TOP ELEVEN LIES

Dave Letterman likes top ten lists.  They are fun.  But hey, I like to be different, so I will give you ELEVEN.  The eleventh is probably the most important.  Why lies? Perusing the selection at Barnes and Noble will yield a lot of books with the word "LIES" in them. People get hot under the collar and love to lambast folks.  Rather than that, the truth shall set you free, so here are ELEVEN sobering lies that have gotten traction in our culture today that I would like to debunk.

LIE #1 - Prostitution is a victimless crime.

Tell that to Silda Spitzer or the Spitzer daughters. Everyone is a victim in this situation. Especially the "John", who lost everything because of his transgression.  It is amazing how everything from homosexuality to smoking pot is called victimless. There are victims right and left with all these things. To say otherwise is to ignore reality.

Lie #2 - Democrats are less racist than Republicans.

The spin has always been that Democrats are protectors of the downtrodden. Why is then that so many voted against the civil rights act?  It passed with the help of Republicans. Why is it that Bill Clinton is the "first black president" when what he has been saying is racially charged? Why is it that Hillary is given a pass because she knows how to phrase herself in front of black groups but who seems to have an amazing number of people close to her who say racist things? I do believe that many Democrats say fewer things publicly that could be construed as offensive, but when they do, the mainstream press usually gives them a pass. Privately, I'm not sure there is really any difference. Republicans like to see achievement, and want to recognize minority achievement on the same basis as anyone else's.  What is intrinsically good about having two standards for excellence? It is racist to the core. Most people have some racial issues. Rather than having a mote and log argument, let's all get rid of what racism we still harbor in our hearts.

Lie #3 - I don't have a prejudiced bone in my body.

Time and time again people say they are not prejudiced. Then they say some racially-charged thing. Look, I believe I have less of that than most people, but I haven't met anyone YET who doesn't have some prejudice, and that includes myself. The Bible says that he who says he has no sin is a liar, and those words especially apply in this case. We are all works in progress, and we should be working to the point where we do not prejudge anyone based upon our ideas or our past experiences. It helps no one to deny we have shortcomings.

Lie #4 - Fundamental Christians are as major a problem as Islamo-Fascists

First of all, know that what the world considers a "fundamental Christian" is very different from what many Christians do. A lot of Christians unwittingly condemn them without having a clue what they are talking about. To the world, a "fundamental Christian" is not merely one who holds to tons of rules and who believes that joylessness is next to Godliness, but is simply anyone who has the audacity and stupidity to believe that Jesus Christ actually is who he said he is, who believes the dusty old Bible is actually true, and who believes that faith in Christ is the only way to salvation and heaven.  I am a "fundamental Christian" in the eyes of the world because I believe all those things.  Contrary to the stereotypes. Christians are usually more fair than anyone else, and even the most narrow ones have done much to make our nation and many other nations great. In fact, to the extent any country has any good in it, it has come from Christian influence. Since Christian influence is waning in the U.S., we have far less good in our culture. In fact, any perusal of books and videos shows that good is in short supply these days.  Whether using the world's definition or the definition widespread in evangelical circles, Fundamental Christians do not strap bombs to themselves, they do not force people to believe what they believe, and they believe in religious freedom.  Find me any Muslim, let alone an Islamo-Fascist, who unequivocally condemns the intolerance and violence that is commonplace. You won't find it on the C.A.I.R. website. There are always other qualifiers.  Islamic Fundamentalists are truly dangerous.  The only danger of Christian Fundamentalists is resisting the secular humanist agenda.

Lie #5 - Christians are more close-minded than anybody else. 

This one is a big favorite.  It has gained traction because it has been repeated so often. Any honest reading of secular books and Christian books tells me that there is no truth to that whatsoever.  If anything, Christians are FAR MORE open-minded. Secular folks, such as the author of "God's Problem" who thinks he has checkmated God over the issue of suffering are totally closed to God. Richard Dawkins and others refuse to let "God get a foot in the door" in their virulently atheistic statements. They sacrifice science, logic, and reason because of their dogma. Many Christians stick their fingers in their ears as well, but no more than the others. Refreshing to me are the Christians who can reexamine long-held ideas which may not be true. Answers in Genesis will reverse itself when science proves the theory of a creationist wrong. When have evolutionists EVER done that with their theories? They still teach things they don't believe. The goal is that people believe it, not understand it. Historically, scientists were Christians, and improvements to society have come from the open-mindedness of Christians. Universities that teach this lie are some of most close-minded places on earth.

Lie #6 - Evolution is a Fact

Facts have proof. Facts have evidence - such as the irrefutable evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is NO proof for molecules-to-man evolution. The proofs of change that are offered are those of minor variations and natural selection which ARE accepted by Biblical creationists. The jump to molecules-to-man evolution is a convenient leap of faith unsupported by observational science. Evolution as popularly taught is a belief system that goes back millenia, but expanded and popularized in this culture in the mid 1800's. Much of what has been discovered since brings their ideas into question, but the system is a sacred cow in universities, in schools, and even at presidential debates. Despite its racist and cruel roots which led to horrifically oppressive Darwinistic capitalism, the rise of eugenics and it's chief advocate Adolf Hitler, and now the anomie of our culture where suicide, drugs, and a meaningless existence are the order of the day, the forces of evil are seeking to prevent any questioning of its dogma, any alternative presentation of beliefs, and the home-schooling by parents in the only antidote, the Bible, the Word of God. The close-mindedness and anti-intellectual approach tell us all we need to know.

