the evidence based only on the fact that the supernatural was witnessed by an observer. Thus, their anti-supernatural bias is reported as if it were science by leaving out key evidence from their assessment. This parsing of evidence is not objective but subjective based on pre-determined requirement that the supernatural be excluded. Thus, conclusions based on this reasoning are unscientific at their base because one who takes this particular position is blindly upholding a faith anti-supernaturalism. Unfortunately, this passes as science in schools today at the expense of objective supernatural evidence.

John 20:24-29  :

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn’t with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

After eight days again his disciples were inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace be to you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.”

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.”

This really needs no explanation. These events tell us that Jesus expects us to believe in Him without seeing. That's important because for about 2000 years people have been believing without seeing.

Some people, atheists perhaps, claim that they won't believe unless they see themselves. The problem with this claim is that it is clearly untrue.

Most things we know we never saw ourselves. Instead we believe someone else who saw it. Take science, for instance. Unless we have all done all of the scientific experiments for all of the things that we believe about science, we are believing in the scientists that did.

If we do that, we are not believing because we saw it ourselves, we are putting our faith in the scientists that claim to have seen it. Even worse, some things that scientists claim aren't even based on what they have seen at all. When theories of origins are involved, they often simply fill in the blanks with conjecture because they obviously weren't there! It's easy to see it if you pay attention. When you read something from a scientist that starts to sound like a story, it probably is just that. It is important that when you listen to stories, you listen to historians not scientists! Believe me, they will claim that they should be listened to, but what they say is often harder to believe when you look at the history.

This history that we read here was truly supernatural, but from a historic perspective, it really checks out. The tomb is empty. Many witnesses verified that Jesus did appear. These men died claiming that Jesus was alive, and it makes sense that the supernatural made the natural based on the law of cause and effect. This is not something we should ignore as a symbol or as "religion." This is history that we now must deal with.

Ron Reagan Jr. obviously doesn’t know his father.  I say “know” in the present tense because I know that Ex-President Ronald Reagan is alive in heaven today.  It is a shame that Ron Reagan used his relationship as a platform to tear down his father’s work in front of God and man.  I know that God will always forgive the one who comes to Him, and I have to strongly rebuke Ron for what he said.

I am referring to an article that World Net Daily ran last month in which Ron Reagan (The president’s son) said that he didn’t believe his father would approve of Palin.  The article is here.

Fortunately, President Ronald Regan had more than one son. Michael Reagan believes that he sees his father in Palin.  I definitely agree and it is easy to explain why.

Ronald Reagan was an outspoken Christian, like Palin.  He stood up for God and the bible when it wasn’t politically expedient for him to do so.  He was a champion for life and was not afraid to face evil head on in this world.  He was one who wanted to see America restored to its position as an example to the world.  He wanted to see the government come down off of its high horse and serve the people without robbing the people of all of their resources.  He liked to talk directly to the people in spite of the media.  Sound familiar?

How do I know that Ron Jr. was up to no good?  Listen to what he was quoted as saying in regard to Palin’s belief in a God who created the world:

"It's such a profoundly anti-intellectual, anti-science stance, I don't see how you can hold high office and believe something like that."

So I thought I would share today what President Ronald Reagan actually said about God as a Creator:

“Each of us, each of you, is made in the most enduring, powerful image of Western civilization.  We’re made in the image of God the Creator” – Remarks to citizens in Hamback, Federal Republic of Germany, May 6, 1985

“How can we hope to retain our freedom through the generations if we fail to teach our young that our liberty springs from an abiding faith in our Creator?” – Remarks at a White House ceremony in observance of National Day of Prayer, May 6, 1982

“I’ve always believed that we were, each of us, put here for a reason, that there is a plan, somehow a divine plan for all of us.  I know now that whatever days are left to me belong to Him.  I also believe this blessed land was set apart in a very special way, a country created by men and women who came here not in the search of gold, but in search of God.  They would be free people, living under the law with faith in their Maker and their future.”  Remarks at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, February 4, 1982

“Two visions of the world remain locked in dispute.  The first believes all men are created equal by a loving God who has blessed us with freedom.  Abraham Lincoln spoke for us: ‘No man,’ he said, ‘is good enough to govern another without the other’s consent.’ 

The second vision believes that religion is opium for the masses.  It believes that eternal principles like truth, liberty, and democracy have no meaning beyond the whim of the state.  And Lenin spoke for them: ‘It is true, that liberty is precious,’ he said, ‘so precious that it must be rationed.’

Well, I’ll take Lincoln’s version over Lenin’s – and so will the citizens of the world if they’re given free choice.”  Remarks at a ceremony marking the annual observance of Captive Nations Week, July 19, 1983