Lie #7 - Everyone who believes in a young universe is an idiot.

Actually, the temperature of Neptune indicates it is a young planet, which along with other discoveries has thrown a wrench into this billions of years dogma. There is a Christian cosmology which has been peer-reviewed.  It violates no known science. Big-bang advocates have a time problem in their own cosmology, but you won't read about it in TIME or the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. Big Bang folks ASSUME that the earth is JUST ANOTHER PLANET and that the universe is limitless.  Christian cosmologists accept the eyewitness account in Genesis that the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write, where the earth was created FIRST, making it close to the center of the universe that GOD "stretched out" (unrelated to how God arranged our solar system), and where the universe is VAST, but not unlimited.  We believe in an infinite God, not an infinite universe. How could God be over something as infinite as himself???  If you take those two very reasonably different assumptions, and apply Einstein's theory of General Relativity, the time warps that exist mean that the billions of light years needed for starlight to reach earth would take only a few thousand years of time as measured on earth. Dr. Humphreys has written extensively on this cosmology which is not the work of an idiot, but of an accomplished scientist; a cosmology, incidentally, which has FEWER issues than the revered Big-Bang.

Lie #8 - The Earth is very old, and the Bible cannot be trusted.

The earth seems to be getting more than one year older each year I live. It gets much older than ever. There are a lot of problems with this theory.  The first is that any reconstruction of the past is based upon present observation. The theory is that things have always been as they are today. Peter warns about this line of thought in one of his books.  Things change, and the history of the flood, accurately chronicled in the Bible, but appearing in literature and folk lore worldwide, explains how fish fossils got into the Himalaya Mountains and how fish fossils are at the bottom of the sea - period.  Ever have an aquarium in your house? Fish rise when they die naturally, they don't fall. The recent major RATE experiments (Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth) have shown major issues with aging methodologies that some folks have uncritically believed in. There are challenges for all belief systems, but young-earth advocates have actually shown more scientific integrity that the old-earth folks who simply add years when discoveries discredit their ideas. The Bible has been vindicated again and again by archaeological discoveries. More important, Jesus believed Genesis because the Holy Spirit who filled him was the author of it.

Lie #9 - Roe v. Wade is settled law.

"Pro-choice" stick-in-the-mud folks (who tend to be anti-choice when it comes to education or religious freedom) think that any challenge to a case decided in the dark ages of fetal science is ridiculous and evil. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sonograms and heavy research has multiplied our knowledge. Yet, like the evolutionists, time stands still for these folks, and they refuse to reexamine the issue.  We know the preborn infant feels pain, and we know that from the beginning all the aspects of personhood are there. Even the court that decided the case left open the door for reexamination as science progressed, and the original plaintiff said she was used and no longer believes in abortion! Everything is present for this case to be reopened and even reversed. Close-minded people are the only ones in the way.

Lie #10 - All Roads Lead to Heaven

All roads NEVER lead to the same place. Why do you thing we have navigation systems? Roads go different directions, and if you ever missed a fork in the road, just a two degree difference can put you miles away from where you should be before long. Those who depart from the only straight and narrow way  to even a "minor" degree will miss the boat. There is only one way. There was only one ark. Not an ark for each belief system. There was only one way to be saved then, and there is only one way to be saved now. The broad way, the popular way, leads to destruction. You need a real spiritual Mapquest to find heaven, because few there be that find it. There are so many ways to miss it, you have to stick with the narrow way that is detailed in the Bible. Otherwise, you will end up somewhere else.

Lie #11 - God won't Destroy so many People

Carlton Pearson tripped on this one and became a Universalist.  It was an epic, but unfortunately all too common and time-worn mistake. The people of Noah's day thought the same thing. I have been teaching Genesis on the radio - and in my research I found that there would have been anywhere from one billion to five billion people on the earth at the time of the flood. The long life of mankind, large families, and no recorded famines, wars, or epidemics could have resulted in a very quick increase in population.  The reason for the wide range is how soon Adam and Eve had children and how long Eve was fertile. Remember that the Bible never says how long it was before Cain and Abel were born.  The birth of Seth was noted as being when Adam was 130 years old. Because of the development of cities and Cain finding a wife, it is apparent that there were a host of children in that period, but we do not have enough information to say. The fact is God destroyed a number of people comparable to that of the unsaved world's population either today or not so long ago, so if he did it once, he would do it again, because our God changes not. The conditions on earth are even worse now than they were then, so we should expect God to do as he has promised in the Bible. Of course, if all men would repent, he would NOT destroy the world, but unfortunately, most men and women reject repentance, so what has been prophesied will occur. The message of hope is that God provided an ark before he destroyed the evil folks then, and he also has now provided an even better ark through the person of Jesus Christ. Often in life there is only one way of escape. We have that one way and it is available in every country on earth to any person regardless of how rich or poor, whether man, woman, or child, and of any ethnicity whatsoever. If we go into the ark of safety before GOD closes the door to that ark, just as he closed the door of Noah's ark, we will rise above that destruction and be part of the new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells. If we DON'T go into the only ark he has provided, we will learn too late that God indeed WILL destroy that many people.  It is best just to believe him and believe the history of what happened before. I have done that and will have no regrets. I don't want YOU to have any regrets.  No one wants to have believed a lie!